Who Are Today's Climate Activists?
As Earth Month 2024 gets underway, climate activists around the world are and over the coming weeks to draw attention to the growing threats posed by climate change.
Many of these demonstrations will focus on what humanity can do to stop fueling the damage. But while activists are amplifying the dire findings from scientists, you’ll likely see fossil fuel supporters attacking them on social media and TV.
It’s easy to get caught up in the myths about climate activism, particularly in today’s polarized political environment. So, let’s take a moment to explore the truth about three of the big myths being told about climate activism and the climate movement today.
Myth 1: Climate activists are just young people
The media tends to on young people in the climate movement, including those inspired by for climate, the international , or the , which focuses on U.S. climate action.
Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of the active climate movement today is made up of older adults, including those called “” and the “.”
Just as young people have outspoken climate leaders, many of these older activists were inspired to get involved by longtime activists such as and and the group McKibben started specifically to mobilize older Americans: . As , these more mature activists cut their teeth in the civil rights and anti-war movements, along with earlier waves of the environmental movement.
Over the past 25 years, I have surveyed numerous waves of activists participating in demonstrations and protests to understand who they are and . My new book, “” brings these findings together to understand how the climate movement has evolved along with the climate crisis.
When I surveyed participants at the , which drew 75,000 people in New York City in September 2023, a quarter of the crowd was 53 years old or older. At a much smaller demonstration that in April 2023, I found the average age of the activists was .
Myth 2: Climate activists mostly do things like throw soup and disrupt events
While the activists engaging in civil disobedience, such as or , get the lion’s share of the media attention, the climate movement includes a wide spectrum of environmentally concerned activists using a broad range of tactics.
Activists are actively working to , to cut their emissions, encourage schools and municipalities to , and make front-line communities , among many other efforts to slow climate change.
Many activists are involved with established organizations, such as , the and the . Their numbers – EDF alone claims 3 million supporters – and financial strength can give them a .
Others participate in less formal groups that make up the radical flank, such as and . Although these factions of the movement to social change, they share the same mission: to end the climate crisis.
Myth 3: Confrontational climate activism doesn’t work
In recent months, protesters have , and , among other events. These confrontational actions are not generally popular, but neither were the radical tactics of earlier social movements.
In 1961, 61% of the U.S. population , who rode interstate buses into the South to challenge segregation. And 57% thought that sit-ins at lunch counters and other locations where Black Americans were refused service hurt the Civil Rights Movement. In hindsight, research has shown to the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
Nonviolent civil disobedience in the climate movement also plays an important role in keeping climate change in the media and on people’s minds.
Even though the is with the general public, there is that it is turning off other activists in the movement. In fact, there is reason to believe that confrontational acts can to support more moderate efforts of the climate movement.
When I asked participants at the 2023 March to End Fossil Fuels if they supported climate groups doing nonviolent civil disobedience, not one of the respondents reported disapproving of these groups and their actions.
The impact of these activists’ efforts goes well beyond media coverage, too. For example, when President Joe Biden announced his decision to pause approvals of liquefied natural gas exports in January 2024, : “We will heed the calls of young people and frontline communities who are using their voices to demand action from those with the power to act.”
Myths about climate change are often spread to try to and are often .
But that isn’t stopping climate activists, who, like the rest of the world, are experiencing climate change and feel a responsibility to speak out.
, Director of the Center for Environment, Community & Equity and Professor in the School of International Service,
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