Climate, Democracy and the Cost of Silence: Why This High-Stakes Moment Requires Voice

For many of us, the losses shaping this moment are not hypothetical or far off; they are happening now, in plain sight and at increasing speed.

Environmental protections are being rolled back while climate data is buried or politicized. Protest is reframed as disorder, journalists are discredited and human rights language is hollowed out and replaced with euphemism. What once felt like shared ground—facts, freedoms and the basic premise that life on Earth is worth safeguarding—now feels increasingly provisional.

The cumulative effect is exhaustion. Not just political fatigue, but something deeper: a psychic wearing-down that shows up as insomnia, fractured relationships, declining health and the staggering inclination to shout at brick walls. We are being constantly and intentionally overwhelmed, and for anyone paying attention, it’s almost impossible to not feel disheartened.

I will be honest: I am fully convinced that most people are just going to continue shopping, driving, scrolling and zoning out on the rapid journey to our collective demise. With so little time to act, so little quantifiable action, and the current geopolitical situation, it seems clear where we are headed.

And yet, I find the resolve anew each day to continue my activism. I have an exponentially growing, urgent and fierce need to protect all we can of “nature” and “human rights” and “social justice” and “Earth”.

This quote, often used by Antonio Gramsci, perhaps sums it up best: “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”

By sheer strength of will we get through this. Now is not the moment to be a fly on the wall. No matter how deeply rooted our pessimism, now is the time to speak up, with emphasis, and to demand the platform our future requires and deserves. It is hard to imagine a more critical moment in time for action and activism.

We face more compounding, life-on-Earth-altering issues than at any other point in history. We need to be billions united in peace and compassion with each other and our one habitable planet.

I am an extremely reluctant public speaker. But we must have voices involved at every single table: in local councils and boards, calling our elected officials in huge number daily, and commenting on every single piece of bad legislation and every destructive project. Be that annoying person who speaks on every issue at every meeting.

Write opinion pieces, which are still one of the most read sections in local newspapers. Join committees and talk with your neighbors. We aren’t doing this to make friends (although I make all my best friends/allies this way). Be willing to have uncomfortable conversations.

Those of us who approach life through the lens of environmental and social justice have never been given a true platform and we must continuously fight for these issues.

There is far too much at stake for us to back down now. With these goals in mind, I recently launched the Congress of Climate and Social Justice on most socials where we’ll track the legislation that matters, so that you can more easily stay informed to get involved.

We knew this would be difficult and likely traumatic for many. Do not give up. Keep fighting for humanity and the Earth. If I have one hope at all these days, it is simply to use my voice to inspire others to action. It’s time for us to get loud.