This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

by Naomi Klein

If that were the case, the British people—with the climate crisis in mind—might have long ago decided to reinvest rail profits back into improving their public transit system, rather than allowing trains to become outdated and fares to skyrocket while shareholders of private rail companies like Branson’s pocketed hundreds of millions in returns from their taxpayer-subsidized operations. And rather than gambling on the invention of a miracle fuel, they might have decided to make it a top political priority to shift the entire system over to electric trains, with that power coming from renewable energy, rather than have the system partially powered by diesel, as it is now. No wonder 66 percent of British residents tell pollsters they support renationalizing the railway companies.64 Richard Branson got at least one thing right. He showed us the kind of bold model that has a chance of working in the tight time frame left: the profits from our dirtiest industries must be diverted into the grand and hopeful project of cleaning up their mess. But if there is one thing Branson has demonstrated, it is that it won’t happen on a voluntary basis or on the honor system. It will have to be legislated—using the kinds of tough regulations, higher taxes, and steeper royalty rates these sectors have resisted all along.