THE WORLD WE WANT IS NOW THE WORLD WE NEED by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein for CR

Activists husband and wife, Avi Lewis film-maker and Naomi Klein best-selling author explain how people in their fight against Climate Change fundamentally change the world for the better, the world we want.

When we first stumbled across Vivienne Westwood’s Climate Revolution campaign, we felt a kind of shock of familiarity. That’s because for the past four years, we’ve been working on a book/film project about the revolutionary power of climate change.

We see now that we shouldn’t have been surprised: all over the world, people are waking up to the realization that the climate crisis is the greatest case of market failure we’ve ever known. That the insatiable need of our system for infinite growth on a fragile, finite planet is causing huge damage to both natural and human systems. From the frenzy of extreme energy extraction (fracking, tar sands, deepwater drilling and more) to the global economy’s dependence on overconsumption of crappy consumer stuff, our system is sick, and it’s making us and the natural world sick as well.

But here’s the really weird thing: as we’ve studied the connections among movements fighting both economic inequality and ecological devastation, we find ourselves feeling really hopeful. That’s probably because our book/film project has introduced us to so many people, in such diverse contexts, who are making these connections and finding new energy and purpose in life as a result.

From a wetland in Andrha Pradesh, India, where a new alliance of middle class townspeople and subsistence farmers and fishers has come together to fight off a coal-fired power plant electrifying similar fights across the country; to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Wyoming, where native youth are fighting coal mines and railroads while creating healthy economic opportunities by training up in solar installation; to the Lower Lempa river valley in El Salvador, where a peasant-led movement sees its 30-year struggle for better housing, jobs, education and health care as first and foremost a response to climate change: we’ve been to the frontlines of the climate revolution.

And the moment is ripe. Our current economic system – so spectacularly successful at producing wealth, so miserably inadequate at distributing it – is failing so many around the world that there is, well, an extremely broad market for transformative solutions. So as scary as the epic floods, droughts, wildfires, melting ice and screwed-up seasons are, we believe that it’s time to stop hiding from the climate crisis and embrace the political opening that this moment provides. After all, it’s not every day that David Cameron declares that “money is no object” in the face of historic flooding. It’s up to us to demand that the money be spent in ways that get at the root of the twin economic and ecological crises. The battle for social justice now has existential urgency and a scientific basis: climate change is a cosmic kick in the ass to actually win these long-sought victories that have never been more necessary. The world we want is now the world we need.

There has been a debate in the environmental movement lately about whether or not we really have time to fight for fundamental change – or whether we should simply embrace the cause of cutting carbon emissions within our current system. But after two decades of “market based solutions” and soaring emissions, can anyone seriously believe that this will get us where we need to go in time? The habitability of our planet is simply too precious to leave to the market and to failed ideological paradigms. If that means rethinking the warped ways we have chosen to assign value in our culture, then clearly we have no choice but follow that logic where it leads. This is why it’s not just the young activists in the streets daring to using words like “revolution” but also many prominent and even unexpected voices as well, whether its Vivienne or Russell Brand.

Something is in the air, and it’s not just 400 ppm of carbon. This is an age of new alliances,  new stories, flash movements and seismic shifts. We’re proud to be part of the climate revolution.

Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis