4/5

Read this in a single sitting, ironically while on a flight. It’s a pace turner and the frankness of the author is very refreshing. After reading Bevins’ “If We Burn” last year this felt like a deeper exploration of a single issue within activist circles and practices. I think if Bevins’ argument is roughly that protest movements must have structure and hierarchy to make concrete demands and exert pressure on the ruling classes then Malm takes the equation a step further and insists that those same movements must also be willing to consider non-violence as a tactic and not an ethos. The critique of the extinction rebellion is scathing, and I was pleased to have some light shed on that organization’s baffling tactics. The text is very short which leaves little to complain about, although more context might have been useful. For readers of other books on the climate change movement this is a quick and engaging read.