We are failing.
You probably already knew that, but please don’t stop reading.
Sure, there have been some wins, but year after year, the heat rises. Many of our elected officials are doubling down on denial and knocking back our progress.
The response has been leaderless and rudderless. We are fragmented by politics, money, identities, and ideologies.
But these challenges are not exactly new. The climate movement achieved a huge U.S. policy win more than three years ago, and most Americans don’t even know it. And now we’re losing ground as that win gets rolled back. Why aren’t we changing tack?
The climate movement is operating on autopilot. We still don’t have enough people with us, and too many of the people we have are still doing the same things because they’ve always done them that way.
It’s time for a new era of the movement.
This is a revamp, a rebrand, a restart. Thinking bigger than our sectors and our silos. Putting aside our egos. This is not aspirational; this is possible. This is not theoretical; this is concrete. This is not for tomorrow, this is now.
This is not a revolution for others to build. It’s for us. All of us.
We all want the same things: clean air, clean water, healthy families, decent jobs, affordable energy, safe buildings, reliable transportation, and a thriving outdoors. You may think that being part of a movement means marching in the streets. In our view, anyone reading this is part of a broad-based, interconnected movement that will remain committed to its work regardless of who occupies the White House.
We in the U.S. climate movement are doing our bit, just not well enough and not enough of us. Now ALL Americans need to coordinate to get our sh*t together.
This Declaration calls everyone in the U.S. to action, to deliver the solutions we already have, and to clear a path to results that will bring us back from the brink.
Vibe-wise? This Declaration calls on us to be bold, brash, different, and fast. Please, no more pointless conferences and convenings without outcomes! You know as well as we do that we need less leadership of thought and more leadership of action.
We recognize that the audience for this is diverse and plays different roles in the movement. In the rest of this Declaration, we will lay out several strategies and examples of what different agents of the movement can do. These agents include cultural actors, grassroots activists, large environmental advocacy groups, governments, universities, companies, and philanthropy.
We chose these agents in part because they were fundamental to the passage of the climate sections of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which was the largest ever investment in America’s clean energy future. Yes, we did great! Republicans and Democrats alike celebrated the investment in new forms of energy in primarily red states. Except we did a terrible job of talking about how great a job we did. Whoops.
Let’s stop talking about “saving the planet.” The planet isn’t personal. But jobs are. Family is.
We clearly need a fundamental reframing in how we talk, act, and work together. So we are urging us all to foster collaboration with a new lexicon for discussing climate change and an orientation toward collective action.
A word about collaboration: If one more person says we need more collaboration in the climate movement without a solution for how to do that, we are going to lose our sh*t. People are trying it, but it hasn’t worked yet. Individuals and institutions are replicating each other’s work on purpose and by accident. We are competing for resources, stepping on toes, and stroking egos left, right, and libertarian.
This Declaration presents dozens of new tactics for agents across the U.S. to collaborate. We recognize that these suggestions are not comprehensive, and we don’t claim to have all of the answers, or even correct answers. These ideas are examples of the types of changes we imagine. Our proposals interact with loads of existing strategies and are (mainly) intended to add to and not detract from them. Most importantly, we want you, the reader, to take this Declaration as a rallying cry. Consider acting on the relevant recommendations. Now is the time to reset, recalibrate, and galvanize.
Embedding opportunities for political engagement in public gatherings including concerts, professional sports, churches, airports, and fairs.
Creating a federal Neo-Industrial Revolution Department: a central climate command with DOGE-like authority.
Rapidly applying successful local policies to other political and regulatory contexts.
Investing philanthropic dollars in solutions that come out of nonprofit research, with returns for all parties.
Endowing “impact professorships” at universities, with candidates evaluated on how fast their ideas are implemented and have a real-world impact.
We imagine you might already disagree with at least some of what you’ve just read. We welcome your feedback and criticism, but we urge you to read the Declaration in full before making any judgments.