We need more climate change warriors like Naomi Klein

Author and social activist, Naomi Klein - we
 need more climate change warriors like her.

In 2015 Pope Francis invited the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein to the Vatican to enlist her support for his encyclical on capitalism, climate change and morality – an unlikely invitation to a self-described secular Jewish feminist. But as Klein explained "the stakes are so high, time is so short and the task is so large that we cannot afford to allow those differences to divide us". "To change everything" says Klein, "we need everyone".

The climate crisis is real. Human culpability is clear and plausible deniability of this, the refuge of climate change sceptics, is not tenable. The Pope has called for urgent action. Even recalcitrant Australian politicians are getting nervous.

But the climate crisis is more than an environmental and political issue. It is also a social and economic justice issue. And that's why this November, Naomi Klein will be awarded the 2016 Sydney Peace Prize.

Read David Hirsch’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “We need more climate change warriors like Naomi Klein.”