The right has succeeded in throwing climate change science in doubt, placed major obstacles in the path of environmental legislation and continue to rake in their mercenary fees from energy and business lobbyists. All these signs of a broken system, The Nation’s Naomi Klein claims on Democracy Now! this morning, point to the fact that dealing with the crisis facing our planet will require nothing less than a complete restructuring of our economic system.

An actual remedy to the crisis would mean upending the whole free trade agenda and globalization, Klein says. We would have to localize our economies, pay the Global South for the damages our pollution has caused, regulate the greed of corporations, subsidize renewable energy and strengthen the United Nations.

The right choose to not believe in climate change "because it’s easier to deny the science than to say ‘OK, I accept that my whole worldview is about to fall apart,’” she says. “If we aren’t careful… then this crisis will be exploited to militarize our societies and to create fortress continents. We are really facing a choice.”

Klein also spoke on the show about anti-union bills as a frontal assault on democracy, and about environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, who was convicted last week of two felony charges for disrupting an auction of more than 100,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas drilling.

—Sara Jerving