The science on climate change has been clear for a very long time now. Yet despite decades of
appeals mass street protests petition campaigns and peaceful demonstrations we are still
facing a booming fossil fuel industry rising seas rising emission levels and a rising
temperature. With the stakes so high why haven't we moved beyond peaceful protest? In this
lyrical manifesto noted climate scholar (and saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines) Andreas
Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of
ecological collapse. We need he argues to force fossil fuel extraction to stop--with our
actions with our bodies and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need in short to start
blowing up some oil pipelines. Offering a counter-history of how mass popular change has
occurred from the democratic revolutions overthrowing dictators to the movement against
apartheid and for women's suffrage Malm argues that the strategic acceptance of property
destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change. In a braided
narrative that moves from the forests of Germany and the streets of London to the deserts of
Iraq Malm offers us an incisive discussion of the politics and ethics of pacifism and violence
democracy and social change strategy and tactics and a movement compelled by both the heart
and the mind. Here is how we fight in a world on fire.
