Salmon
The salmon sickened in Prince William Sound as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster become, in the eyes of Bella Bella students collectively studying the extent of the damage to an entire ecosystem resulting from such a disaster, the foundational symbol of environmental connectedness in which negative impact upon one species inevitably works its way up and down the food chain to impact all species. Should a disaster cause extinction of the salmon it would impact the predators like whales and dolphins which in turn would impact seals and sea lion. Upstream impact of the loss of salmon would affect birds of prey, bears and wolves and their prey which collectively fertilize the majestic cedars and fir trees until, inevitably and inexorably, humans feel the pain of the loss of salmon.
Flight 3935
The story of Flight 3935 being grounded on a tarmac so hot that the planes wheels actually suck down into the tar and got stuck becomes—through the reaction of its passengers—symbolic of the generalized perception of the effects of climate change and global warming. The passengers had to be evacuated from the plane in the hope that this move would reduce the weight enough to loosen the wheels for towing. It was not enough, requiring a more powerful tower and the entire unprecedented event resulted in a three-hour delay of takeoff. Nevertheless, despite the inconvenience and the frustrations of passengers posted on social media, all passengers got right back onto the flight and took off without a single ruckus made by their or the media about this glaring real-world, real-time illustration of the theoretical potential of climate change made literal. The event is portrayed as a microcosmic symbol of the ease with which the population is ready to ignore the dire warnings about climate change even when they are presented right before their eyes.
Heathrow Airport
Virgin CEO Richard Branson is quoted as predicting that London’s Heathrow airport will eventually come to symbolize the decline of the British if it is not allowed to move forward with expansions that include new runways. For the author, Heathrow—and more specifically, Branson’s business views toward business regulations—becomes a symbol of the inevitability of the “Green Billionaire.” While noting the Branson’s conversion to environmental awareness has resulted in a generalized positive potential, she also castigates him for the original sin of capitalism: no matter what cause billionaires may support and fund on a theoretical level, when their profit is on the line, capitalism beats the world.
Nauru
The small island of Nauru becomes the book’s ultimate symbol for the endgame the competition between capitalism and the world. The people of Nauru had lived a primitive existence among a pristine ecosystem designed to meet their every necessity of life. After a Europeans discovered it was a veritable mother’s lode of pure phosphate lime that could be cheaply mined and expensively sold as fertilizing agent, necessities turned into desires and the wealth created by this industry made the islanders wealthy, the miners wealthy, shippers wealthy and the fertilizer industry wealthy. But the resource was hardly inexhaustible, the phosphate was gone and the land left behind became infertile and uninhabitable. Nauru’s once impressive legacy of engineering capitalist wealth is now the legacy of symbolizing “disposable countries” which exist only for stripping raw of any resources and then leaving behind to die.
Geoengineering Frankenstein's Monster
Klein quotes, explains and points out the unsoundness of the premise forwarded by French sociologist Bruno Latour. Latour strives to create a metaphor for how to tackle the effects of global warming engendered by past human responsibilities out of the story of Frankenstein, arguing that the lesson of the story is not “don’t play God” but rather than, once you have played God, “don’t run away from your technological mess-ups, as young Dr. Frankenstein did.” Klein counters that this metaphor is unsound because unlike the Creature, the planet is not a creation of man. She then goes on to situate geo-engineering attempts to solve the problems by facing up to them rather than trying to reverse the damage as symbolic Frankenstein’s Monster “creating unknown and unknowable interactions…in which we try to solve one problem by making new ones, then pile techno-fixes onto those.”
