Reviews

THE NEW CORPORATION

Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan, 2021 1hr 46 mins

From the Canadian makers of the influential 2003 documentary The Corporation – which looked at the workings of big business within society and diagnosed it as psychopathic – comes The New Corporation, which reveals the influence of corporations on every aspect of society today. The film covers “chapters” in the new playbook big business is using to slyly rebrand itself as socially conscious and, when it comes to things like the climate emergency, part of the solution.

Much of what the film covers may be known to you already, but the curation of the full range of nefarious and devious activities of corporations and their CEOs is what gives it impact. Thankfully the latter part counters this somewhat depressing picture by showing a much more inspiring overview of the groundswell of resistance to corporate power – as people take to the streets and also successfully stand for political office – to fight for justice and the planet.

Liz Murray

THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE: A NOVEL

Kim Stanley Robinson

Orbit, 2020

This book should be handed out to every delegate at COP26. Readers beware – it is not your typical sci-fi novel. The world it describes is painfully familiar and the main characters are a bunch of bureaucrats, activists and scientists around the Ministry for the Future, founded in 2025 by the Paris Accords signatories. The book opens with an extreme heatwave in India in about 2050 in which 20 million people die over the course of two weeks. It’s deeply affecting to read and process precisely because the magnitude may be unimaginable but the setup is not.

The story explores a multitude of solutions that the Ministry is working through, while at the same time exposing the contradictions in our existing economic, legal and social practices. Yes, it deals with systems change, but does not glance over the moral and ethical implications of such change. It remains a deeply humanist novel, as imperfect in its writing at times as our collective responses to the climate crisis continue to be. Yet the overall message is one of hope.

Alena Ivanova

REIMAGINING MUSEUMS FOR CLIMATE ACTION

Glasgow Science Centre

Until COP26

When you think of radical climate action, the first thing to come to mind might not be a museum. Glasgow Science Centre’s new exhibition aims to challenge this notion by asking the question “what would it take for museums to become catalysts for radical climate action?”

Through a series of interactive exhibits, films and informative plaques – curated from ideas from around the world – this exhibition not only shows how museums can be a front line for climate action, but also educates visitors on fossil fuels and renewable energy. A particular standout for me was an interactive ‘Doodle God’style game showing just how many everyday products are made from oil-derived plastics (it’s a lot). Finally, an exhibit on the Dundee Museum of Transport showed a real world example of a museum that is already a frontier for tackling climate change. The exhibition is on in Glasgow until COP26 and I’d recommend it as an innovative and accessible day out for all ages.

Freya Murray