Climate Movement Needs Radicals Like Mandela: Naomi Klein

13/12/13
Author: 
Sophie Yeo
Naomi Klein

The climate change movement needs to be as radical as Nelson Mandela's fight against apartheid, said Naomi Klein, speaking to an audience in London on December 11, 2013 . Gathering at the Royal Society for a conference on how global carbon emissions can be reduced drastically and immediately, speakers including Naomi Klein, Kevin Anderson and Corinne le Quéré argued for a new wave of radical environmental action. “Transformative policies must be backed by transformative politics,” said Klein, a Canadian journalist and author on the green movement, via weblink. “An agenda capable of delivering radical emissions reductions will only advance if accompanied by a radical movement.” As with the battle against apartheid in South Africa , fighting climate change requires “a clear moral vision of the alternative being fought for,” said Klein. Just as Mandela fought for a new “rainbow egalitarian society” rather than simply against racism, environmentalists need to establish a new approach to society. See Naomi Klien's recent speech and the Radical Emissions Reductions conference

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