I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but was intrigued by this take on climate activism. I do commend the author for the work they’ve done on this, but also felt that their limited worldview was showing. I don’t doubt that the protests he describes worked or created progress, but that doesn’t mean that will translate into different parts of the world. I found myself thinking a lot about the Standing Rock protests and the violence Indigenous peoples experiences just for trying to protect our lands. I think this could still be a potentially valuable resource for people, but it shouldn’t be your only resource.

In 2016, climate activists disrupted the flow of crude oil from Canada to the US by turning off valves on North America’s pipeline system. They justified their action by saying that U.S. policymakers and oil companies had failed to address climate change and that their act of sabotage was “the only way we get their attention. All other avenues have been exhausted.”

COP after COP, march after march, the climate movement has grown into the most dynamic social movement in the Global North. And yet, investments in fossil fuels haven’t slowed down significantly, Australia continues to plan mines and airports in areas that should be protected, plants are still burning coal, meat and dairy consumption –organic or not- shows no sign of slowing down, etc. Even the sales of SUVs, notoriously toxic for the planet, are going strong. The author actually explains how he and a group of “Indians of the Concrete Jungle” have gone through Ostermalm, Oslo’s most affluent neighbourhood, to deflate the tyres of SUV, leaving leaflets to explain the gesture was not a personal attack but a way to bring attention to the potentially devastating effects that SUVs have on climate change and on other citizens’ health. They even published manuals on how to unscrew the cap on the valve and deflate a tyre, adding that the most important rule is to avoid the vehicles used by artisans, workers or by people with disabilities, etc. The only targets being the SUVs that have no practical purpose beyond flaunting the wealth of their owners. Apparently, sales of SUVs in Sweden dropped that year.

Is it ever acceptable to resort to sabotage and “controlled” violence if the cause is just, urgent and ignored after decades of peaceful protests and other mellow tactics? Can you justify smashing the kind of property -pipelines or SUVs- that harm our future and our planet?

Not everyone has the time nor the luxury to do a sit-in. Sometimes, as episodes in history have shown, non-violent disruption leads you nowhere. The emancipation of slaves from the French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), for example, was the result of slave uprising that plunged the colony into civil war. The Haitian Revolution was a bloody affair but it ended in 1804 with the independence of the country. The suffragettes didn’t just politely ask influential men to give them the right to vote. After decades of patient pressure on Parliament that yielded nothing, they added window-smashing, rock-throwing, arson, letterbox torching and other types of property destruction to their arsenal of tactics. They were, however, careful to attack only empty building to avoid causing any death.

As the author notes, Extinction Rebellion, a model of civil resistance, did more for the climate emergency than a thousand peer-reviewed papers. The movement has gained the respect of the wider public because of the gentleness of its protests. But why, asks Andreas Malm, should the fight against fossil fuel require fewer efforts than the fight for human rights? Why shouldn’t non-violent protests be aided by militant action? After all, what is at stake is huge. Climate injustice knows almost no bounds, especially in you live in the Far North, on small islands and in other areas already heavily impacted by a climate change your culture played almost no part in causing.

Turning off pipelines, deflating SUVs tyres and other property vandalisms are violent moves but Malm presents them as defensive acts that can deter investments in CO2 emitting industries, save wildlife and human lives and, in the longer term, might reduce violence. Extractive and polluting industries are the cause of far more direct and indirect violence than any form of eco-motivated sabotage.

The violence discussed in the book is never indiscriminate. It is sabotage and vandalism that come as a last resort. That shouldn’t threaten human or animal life. That never target resources and materials from which people depend for subsistence. Vandalising a super yacht is one thing, Malm notes. Poisoning someone’s groundwater or burning a family’s grove of olive trees will never be acceptable.

Whether or not you agree with the author’s suggestion that climate activism should move beyond the politics of non-violence, you’re bound to find that his book constitutes a stimulating intellectual exercise. It certainly occupied my thoughts and many of the conversations I had over the past few weeks.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline was finished in late March 2020, when COVID started sending the environmental cause into hibernation. How will the climate movement rebound after the pandemic? Will it be invigorated by all the debates about “the world after”? Will we be more resolute than ever to do what is right for the planet and its non-human inhabitants? Or will business as usual prevail, with just a bit of clever greenwashing here and there?

A thoughtful and very convincing take on climate activism and the failures of pacifist corporate appeasement. If you loved (and shuddered at) The Uninhabitable Earth, and think that Jonathan Franzen's climate fatalism is deeply annoying, this book is for you. I was also hoping Malm would critique the inherent classism and racism present in far too many environmentalist groups, and he does (though maybe not as much as I would have liked). Really illuminating read overall, I'll be recommending it to customers.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm differs from other climate change reads because it informs the reader of different climate change movements. With this in mind, this particular book is a heavy movement-based. Thus, would compliment a book that focused on environmental laws to create foundational knowledge on the topic. Not only does this book look into past events but also recent occurrences. Further, the way that the book is written and structured makes it accessible to different levels or readers. More, the reader doesn’t need to have any background knowledge on the various topics because the events are well-illustrated to the reader.

Books that revolve around climate change are critical for every reader because it’ll ultimately impact them. However, in the current climate, it is important to start taking global action before it isn’t salvageable anymore. In 2020, the emergence of weather anomalies like fire tornadoes in California had transpired. Meaning, climate change-related occurrences are on the horizon. Additionally, the masses should be informed of occurrences that have transpired and ways to combat them. Thus, the book highlights strategies that the overseas resistance implements to up against imperialist giants and gain their land back from oil development pipelines.

Furthermore, this book could be used as a jumping-off point into getting more insight into discussions surrounding climate change or be helpful to a reader needing supplemental information for academic research papers.