NY Times columnist excuses eco-terrorism against oil companies
'On this, Malm’s case is straightforward: Because nothing else has worked,' Klein wrote
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times columnist Ezra Klein published a piece that appeared to condone eco-terrorism to stop climate change.
On Thursday, Klein published a 2000-word article titled "It Seems Odd That We Would Just Let the World Burn." The opinion piece dissected Andreas Malm’s book titled "How to Blow Up a Pipeline," a book that supported and ultimately reasoned the need for violence in climate change activism. Despite the provocative nature of the book, Klein appeared to understand and even sympathize with the author.
"Andreas Malm’s ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ is only slightly inaptly named. You won’t find, anywhere inside, instructions on sabotaging energy infrastructure. A truer title would be ‘Why to Blow Up a Pipeline.’ On this, Malm’s case is straightforward: Because nothing else has worked," Klein wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The former Vox reporter went on to transcribe passages of the book which continued to endorse vandalism and threats as a solution to greenhouse gases.
Malm wrote "Damage and destroy new CO2-emitting devices. Put them out of commission, pick them apart, demolish them, burn them, blow them up. Let the capitalists who keep on investing in the fire know that their properties will be trashed."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Malm also claimed that we are currently sanitizing revolutions of the past to discourage more successful violent uprisings, described by Klein as "lionizing the peaceful and blackening or forgetting the names of the violent."
Despite these passages, Klein proceeded to somewhat defend the outlook by stating that he himself wonders why the climate change movement isn’t already violent. He posited "Still, violence is often deployed, even if counterproductively, on behalf of causes far less consequential than the climate crisis. So skepticism of the practical benefits of violence does not fully explain its absence in a movement this vast and with consequences this grave."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Elsewhere, Klein wrote dismissively of Malm’s suggestion to target rich people’s property and yachts. As Klein described, "Malm tries, at times, to resolve this tension, suggesting that perhaps the targets could be the yachts of the superrich, but in general he’s talking about pipelines, and pipelines carry the fuels for used Nissans and aged ferries, not just Gulfstream jets."
Klein ultimately doubted that "a wave of bombings" could influence public policy, but the rest of his article emphasized a world desperate for some kind of action that is unlikely to be solved by peaceful discussion. Quoting Juan Moreno-Cruz, the Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions at the University of Waterloo, Klein wrote that the problem is "talking climate solutions have left us unprepared for actual climate change. We keep running models and fighting over which ‘solution’ is the best, but we have done nothing to address the impacts of climate change."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ezra Klein previously denounced the violent actions of the January 6 Capitol riots as "lunacy" and "lawless" in a New York Times article published on January 7. He wrote that they "stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers, shattered doors and barriers, looted congressional offices. One woman was shot in the mayhem and died."