I thought this final chapter was by far the best in the whole book. Malm uses the chapter to address the fatalism and pessimism that all too often paralyses so many who recognise anthropogenic climate change, or even just in the left generally really. He takes some of arguments that you commonly see surrounding the impossibility of averting climate apocalypse - "we're already doomed anyway, even if we did take action", "We might have a chance to prevent it but it's never going to happen anyway", you know, all the usual "its easier to imagine the end of the world, than the end of (fossil) capitalism" stuff - and he smashes them to the ground. In case that isn't enough, he also uses examples such as the Nat Turner rebellion and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and makes a convincing call for action even if it really was too late - which it isn't anyway. Then he finishes the chapter with a warning against deep ecology, which I think he could've developed a lot more but I guess he didn't have the time in this short piece.

I highly recommend others to give this chapter a read, even on its own if you haven't read the preceding chapters. We too often see misery and despair in leftist spaces when it comes to topics like this (and admittedly, I like a climate-induced dystopian hellscape joke as much as the next leftist) but despair will get us nowhere, so - to paraphrase Tony Benn - "toughen up, bloody toughen up".

“Climate fatalism is for those on top; its sole contribution is spoilage. The most religiously Gandhian climate activist, the most starry-eyed renewable energy entrepreneur, the most self-righteous believer in veganism as panacea, the most compromise-prone parliamentarian is infinitely preferable to the white man of the North who says, ‘We’re doomed – fall in peace.’ Within the range of positions this side of climate denial, none is more despicable.”