Books › How to Blow up a Pipeline
How to Blow up a Pipeline
216 pages
A fiery, unapologetic manifesto that channels climate despair into a razor-sharp argument for radical, disruptive action.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like striking a match in a dark, suffocating room. It is a propulsive, fiercely argued manifesto that grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go, channeling the ambient dread of ecological collapse into a sharp, righteous fury. Malm's prose is both lyrical and razor-sharp, weaving historical analysis of past social movements with a deeply urgent, contemporary call to arms. The mood is tense and galvanizing, stripping away the comforting illusions of passive resistance to demand something much harder and more dangerous. It is an electrifying read for anyone paralyzed by climate grief, offering not a comforting hug, but a militant, empowering blueprint for those ready to fight back against a world on fire.
- Mood
- fiery
- galvanizing
- righteous
- tense
- Tone
- impassioned
- urgent
- polemical
- defiant
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- climate grief and rage · the limits of pacifism · the ethics of sabotage · historical memory of social movements
- The writing
- Lyrical yet razor-sharp, blending historical analysis with the urgent cadence of a political manifesto.
- The arc
- Moves from a simmering frustration with the status quo to a fiery, empowering call to radical action.
- Who it's for
- Climate activists and anyone feeling paralyzed by ecological despair who craves a pragmatic, militant path forward.
Content notes
- ecological collapse
- advocacy of property destruction
- climate anxiety
About the book
Property will cost us the earth. The science on climate change has been clear for a very long time now. Yet despite decades of appeals, mass street protests, petition campaigns, and peaceful demonstrations, we are still facing a booming fossil fuel industry, rising seas, rising emission levels, and a rising temperature. With the stakes so high, why haven't we moved beyond peaceful protest' In this lyrical manifesto, noted climate scholar (and saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines) Andreas Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse. We need, he argues, to force fossil fuel extraction to stop--with our actions, with our bodies, and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need, in short, to start blowing up some oil pipelines. Offering a counter-history of how mass popular change has occurred, from the democratic revolutions overthrowing dictators to the movement against apartheid and for women's suffrage, Malm argues that the strategic acceptance of property destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change. In a braided narrative that moves from the forests of Germany and the streets of London to the deserts of Iraq, Malm offers us an incisive discussion of the politics and ethics of pacifism and violence, democracy and social change, strategy and tactics, and a movement compelled by both the heart and the mind. Here is how we fight in a world on fire.
Description from Open Library.
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