18th Jun 2024 Gemini 1.5 Pro
Margaret Klein Salamon, Executive Director of the Climate Emergency Fund, argues that we must confront the "climate truth," a term she uses to describe the stark reality of impending civilizational collapse due to the accelerating climate emergency. She believes that avoiding this truth, while seemingly gentler, is counterproductive. She emphasizes the importance of processing the emotional responses to climate truth, particularly fear and grief, to move effectively into action.
Klein Salamon acknowledges the difficulty of this approach, particularly when it comes to children, but argues that confronting the reality of the situation is crucial for driving meaningful change. “We're not going to solve it by coddling everyone and making them feel good for right now,” she asserts. She contends that decades of insufficient action on climate change validate the need for a more direct and truthful approach.
It is the truth. And personally, I'd like to, and I recommend to others that it's actually better, better for you, better for the world to, to look at it, even though it's incredibly painful.
Klein Salamon advocates for disruptive, nonviolent protests as the most effective means to combat the climate crisis. She draws parallels to historical social movements like the Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage, and the abolition of slavery, asserting that these movements, often fueled by disruptive protests, achieved rapid and transformative change. She argues that the climate movement needs to adopt a similar approach, mobilizing a critical mass of people willing to disrupt the status quo to pressure governments and corporations into action.
Citing research from Erica Chenoweth, Klein Salamon points to the effectiveness of nonviolent movements in achieving political change. She emphasizes that a relatively small percentage of the population, around 3.5%, actively engaging in disruptive protests can create a tipping point that shifts public opinion and compels broader action. This "radical flank effect," as she terms it, pushes the boundaries of what is considered acceptable, making more moderate demands appear reasonable and creating space for broader societal change.
And I mean, yeah, like, again, it's kind of saying it, knowing it intellectually or or saying it is actually insufficient to understand. create the kind of response that we need.
Despite their effectiveness, Klein Salamon highlights the severe lack of funding for disruptive climate protests. She notes that this form of activism receives such a negligible amount of philanthropic support that it isn't even tracked as a separate category. She attributes this lack of funding to several factors, including funders' discomfort with the confrontational nature of these protests and fears of reputational damage.
Klein Salamon argues that this reluctance to fund disruptive protests represents a significant missed opportunity for philanthropy. She emphasizes that activists engaged in these protests often operate on shoestring budgets, dedicating their time and energy to a cause they believe in deeply. Funding, she argues, allows these movements to scale their efforts, amplify their message, and increase their impact.
So it's so low that it's not measured. It is not considered a category by any of the people who aggregate philanthropy.
Klein Salamon acknowledges that disruptive protests are often met with resistance and disapproval from the public, even those who might agree with the underlying message of the protests. She argues that this resistance stems from a fundamental discomfort with being forced to confront the uncomfortable realities of the climate crisis.
Likening humanity to sleepwalkers heading towards a cliff, Klein Salamon positions disruptive protests as a necessary wake-up call. Just as no one enjoys being shaken awake, she argues, no one enjoys being confronted with the harsh realities of climate change. However, she maintains that this discomfort is a necessary step towards meaningful action.
And I mean, they are disrupting normal life, right? People want to just have a nice day at the museum. Something got changed in that. But I like the metaphor of we are in a mass delusion of normalcy, like humanity sleepwalking off of a cliff. And the protesters are grabbing us by the shoulders and trying to shake us awake, right? And no one likes to be shaken awake.
Klein Salamon positions the Climate Emergency Fund as a critical bridge between funders and disruptive climate movements. She explains that the fund provides a safe, legal, and tax-deductible avenue for donors to support these movements, shielding them from potential legal repercussions or reputational damage. The organization acts as a "venture capital" fund for activism, identifying and supporting promising movements in their early stages, and helping them to scale their impact.
Klein Salamon also emphasizes the organization's unique understanding of the activist landscape. She highlights the importance of having staff with direct experience in activism, who understand the challenges and complexities of these movements and can effectively evaluate and support grantees.
Climate Emergency Fund provides a safe, legal, tax-deductible way for people to give to the climate movement. As a non-endowed fund, we raise all of the money that we grant. So this is an invitation for funders to not just join this movement generally, which of course it also is, but that this is a specific way.
Airtable