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apersonfromflorida's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, and Classism
Moderate: Death, Racism, and Police brutality
careinthelibrary's review
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
This was a mixed bag. Some things I liked and some issues.
The top one for me is the repeated use of the "I****n" slur for Indigenous folks despite his acknowledgement that it's an offensive term. This is especially glaring because he hardly mentions Indigenous land defenders whose work is paramount to the prevention of climate catastrophe and should not be underestimate or overlooked.
Malm also falls into infighting a bit, criticizing different forms of climate change protest and resistance that he sees are reductive or not hardcore enough compared to his particular brand. I think this ultimately distracts focus towards those who are most contributing to climate change, though he does have some valid points about climate fatalism being tied to global North privileges.
This short book spends too much time and space finding comparisons for models of climate change resistance. It works for a while at the start but these examples become redundant, go on for too long, and take focus away from the all-important topic at hand (In 160 pages he covers suffragettes, African-American anti-enslavement and civil rights movement, South African anti-apartheid protests, anti-Nazi activities, Ghandhian satyagraha (non violent resistance philosophy), etc). It just spins out of control, away from climate change.
Otherwise Malm raises some great points and examples and I appreciated the scope of time covered within climate change protest history. Really, this would have been a fantastic chapter in an anthology or an article in a journal or newspaper. It mainly lacks conciseness and there were some great points besides this issue.
The top one for me is the repeated use of the "I****n" slur for Indigenous folks despite his acknowledgement that it's an offensive term. This is especially glaring because he hardly mentions Indigenous land defenders whose work is paramount to the prevention of climate catastrophe and should not be underestimate or overlooked.
Malm also falls into infighting a bit, criticizing different forms of climate change protest and resistance that he sees are reductive or not hardcore enough compared to his particular brand. I think this ultimately distracts focus towards those who are most contributing to climate change, though he does have some valid points about climate fatalism being tied to global North privileges.
This short book spends too much time and space finding comparisons for models of climate change resistance. It works for a while at the start but these examples become redundant, go on for too long, and take focus away from the all-important topic at hand (In 160 pages he covers suffragettes, African-American anti-enslavement and civil rights movement, South African anti-apartheid protests, anti-Nazi activities, Ghandhian satyagraha (non violent resistance philosophy), etc). It just spins out of control, away from climate change.
Otherwise Malm raises some great points and examples and I appreciated the scope of time covered within climate change protest history. Really, this would have been a fantastic chapter in an anthology or an article in a journal or newspaper. It mainly lacks conciseness and there were some great points besides this issue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Classism
Moderate: Death, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Colonisation
Climate change