Book Review: It's Not That Radical - Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach

I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note "Yes! But what action should I take though?"

The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the "action" part is mostly missing. Take this example:

So something you can do right now to tackle them is to divest your money from them. Find out if your bank still has investments in fossil fuels and if they do, change your bank! It’s a quick and easy way you can take action.

That's a pretty good suggestion. But there's no follow up. How do I do this? What platforms should I use? Which resources could help me? And, sadly, it is fatally undermined by the next line:

It won’t fix the problem but it’s a tactic to get us on the way there.

Although it (quite rightly) eschews rehashing arguments about whether climate change is real, it does meander through lots of other political and sociological theories. Sometimes to the detriment of the core argument.

The fact that the climate crisis is inherently woven together with oppressive systems of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy, both in its causation and its impacts, means that this crisis doesn’t ask us to leave behind what we are already fighting for, but instead to find a way to connect our struggles

Is it though? Because of the constant need to tie everything back to the original sins of racism and colonialism, the argument gets completely diffused. It isn't enough for us to tackle pollution, we have to tackle everything everywhere all at once.

Similarly, it falls into the same trap as lots of other socialist works.

Truly tackling the climate crisis requires each of us to go to the roots of poverty, of police brutality and legalised injustice. It requires us to move away from capitalist exploitation, which exists only to extract profit. Climate justice offers the real possibility of huge leaps towards our collective liberation because it aims to dismantle the very foundations of these issues. This is a far more exciting prospect to me.

Is the Climate Crisis tied in with police brutality? There's an interesting discussion in the book about why so many white protestors are willing to get arrested - in part because they believe the police will treat them more fairly than protestors from a racial minority.

Assuming we accept the arguments that colonialism is the root cause of all this, what action can be taken?

Reparations must go beyond paying cheques to individuals and instead be investments into infrastructure, education, healthcare, housing and energy. These investments will raise the living standards of all oppressed people

OK, great idea. But how? That's nothing an individual can do.

It is so frustrating to read paragraphs like:

We have to take action in order to make things better. We have to join movements and take drastic action because the world as we know it quite literally depends on us doing so.

Yes! I agree! Which movements should I join? How can I find them? What can I do to help them? Where should I target my actions?

There are no answers.

Or this:

Campaigns like Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are yet another painful reminder that the most toxic substances, most dangerous industries and the most polluted roads are in the backyards of the poor, which in this country all too-often means the backyards of Black people and people of colour.

Brilliant! But did CASH succeed? What lessons can we learn from it? How do I start something like that? Where can I find out more?

Again, no meaningful discussion of the actions people can take.

Or this:

Consumers’ cannot stop climate change because capitalism is not compatible with a climate-just world. But active citizens CAN. Movements CAN. WE CAN when we challenge and disrupt these systems, rather than limiting our power and actions to those which are within it.

I am genuinely fuelled by her ambition and righteous indignation. How do I disrupt these systems? Give me some action I can take.

The title of the book is "It's Not That Radical". The problem is, the book is radical.

The more I read and watched, the more I was overwhelmed by how many alternatives to capitalism there are, and how much there is to know. But the deeper I got into my research, the more I realised that we can’t expect everyone to read ten different books, watch dozens of talks, be able to understand academic papers or have hundreds of conversations in order to work towards a world beyond capitalism.

The problem is, people like capitalism. They continually vote for it. They like having new cars, shiny gadgets, and exciting distractions. Telling people that they have to accept a lower standard of living isn't likely to change minds.

To be fair, the author does realise this. They look back on their past actions and realise how alienating some of them were. It's important to have a Theory Of Change if you want to actually engage with people.

We aren’t actually toning down our demands. We aren’t making them conform to the system. We are just finding a way to communicate our demands so that they will be listened to and understood. I think that, in the contexts we are facing, this sort of practicality is of the utmost importance.

The book is a bit rambly, but does eventually settle on some reasonable action to take. It also correctly points out that every campaign rests on the backs of the often-invisible people doing the ground-work.

Actions and campaigns don’t just spring up out of nowhere – they require a huge workforce with a wide variety of skills. All of these roles are valuable. It’s so much more than people on the streets or behind a megaphone.

The latter half contains an excellent section on the perils of fame and the dangers of cancel culture. It is painfully self-aware and an excellent antidote to some of the gleeful destruction out in the world. There's also some beautiful writing about her personal philosophy, what drives her, and the importance of empathy.

To see no stranger is to open one’s heart to empathy; to try and see every person as a nuanced, messy person.

It becomes refreshingly egoless and uplifting. This isn't about one person, it is about all of us.

The strongest part of the book is the author's rules for action. They are a perfect encapsulation of understanding the theory of change necessary for something to be successful:

Ahead of partaking in any action, I ask myself the following questions:

• Does this have the potential to create lasting change?
• How does this fit onto our roadmap for a completely transformed and liberated world?
• Will this help to shift the Overton Window closer to a place that allows us a liveable future?
• Will this help improve the material conditions of the lives of those most affected and oppressed?
• Could this prevent any of the above?
• Is this just a distraction from work that could truly build a new world?
• What can I do to modify or change this action so that it cannot be co-opted?
• With arrestable actions, it’s also important to add: is it essential for this to be arrestable?

That's an excellent list for anyone to follow.

I am probably not the target audience. If you're looking for a radical view of what needs to be done, or are happy to be radicalised, this is excellent. If you're looking for concrete steps you can take, you might find it a bit lacking.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.