Naomi Klein, the well-known Canadian journalist and social activist who is the author of books such as the highly acclaimed “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism“, recently held a TED Talk about our addiction to risks (see video below).

In short, Klein talks about how our societies have become addicted to extreme reckless risk-taking from an interesting gender perspective. Her examples are the BP oil spill catastrophe in the Mexico Gulf, the invasion of Iraq, the collapse of the financial sectors and the ever more pressing case of climate change. Klein says that the hottest and poorest countries are the ones who are being hit first and hardest by the effects of climate change. And that the rich nations, who mainly bear the historical responsibility for global warming, roll the dice on the risks because they think they can handle and control the devastating effects of climate change. According to Klein the challenges we face today can be traced back to the deep inequality in the world that separates the powerful from the ones who have to suffer the effects of their actions.

And before you start to foolishly criticize her gender perspective:

Now be sure to check out Klein’s interesting talk!