How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Despite the title, this book is not literally about how to blow up a pipeline. Instead, it asks why, if the fate of the world is at stake, so few climate activists have turned to sabotage. Perhaps it should have been called, “Why isn’t anyone blowing up a pipeline?”

In my activism, I have always organized and joined non-violent actions and protests, but Malm raises a powerful point: historical movements, like the fight for women’s suffrage or the end of apartheid in South Africa, have used violence and sabotage. Only after the fact are these movements whitewashed into something peaceful… show more.

Malm’s short paperback—running to just 200 pages—profoundly challenged my thinking on how we “save Earth”.

The book argues that non-violent engagement strategies are being gamed by the powers that be. It also shows how many successful social movements have combined peaceful and violent wings, with political leaders of the day forced into existentially wrenching decisions by the risk of escalating violence. 

In his compelling manifesto, long-standing climate activist Malm, also infamous as a saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines, explains how similar dynamics played out in the overturning of slave economies, the ending of the British Raj in India,… show more.

So you’ve screwed up the planet.

Well, you didn’t screw up the planet—generations of greedy corporations and complicit politicians did. But now you’re stuck on a rapidly heating earth with climate chaos, floods, drought, wildfire, and increasingly draconian responses to the migrant crisis.

While the environmentalist movement has historically pursued a strategy of absolute non-violence, Malm argues for increased militancy when the stakes are nothing less than apocalyptic. A passionate manifesto in favour of sabotage, Malm’s book is a clear-eyed critique of both pacifism and despair.

It’s not exactly a how-to guide, but it contains very smart top-level strategies for… show more.

I consider this to be one of the best books ever written about climate change. For here we have a clear-eyed examination of what is working and not working to save the planet from climate catastrophe. Malm, a Swedish academic, demonstrates carefully and provocatively that only militant action has moved the needle on past injustices — and that we better get militant now if we hope to make meaningful changes that save Earth from a situation of climate injustice that is bad but is going to get worse. If you already understand the predicament we’re in, including the “6th mass… show more.