This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

by Naomi Klein

This perception of fairness—that one set of rules applies to players big and small—has been entirely missing from our collective responses to climate change thus far. For decades, regular people have been asked to turn off their lights, put on sweaters, and pay premium prices for nontoxic cleaning products and renewable energy—and then watched as the biggest polluters have been allowed to expand their emissions without penalty. This has been the pattern ever since President Jimmy Carter addressed the American public in July 1979 about the fact that “too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.” He urged Americans “for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense—I tell you it is an act of patriotism.”60 The address was initially well received but came to be derided as the “malaise” speech and is frequently cited as one of the reasons Carter lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. And though he was not talking about climate change but rather a broad “crisis of confidence” against a backdrop of energy scarcity, the speech is still invoked as proof that any politician who asks voters to sacrifice to solve an enviro...