Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis by Malena and Beata Ernman, and Svante and Greta Thunberg.

3/5 rating. 278 pages.

Book #14 of 2021. Read February 7, 2021.

This is the story of Greta Thunberg and her family’s life (written mostly from her mother Malena’s point of view) up to her historic decision to strike for the climate.

Whatever I was expecting out of this book, it certainly was not what I got in reading it. I was guessing this was going to be a book about our climate issues (which it obviously is), but was not prepared for it also to be about Malena’s depression, and the struggle to raise Beata and Greta who were far from the norm (stated as a fact, not a judgement call).

It was absolutely heart-wrenching to hear about Greta’s bullying, about the struggles that Beata had and her mother’s wish to only shelter and support her, and Svante’s plea as he sobbed at one of the psychiatrists “you have to help her”.

Malena connects the difficulties she and her family have, with the larger issues around the world. “And I think that these are all symptoms of exactly the same disease: a planetary crisis that arose because we have turned our backs on each other. We have turned our back on nature.”

I think this book does a great job of showing that Greta is just a girl who wants to make (and so impressively, is making) a difference. The vitriol she has received is absolutely disgusting, and the exact opposite of what we need during this vital time for our, and every other organism’s, future on our planet.

While this book was interesting, I just didn’t love it.

Quotes:

“When people fall apart it’s hard to put them back together…”

“And all the bottomless sorrow, sorrow, sorrow over all these childhoods, lost because we live in a society that excludes more and more people with every day that passes.”

“But the fact remains, sometimes the healthiest thing a person can do is to fall apart.”

“Perhaps we will never be fine but we can always get a little bit better, and there is strength in that. There is hope in that.”

“‘You have to help her,’ he says, crying and sobbing. Again and again and again.” [Greta’s father about her sister]

“Perhaps they are going to wonder why you, who had the chance to be heard, didn’t speak up. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We could all start acting as if we were in the middle of the crisis we are in fact in.”

“‘This is my favorite,’ Greta says, laughing out loud while reading through the comments section on a ‘I’ve chosen to stop flying’ article. ‘If we’re going to stop flying, the trains have to get better. Everyone says that! And what that means in practice is that the mere thought of a possible delay is so totally unreasonable that we would rather destroy the living conditions for all future generations than subject ourselves to that possible hold-up.’”

“Everyone is so accustomed to the idea that everything should be adapted to their own needs. People are like spoiled children. And then they complain about us children being lazy and spoiled. I know that those of us with Asperger’s can’t perceive irony because it says so in the manual that all the old psychiatrists have written about people like me – but I don’t think that irony can be described better than this.” – Greta

“And every time we choose to fly, eat meat or shop for new clothes it leaves a smaller CO2 budget for less fortunate parts of the world.”

“No one believes that consumer power is the solution. But if my microscopic contribution can in some way hasten a radical climate policy, then I’m in.”

“‘No politics in Eurovision,’ they all said. As if the rights to love the one you love were political.”

“According to a recently published study by the UK organization Influence Map, forty-four of the world’s fifty most influential lobbying organizations are actively working against an effective climate policy.”

“‘You’re the ones who are going to save the world!’ Yeah, so you keep saying. But rather than saying that, we children sure wouldn’t mind if you started helping out a little bit instead.” – Greta

“But we are social animals, we follow the herd, and as long as our leaders are not behaving as if we are in crisis, who is going to understand that we in fact are?”

“When you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

“Differentness is the basis of all art. And without art everything is going to slowly, slowly crumble into nothing.”

“Isak [Stoddard] and I have calculated that [to keep under 2°C warming], rich countries like Sweden must start reducing their emissions by 10-15 per cent per year, starting today, so that by 2025 we will have lowered emissions by as much as 75 per cent. That means all our energy must be zero emissions by 2035-2040, including flying, shipping and all transport – they must all be zero carbon!” – Kevin Anderson

“But we don’t need to fly or eat hamburgers to justify spending money on worthwhile projects. Carbon offsetting is like paying poor people to diet for us.” – Kevin Anderson

“‘There are those,’ Kevin continues, ‘who think that we scientists shouldn’t tell it like it is because it’s too political. I think it’s the other way around. It’s those who choose to be silent who are truly political, because their silence says that everything is okay, and that’s an extremely powerful message that supports the status quo, or business-as-usual.”

“It’s never too late to do as much as possible” – Pär Holmgren

“The climate researcher Kevin Anderson makes the point that if the world’s richest 10 per cent were required to lower their emission levels to the European Union average, the world’s emissions would go down by 30 per cent.”

“Once fifteen-year-olds could be mothers, workers, soldiers, independent individuals, but nowadays they aren’t good for anything. They can’t even think a single thought for themselves. And there are no exceptions – not as long as their thoughts aren’t in line with those of certain adults, of course, and anyway: Shouldn’t these youngsters be in school and learn some manners?”

“Let them hate their bloody hate now so everyone gets to see what kind of people they are.”

“The price of being heard is hate. The price of being seen is hate.”

“Hope is literally everywhere, but that hopefulness makes demands. Because without demands hope is hollow.”

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