For author and activist Naomi Klein, climate change is not only the greatest challenge of our time; it’s an opportunity to change the world as we know it.
Her best-selling book “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” makes the case that it’s possible to build a better world, but only by moving away from a carbon-intensive economic system of hyper-consumption. Klein’s husband Avi Lewis brings her message to the big screen in his film of the same name, which will be showing at Star Hall, 159 E. Center St., on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 6 p.m.
Canyon Country Rising Tide, Living Rivers, the Sierra Club, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Community Rebuilds are co-sponsoring the free or by-donation screening.
Moab resident Sarah Stock of Canyon Country Rising Tide hasn’t seen the documentary yet. But she’s about halfway through Klein’s book, and she said that it’s a compelling look at what others have called humanity’s “existential crisis.”
“Naomi Klein is really good at painting a logical picture as to what’s happening in the world economy and how it relates to climate change,” she said.
Stock and other organizers of the screening have lined up Community Rebuilds Executive Director Emily Niehaus for a panel discussion after the movie, and Stock is expecting that others will join her on stage.
“We’re trying to get other community leaders who are working on tangible initiatives related to climate change,” she said.
Both Lewis and Klein have said the film’s message is an empowering one.
Lewis found hope growing in the cracks of what he calls a “broken system” — namely in the form of activists around the world who are creating new alliances against fossil fuel projects.
Lewis told “Democracy Now” host Amy Goodman that while the book served as a starting point for his movie, he wasn’t trying to take “500 pages of Naomi Klein” and force them into a film, because she hadn’t finished it before he started shooting.
The pair set out with the same goal: to make a documentary about climate change for people who are weary of the genre; Klein went so far as to say that she’s always “kind of” hated films about climate change.
“What is it about those vanishing glaciers and desperate polar bears that makes me want to click away?” she asked. “Is it really possible to be bored by the end of the world? It’s not that I don’t care what happens to polar bears; it’s just that we’re told that the cause isn’t out there, it’s in us. It’s human nature.”
Although Klein argues that our economic system is at war with the planet, she ultimately writes that it’s not too late to change things.
“There is still time to avoid catastrophic warming … but not within the rules of capitalism as they are currently constructed. Which is surely the best argument there has ever been for changing those rules,” her book says.
Stock said that next week’s panel discussion will delve into interconnected subjects related to climate change at the community level, with topics ranging from immigration to affordable housing and beyond.
“We’re trying to weave the issues together,” she said.
“This Changes Everything” and local panel discussion, Dec. 10
“Naomi Klein is really good at painting a logical picture as to what’s happening in the world economy and how it relates to climate change.”
When: Thursday, Dec. 10, at 6 p.m.
Where: Star Hall, 159 E. Center St.
Cost: Free; donations are welcome
