Climate change is corroding our values, says Naomi Klein

The need for fossil fuels is destroying regions and communities, causing war and famine in the process, argues the activist and author

John Vidal

Climate change is spawning injustice, racism, intolerance and wars, according to author and political activist Naomi Klein.

“It is not about things getting hotter and wetter but things getting meaner and uglier, unless we change the corrosive values that are pitting people against each other,” she said in a lecture held in memory of Palestinian literary critic and political activist Edward Said at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre on Wednesday.

“Fossil fuels, which are the principal driver of climate change, require the sacrifice of whole regions and people. Sacrificial zones like the Niger delta and the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, dot the world.