On Fire. The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal is Naomi Klein's seventh book, published in September 2019 by Simon & Schuster. On Fire is a collection of essays focusing on climate change and the urgent actions needed to preserve the planet. Synopsis Klein relays her meeting with Greta Thunberg in the opening essay in which she discusses how young people are speaking out for climate awareness and change. Throughout the book, Klein discusses her support for the Green New Deal and in the final essay she notes of the 2020 U.S. election that, "The stakes of the election are almost unbearably high. It’s why I wrote the book and decided to put it out now and why I’ll be doing whatever I can to help push people toward supporting a candidate with the most ambitious Green New Deal platform—so that they win the primaries and then the general." Klein emphasizes the moral and practical imperatives for the Green New Deal, rather than only concentrating on the brass tacks of policy and funding. Reception In his review for The New York Times, Jeff Goodell says that Klein's book "makes a strong case for tackling the climate crisis as not just an urgent undertaking, but an inspiring one." Despite what Goodell sees as a "hodgepodge and repetitive" structure built from previously published works, which themselves Goodel identifies as "dated," with only "perfunctory...updates" attached.