Dr. Genevieve Guenther at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes DR. GENEVIEVE GUENTHER—Expert Reviewer for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and founding director of End Climate Silence—for a discussion of her new book The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It. She will be joined in conversation by MARTIN PUCHNER—author of The Written World and Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University.

About The Language of Climate Politics

The Language of Climate Politics offers readers new ways to talk about the climate crisis that will help get fossil fuels out of our economy and save our planet. It's an analysis of the current discourse of American climate politics, but also a critical history of the terms that most directly influence the way not just conservatives but centrists on both sides of the political divide think and talk about climate change. In showing how those terms lead to mistaken beliefs about climate change and its solutions, the book equips readers with a new vocabulary that will enable them to neutralize climate propaganda and fight more effectively for a livable future.

A groundbreaking investigation into the propaganda justifying the fossil-fuel economy, The Language of Climate Politics offers readers powerful new ways to talk about the climate crisis that will help create transformative change.

In an illuminating analysis, Dr. Genevieve Guenther shows that the climate debate is not, in fact, neatly polarized, with Republicans obstructing climate action and Democrats advancing climate solutions. Partisans on the right and the left often repeat the same fossil-fuel talking points, and this repetition produces a centrist consensus upholding the status quo, even as global heating accelerates.

Weaving this analysis through fascinating critical histories of the terms that dominate the language of climate politics—the words we, alarmist, cost, growth, "India and China," innovation, and resilience—Dr. Guenther shows how this consensus is established. Fossil-fuel interests weaponize the discourses of science, economics, and activism, co-opting and twisting climate language to help greenwash their plans for ongoing extraction. But all too often climate scientists, economists, and even advocates will unwittingly echo the false and dangerous assumptions of their supposed political opponents. This apparent agreement between foes, filtered through the news media, not only influences our common-sense yet mistaken views about the climate crisis but also enables powerful decisionmakers to justify the corporate and policy actions that threaten us all. Revealing this dynamic, Guenther shows how to transform it.

Ultimately, The Language of Climate Politics is an inspiring call to arms, a book that equips readers with powerful new terms that will enable them to fight more effectively for a livable future.

Praise for The Language of Climate Politics

"It's hard to imagine a savvier or more useful new account of our greatest crisis. People who care about the future will cherish this smart volume, which will turn them into far more effective advocates; it is a genuine gift to the world." —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"This is a brave, compelling, and necessary book. Guenther blasts away the most persistent myths of the climate crisis: that rapidly phasing out fossil fuels will devastate our economy; that China and India are the evil twins of climate politics; that building greater 'resilience' to climate impacts is a simple, catch-all solution. Guenther knows her subject and is a fabulous bullshit detector. Reading The Language of Climate Politics is an excellent way to arm yourself for the fight for a better future." —Jeff Goodell, author of the New York Times bestseller The Heat Will Kill You First

"This remarkable, empowering book is not just about, but a model instance of, climate communication. It makes a lucid, passionate case for moral anger directed at executives, politicians, economists, and journalists who obfuscate, exacerbate, or profit from the harms inflicted by the use of fossil fuels. If you want to understand the climate crisis and you only have time to read one book, this should be it." —Kieran Setiya, Professor of Philosophy, MIT, and author of Life is Hard

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.