The Prophet Of Doom And Hope

For 20 years, Naomi Klein has been on a crusade against society’s ills. Today, the stakes are higher: She’s trying to spark a charge against global warming as we drive toward the cliff.

- Molly Langmuir

This past June, Naomi Klein makes her way through the crowd outside the Bloor Street United Church in Toronto. There are young people chalking slogans on the sidewalk, old people leaning on canes, and a contingent wearing neon-pink “Justice for Foodora Couriers” T-shirts. All are there for an event titled A Green New Deal for All, at which the last speaker will be Klein, an author, intellectual, and environmental activist who is often deemed one of the leading progressive voices of our time. She looks up at the building, a rugged 129-year-old stone structure. “This is a very rundown church,” she says matter-of-factly. “We could have all kinds of technical problems.”

Klein is wearing, as she often does, dark, chic but inconspicuous clothing; rimless glasses; and a statement necklace, her hair in a version of the neat blowout she’s maintained for the last 20 years. “Sometimes I get strong urges to pierce everything in sight and stop looking so acceptable,” Klein once told the Village Voice. “But then I go to an event and there are 17-year-old girls there, and I know it’s in part because they’ve seen someone they can relate to.” When we met at a coffee shop beforehand, her demeanor was warm, if reserved, and her attention felt slightly appraising. She was funny, but her sense of humor had an edge (one friend described it to me as arch). While she was patient in her replies, I had the impression that almost every question I asked she’d heard before, perhaps more than once.