Doom. Denial. ‘Hopium.’ What About Climate Action?

More people consider climate change an urgent concern than ever. But people in the climate movement fear that our collective anxiety about the end of the world has paralyzed us from taking action. In this episode, Kai collects stories of climate victories. 

Kai talks with Rikki Held, the 22-year-old lead plaintiff in Held v. Montana, a lawsuit brought by the group Our Children’s Trust. Held and her co-plaintiffs won an historic victory recently when a court ruled that the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Then, author and activist Liza Featherstone shares insight from her essay “The Case Against Both Climate Hope and Climate Despair,” in The New Republic. And Kai and Liza collect listener stories of progress they’ve witnessed in their own communities. 

Send us your song for our summer playlist! What’s a song that represents your personal diaspora story? Go to notesfromamerica.org and click on the “RECORD” button to leave a voice note with your answer. Tell us the name of that song and the artist, and a 1-minute story that goes along with it. We’ll gather all of the songs and your stories in a Spotify playlist that we’ll update all summer. 

Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter): @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio.

“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.