How should we talk about climate change in the crucible of the 2024 elections? How are the Republican and Democratic candidates for President talking about climate science, economics, technology, and politics — and what can we learn from the ways their rhetoric and their policies are being covered, or not covered, in the press?

At this event we were joined by Genevieve Guenther, author of The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It, along with Kendra Pierre-Louis, Bill Mckibben, and Amy Westervelt in an exciting Climate Week NYC discussion of these urgent questions.

Panelists

Genevieve Guenther is Affiliate Faculty at The New School, the Founding Director of End Climate Silence, a climate news-media advocacy group, and the author of The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It. Visit her at genevieveguenther.com.

Kendra Pierre-Louis is an award-winning climate reporter with Bloomberg. She has worked as senior climate reporter with the Gimlet/Spotify podcast How to Save a Planet, as a climate reporter with The New York Times and as a staff writer for Popular Science. She is also the author of the book, Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet. Visit her at kendrawrites.com.

Bill McKibben is an author, educator, and environmentalist, who helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, and who has recently helped found Third Act, to build a progressive organizing movement for people over the age of 60. Visit him at billmckibben.com.

Amy Westervelt is an investigative climate reporter, the founder of the Peabody-nominated Critical Frequency, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Drilled Media, an independent newsroom producing cross-border climate investigations in print and audio media. Visit her at amywestervelt.com.

Praise for The Language of Climate Politics

“A revelatory study … It’s a breath of fresh air.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

A “manifesto and de facto minicourse in critical thinking, an often uncanny hybrid that nevertheless equips and empowers climate communicators to expose fallacies and disinformation in fossil-fuel interests’ rhetoric.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“It’s hard to imagine a savvier or more useful new account of our greatest crisis. People who care about the future will cherish this smart volume, which will turn them into far more effective advocates; it is a genuine gift to the world.”
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“This is a brave, compelling, and necessary book. Guenther blasts away the most persistent myths of the climate crisis…Guenther knows her subject and is a fabulous bullshit detector. Reading The Language of Climate Politics is an excellent way to arm yourself for the fight for a better future.”
—Jeff Goodell, author of the New York Times bestseller The Heat Will Kill You First

“In this genius book, Dr. Genevieve Guenther takes the whole overwhelming universe of fossil fuel propaganda and distills it to six key words and one key narrative, exposing the rhetorical tricks used so effectively by the various powers obstructing climate action and thus ridding them of their power entirely.”
—Amy Westervelt, Investigative Climate Journalist, Founder, Drilled Media

“The primary obstacle to tackling the climate crisis is political, not technological. And the political battle has become a war of words. In this important book, Genevieve Guenther navigates the battlefield with insight and wit, expertly elucidating the ways in which the modern climate discourse has been polluted by bad actors with an agenda of business-as-usual dependence on fossil fuels.”
—Michael E. Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Our Fragile Moment

(Video recorded and produced by Alvin Tsang / HawkFinn Productions)