Talking about climate change can expand political possibilities and reveal shared concern.

Believing that collective action can work is a powerful driver of climate engagement.

Climate progress increasingly depends on the information and AI systems shaping public life.

Connections across people, institutions, sectors, and countries can build movement momentum.

NYC was buzzing with life, as always, but during Climate Week, something even more exciting was in the air. Everyone was talking about climate change.

My week started with a panel organized by the Environmental Voter Project and the Climate Museum. Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the EVP, Arnab Pal, CEO of Deploy Action, and I, joined Climate Museum Director Miranda Massie and more than 100 climate leaders across technology, science, health, investment, education, the arts, and politics. I was excited to see my heroine, Dana Fisher, and my fierce graduate student Danielle Goldwert in the audience.

That conversation, and many that followed, left me reenergized. Despite frantic opposition from the fossil fuel sector, I saw many of the psychological conditions that allow social movements to build momentum. People are talking, organizing, connecting across sectors, and searching for ways to translate concern into consequential action. I left convinced that the fight for life on Earth is regaining momentum. Here are seven reasons why.

1. Climate change is becoming part of the political conversation again

Nathaniel Stinnett shared new polling from eight battleground states suggesting that talking about climate change helps rather than hurts U.S. Senate candidates. This resonated with research from my lab and the broader political science and communication literature.

Talking about climate change keeps it within the realm of political possibility and builds momentum for moments when ambitious policy becomes possible. Social movements helped create that momentum ahead of the Inflation Reduction Act, a story Leah Stokes explores in her newly published book, Carbon Wave.

2. People are rediscovering that collective action can work

During the panel, I shared work from Stanford’s Climate Cognition Lab on the psychological pathways that catalyze collective climate action and political participation. Increasing people’s belief in the efficacy of individuals and institutions and their sense of belonging in the movement is the most powerful lever for collective action. Efficacy and belonging help........

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