Klein reiterated the dire consequences resulting from climate inaction encapsulated in the report on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that came out in 2018. “What we do or don’t do in the next 10 years will determine the lives and fates of hundreds of millions of people,” she said. Klein began her talk by speaking with an urgency that is mirrored by many of the world’s most prominent climate scientists.

While climate change has exacerbated the prevalence and intensity of worldwide wildfires, Klein argued that it can also be emblematic - a particularly potent symbol - of a social movement. From the opening query of her 20-minute talk - “Are you feeling fiery?” - to its conclusion, an homage to 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg - “Greta was the spark, but we are the wildfire” - fire was a prominent metaphor. Like the title of Klein’s book, the night’s theme was fire. The event was a Humanities Council Gauss Seminar in Criticism. Klein, the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University, was joined on stage by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton whose latest book, “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Ownership,” is longlisted for the National Book Awards 2019 for Nonfiction. The event in Richardson Auditorium centered on Klein’s latest book, “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal,” a New York Times bestseller. And so is the social movement to tackle it, she said, highlighting global activism and proposals such as the Green New Deal. The climate crisis is on fire, said author Naomi Klein to a capacity crowd at Princeton on Tuesday, Oct.

On fire by naomi klein