This Changes Everything: Quotes

"What is wrong with us? What is really preventing us from putting out the fire that is threatening to burn down our collective house?

I think the answer is far more simple than many have led us to believe: we have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis. We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe—and would benefit the vast majority—are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets."

Section: 1, Chapter: 1

"Policies that simply try to harness the power of the market—by minimally taxing or capping carbon and then getting out of the way—won't be enough. If we are to rise to a challenge that involves altering the very foundation of our economy, we will need every policy tool in the democratic arsenal."

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

"A worldview based on regeneration and renewal rather than domination and depletion. This is a far more expansive vision than the familiar eco-critique that stressed smallness and shrinking humanity's impact or 'footprint.' That is simply not an option today, not without genocidal implications: we are here, we are many, and we must use our skills to act. We can, however, change the nature of our actions so that they are constantly growing, rather than extracting life.

Section: 3, Chapter: 13