Are radical climate activists hurting the cause? Germany should have been a global leader in
combating climate change—its voters consider it a major issue and back the world’s most
powerful Green Party. Yet Germany’s climate policies have been disappointing. What happened?
In Climate Radicals Cameron Abadi profiles the fascinating activists of Letzte Generation
known for gluing themselves to street intersections and throwing food on works of art Ende
Gelande which demands the immediate phaseout of coal by occupying mines and the German
leaders of the global coalition Fridays for Future which organizes school strikes (on Fridays)
and many other large-scale demonstrations. Abadi finds that the groups’ uncompromising stances
and outrage over narrowly defined policy failures have led them to extreme acts of publicity
that feed their sense of urgency. In contrast Joe Biden’s American Inflation Reduction Act of
2022 represents the most significant move toward green energy in US history. The law did not
impress groups like Letzte Generation but Climate Radicals shows that old-fashioned political
compromise and incremental progress might be the only way for governments to fight climate
change.
