Excerpt:
Faced with a president-elect who has called global warming a “scam,” activists are changing their strategies and pushing a message of hope.
With about a month and a half left until the Trump administration takes over the White House, I called Bill McKibben, a journalist, author and activist, to ask where the climate movement goes next.
(I also reported on how youth climate activists are evolving — changing tactics and growing up.)
The outlook for the movement that McKibben has helped lead for more than three decades may seem grim. Donald Trump, who has called global warming a “scam,” is likely to reverse many of President Biden’s climate policies. Trump is expected to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, dismantle regulations and target Biden’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.
For McKibben, who helped start the conversation on climate after the publication of his New Yorker essay “The End of Nature” in 1989, fighting back against Trump’s policies remains a primary goal.
But the climate movement also plans to spend the next four years hunkering down at the local level. McKibben’s newest organization, Third Act, a nonprofit group for climate activists older than 60 that he started about three years ago, is highlighting the push for change at the community and state level. Over the past 18 months, they’ve begun a new strategy: attending the meetings of obscure state agencies or commissions that hold a lot of power over the energy transition.
We covered the pivotal election of one such board in Arizona, which sets utility rates and decides whether to add fossil fuels or renewables to the electric grid. In November, all three open seats went to Republicans.
“These are places that no one has engaged much with for decades,” McKibben said. “They’ve been protected by a force field of their own boringness.”
Youth climate groups have also said they’re pivoting from a national to a local stage, pushing for state-level laws like the Climate Change Superfund Act in New York, which could hold polluters accountable for climate change.
“This time around the resistance will be local,” Jamie Henn, who co-founded 350.org with McKibben and now runs Fossil Free Media, said. The effort will focus on community and regional-scale clean energy projects, and laying the groundwork for a big push to bring climate issues into the 2028 presidential campaign.
“We can’t survive heading into 2030 without bold leadership on climate back in D.C.,” Henn said…
