The Global Climate Justice Movement in the Age of Crisis: Climate Fear, Truth, and the Public

Ed. Note: This is another talk in the first panel of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Activists, Artists, and Academics:  Building Just Climate Futures Together virtual conference.

Three leaders of The Climate Mobilization discuss the recent controversy around the New York Magazine piece, “The Uninhabitable Earth” and the role of fear and other emotions in the climate movement. Should we tell the whole, frightening truth? Can they handle it? We argue that, when combined with a potential solution—WWII scale climate mobilization—the truth can be intensely motivating.

Margaret Klein Salamon, PhD is the founder and director of The Climate Mobilization Salamon earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from Adelphi University and also holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Harvard. Though she loved being a therapist, Margaret felt called to apply her psychological and anthropological knowledge to solving climate change.

Ezra Silk is a co-founder and head of Strategy and Policy at the Climate Mobilization. A former newspaper reporter, Silk is the author of TCM’s Victory Plan, and he is leading TCM’s efforts in Los Angeles.

Anya Grenier is the head of The Climate Mobilization’s media operation. She is also the author of TCM’s Blueprint for an Emergency Climate Movement. She recently graduated from Yale college.