In mid-November, Naomi Klein came to Sweden to talk about her new book, This Changes Everything. As part of this visit, she had a one hour talk with Johan Rockström (professor of environmental science and my boss) on the main stage of the Stockholm city theater.
It was fascinating, just the sheer number of people that showed up to the talk. The tickets, that had been released a couple of weeks before, ran out in just a couple of hours. It gave me hope, that so many people wanted to pay to listen to an author and a researcher talk about climate change.
A lot of their discussion revolved around the upcoming Paris climate negotiations. The terrorist attacks in Paris had just happened, and a question Rockström asked was how Klein thought those might affect the negotiations. Klein answered that, if anything, they should make the negotiations even more important. According to her, the negotiations to reach a global climate agreement could also be seen as negotiations for peace and security. Firstly by the simple fact that so many countries would be coming together to agree on something, instead of fighting. Also, more importantly, by reaching a good agreement, we would hopefully be able to limit the rate and extent of climate change, which in turn will limit the pressures a changed climate would have on our water resources, food systems, ecosystems and vulnerable populations. Humans wage war and commit acts of terrorism, and unequal or unstable social structures and economies cause this – but climate, ecosystem health and access to water are all things that can make a social system tip from unstable to full-blown war. Just look at Syria, and the long period of droughts that led up to the start of the conflict there.
That message clicked in me. She put words to something that I have been kind of thinking but not been able to formulate. Now we have a climate agreement, and to a certain extent, it was a success. But I think it is important now to continue. As Klein said at her talk, the work does not end in Paris. We need to continue to figure out how to change our current, destructive trajectory.
And I will read This Changes Everything.
Katja Malmborg 