April 19, 2023 – There’s a lot of progress being made to combat climate change—and it’s important to highlight it to motivate people to push for more, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Marcy Franck.
Franck, senior communication strategist at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is editor of the four-year-old newsletter The Climate Optimist. She’s been talking to the media about why she’s optimistic about climate.
“The story of humanity rising to meet the challenge of climate change is full of things that looked impossible until they became reality,” said Franck in an April 17 Forbes article. “We need to move faster but we also need to celebrate how far we’ve come and use each milestone as motivation to stay engaged.”
Franck listed a number of positive developments on the climate front. For instance, renewable energy sources’ share of the global power generation mix is forecast to rise from 29% in 2022 to 35% in 2025, she noted. She added that negative narratives about climate—claims that climate action is too expensive or will require too much sacrifice—are often funded by large oil and gas companies seeking to protect their profits. The reality, she said, is that moving away from fossil fuels will actually be cleaner, cheaper, and healthier.
Franck was also interviewed about climate optimism on two recent podcasts. On the April 18 episode of the podcast Raising Healthy Families with Moms Meet and KIWI, she said, “Climate optimism isn’t about denying what we can see with our own eyes, or ignoring our grief or what we’ve already lost. It’s understanding and really wrapping our brain around the fact that we know how to prevent things from getting worse, that we’re making progress. And that there’s a role for everyone to join in the solution.” Franck was also featured on the March 1 episode of the podcast Blue Sky.
Read the Forbes article: The Power of Climate Optimists: Flip The Narrative, Change The Future
Listen to the Raising Healthy Families with Moms Meet and KIWI podcast: How to Stay Positive Amidst the Climate Crisis
Listen to the Blue Sky podcast: Optimism Over Doom, a Climate Conversation with Marcy Franck
Learn more
The case for climate optimism (Harvard Chan School news)
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