26 quotes
If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.
Bail out the people, not the corporations. Bail out the living world, not its destroyers. Let’s not waste our second chance.
Corporations’ freedom detracts from our freedom, and it’s a zero-sum game.
No political challenge can be met by shopping.
Capitalism collapses without growth, yet perpetual growth on a finite planet leads inexorably to environmental calamity.
Of all the varieties of media bias, the deepest is the bias against relevance. The more important the issue, the less it is discussed.
While there are many reasons for the growth of individualism in the UK, the extreme libertarianism now beginning to take hold here begins on the road. When you drive, society becomes an obstacle.
Oligarchic control [...] thwarts rational decision-making, because the short-term interests of the elite are radically different to the long-term interests of society.
Faced with a choice between the survival of the planet and a new set of matching tableware, most people would choose the tableware.
Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (2006)
Our task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution.
The Age of Consent (2003)
Our demands are – and have to be – more complex than any that have gone before.
If you are holding a virtual gun to someone's head, you need to know exactly what you are demanding and whether they can deliver it.
Economic growth is the aggregate effect of the quest to accumulate capital and extract profit. Capitalism collapses without growth, yet perpetual growth on a finite planet leads inexorably to environmental calamity.
Everything has been globalised, except our consent. Democracy alone has been confined to the nation state. It stands at the border, suitcase in hand, without a passport.
The Age of Consent (2003)
Because we cannot save ourselves without contesting oligarchic control, the fight for democracy and justice and the fight against environmental breakdown are one and the same.
The Earth is in a death spiral. It will take radical action to save us (2018)
Human numbers are rising at roughly 1.2% a year, while livestock numbers are rising at around 2.4% a year. By 2050 the world’s living systems will have to support about 120m tonnes of extra humans and 400m tonnes of extra farm animals.
We are the most fortunate generation that has ever lived. And we are the most fortunate generation that ever will.
Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (2006)
In some cases, the cycle plays out in one place. Florida, for example, is one of the US states most prone to climate disaster, especially rising seas and hurricanes. But its governor, Ron DeSantis, is building his bid for the presidency on the back of climate denial.
[About the Paris Agreement:] By comparison to what it could have been, it’s a miracle. By comparison to what it should have been, it’s a disaster.
[A] kind of cult has developed around Noam Chomsky and John Pilger, which cannot believe they could ever be wrong, and produces ever more elaborate conspiracy theories to justify their mistakes.