by Adi Varshneya
Climate activist, author, and filmmaker Naomi Klein spoke at NYU’s Tishman Auditorium on Friday evening as part of the Educating for Sustainability series. The series focuses on women on the forefront of the environmental movement and is a collaboration between Office of Sustainability and EarthMatters, the largest environmental student group at NYU.
Klein is well known for her criticism of global corporate capitalism, continually stressing the incompatibility between neoliberalism and climate justice throughout her speech. She makes two key points: firstly, neoliberal policy inhibits the public investments needed to combat climate change. A weak public sphere cannot implement clean energy, extend public transport, and improve infrastructure. Secondly, neoliberal ideology is centered around a growth imperative. While marginal growth is possible alongside marginal emission reductions, 2016 is no longer a time for marginal improvements. Our leaders have waited far too long to take action. If we want to keep global temperature increases below 1.5-2 degrees Celsius and prevent climate catastrophe, we need to act radically and begin making systematic changes in our governments and economies. Read more
I was a filmmaker before I was an environmentalist. If you had told me when I was in film school that I would be using my B.F.A. from Tisch to organize an industry-wide sustainability campaign, I would not have believed it. As a film producer, I viewed film as a creative vehicle for change. Little did I know that that hunger for change would lead me down a very different path.