Why is a website dedicated to Good Lighting bothering with a book about the Climate Crisis? Well – it’s because of the use of that word ‘our’ in the title; an attributive adjective suggesting that we are all in this together. This is OUR crisis.
This is a book about the climate crisis . . . or maybe it’s a book about a family crisis? Maybe – and here’s a thought – it’s a story of a family in crisis that has possibly been saved because of the climate crisis.
Our House is on Fire is the title of the book written by Greta Thunberg and her family. It is mainly her mother’s (Malena Ernman) narrative, and it’s not about the climate crisis . . . except that it is, of course.
‘Our House Is on Fire’ is also a quote from Greta Thunberg’s speech to the World Economic Forum in 2019. On that platform, she also said: “I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic . . . and act.”
Sustainability issues in general and the climate crisis in particular are not well-received, generally speaking. That is my experience. The rococo actions of Extinction Rebellion get a lot of airtime, generating support and irritation in equal number, because it’s good entertainment. We can only hope that some of the message is getting through to some of the people some of the time. After all, when our friends and colleagues get their collars felt we can feel the glow of the brotherly and sisterly camaraderie that we have for them . . . but Greta Thunberg is a difficult character. She sees through the empty applause at the malaise beneath. The malaise that, not to put too fine a point on it, we don’t care.
Our House is on Fire (the book) is the most extraordinary description of the climate crisis that I’ve ever read. It’s a million miles away from Naomi Klein, who is scary enough. Because of its prose style, this makes for even scarier reading. The story is told to us from the point of view of the parents who are trying to find a way to help their daughters overcome whatever difficulties they have in seeing the world. Both Greta and Beata carry behavioural disorders that makes living with them difficult for the parents – who, like any of us, never expected this to be the all-encompassing focus of their lives.
Some people have found it hard to accept that a young woman can have achieved all that Greta Thunberg has (star appearances on the international stage among the great and the good at the United Nations, world Economic Forum and so on) without some shadowy influence. But her mother explains the driven nature of Greta’s ADHD/Asperger’s/Autism. She does not have the capacity for dissembling; she lives what she believes. The extraordinary thing here is that we stopped to listen.
And once again, it was the international media that made her a household name. Its what British TV for Farage, for Johnson, for Rees-Mogg. It’s what US TV did for Trump. Dangerous fools one and all, but TV changed their trajectory from straight into the trash can of history to major players on the national and global stage. Perhaps with the lauding of Greta Thunberg something of a rebalancing has been achieved.
Another common argument is that she’s too young; she has no experience; let her go to university, get a proper job and THEN she might have something worth listening to. But the point that’s missed here is that Greta Thunberg has nothing original to say. That’s her point. Everything that she says comes from people – scientists – who went to university, got a proper job and have something worth listening to . . . except that no one wants to hear. It takes a vulnerable teenager who appears to have nerves of steel to say those things.
Our House Is On Fire is a worthwhile read whether you’re ‘just’ a parent trying to cope, or a climate crisis activist looking for a different spin on the issue.
But I find myself waiting to hear about the younger sister, Beata. Growing up in Greta’s shadow can’t have been (presumably still isn’t) an easy thing to do. This young woman will have her own story one day.
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A word about ‘eco-fascism’: Greta Thunberg is a dupe of an eco-fascist movement that wants to see the downfall of capitalism and the democratic principle. That’s what they’re saying. So we have to stop listening to this ‘embarrassing hysterical nonsense’ and get down with the technocrats who will save us all.
OK . . . thanks for that, guys. Now get back in your bunker
But we do have a problem. There really is an Eco-fascist movement, blending environmentalism and white supremacy – a tasty mix that smacks of liebensraum and good Aryanism if you ask me.
So be careful out there!
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Our House Is On Fire: Malena and Beata Ernman, Svante and Greta Thunberg
pub: allen Lane (an imprint of Penguin Books
IBSN: 978-0-241-44673-7