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Genevieve Guenther

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Genevieve Juliette Guenther
EducationColumbia University
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Organization(s)End Climate Silence
The New School
Websitehttps://www.genevieveguenther.com/

Genevieve Juliette Guenther is an American author and climate change activist. [1] She is the founding director of the media watchdog organization End Climate Silence.[2][1][3][4][5][6][7] She is currently affiliate faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School.[8]

Oxford University Press published her climate book The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It. The book debunks the new climate denial, threaded into science, economics, and geopolitics, that says we can keep using coal, oil, and methane gas and still halt global heating anyway. The book offers practical tips and clear, actionable messages to counter this denial.

Early life and education

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Guenther received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University[9] and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004, in Renaissance literature.[1]

Career

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Literature

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Guenther started her career as a tenure-track English professor at the University of Rochester.[1] Her book on English Literature, "Magical Imaginations: Instrumental Aesthetics in the English Renaissance," analyzes works by Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.[1]

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Guenther writes scholarly and popular articles about the language of climate change, media coverage of climate change, and the cultural aspects of the climate crisis (see Bibliography below for examples).

She writes a weekly newsletter about climate disinformation in the language of climate politics and the news media, where she recommends effective climate talking-points and climate actions to help counter that disinformation.

She is the founding director of the volunteer organization End Climate Silence, which advocates for increased coverage of climate change in news media,[1][2][4][3][5][6][7] and has been cited as an "incredibly effective advocate for persuading journalists to include the climate emergency in their stories."[10] The group's advisory board is Brad Johnson, Michael Mann, Peter Kalmus, and Margaret Klein Salamon.[11]

Her work has been noted for her criticism of fossil fuel funding for university research,[7] as well as her criticism of discussions (such as What If We Stopped Pretending?)[12] that frame climate change as an "apocalypse" that "we can't prevent".[13][14] Guenther has noted that technologies are available, at least in "research, development, and demonstration" phases, for decarbonizing the economy, "with the right policies."[15] Guenther has also been noted for praising the movie Don't Look Up as being useful in raising "awareness about the terrifying urgency of the climate crisis."[5]

Guenther has been an Expert Reviewer of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.[9]

Oxford University Press published The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It in July 2024. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book a "revelatory study."[16] The Los Angeles Review of Books called the book a "manifesto and de facto minicourse in critical thinking, an often uncanny hybrid that nevertheless equips and empowers climate communicators to expose fallacies and disinformation in fossil-fuel interests’ rhetoric."[1]

Media appearances

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Guenther has been interviewed by a number of media outlets.[17] In 2018 she appeared on the CNN show Reliable Sources.[18] In 2019 she was interviewed by Brian Lehrer on "The Brian Lehrer Show," on WNYC public radio.[19] In October 2020 her work was profiled in The New Yorker.[1] In 2021 Guenther was interviewed on a climate-focused episode of The New York Times podcast, "The Argument."[20] In the UK, she is a repeated guest on the BBC.[2][3]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It (2024) ISBN 0197642233
  • Magical Imaginations: Instrumental Aesthetics in the English Renaissance (2012) ISBN 978-1442642416

Selected Essays

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "How Should the Media Talk About Climate Change?". The New Yorker. October 17, 2020. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  2. ^ a b "EndClimateSilence.org". EndClimateSilence.org. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  3. ^ a b "'It's now or never': UN climate report's 4 urgent takeaways". National Geographic. 2022-04-04. Archived from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  4. ^ a b Michael E. Mann (2021-01-12). The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. PublicAffairs. p. 67. ISBN 9781541758223.
  5. ^ a b c "Don't Just Watch: Team Behind 'Don't Look Up' Urges Climate Action". The New York Times. 2022-01-11. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  6. ^ a b David Wallace-Wells (2019-02-16). "Time to Panic: The planet is getting warmer in catastrophic ways. And fear may be the only thing that saves us". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  7. ^ a b c "Universities must reject fossil fuel cash for climate research, say academics". The Guardian. 2022-03-21.
  8. ^ "[Cross-Post] "Our House is on Fire": Faculty at The New School on our Climate Emergency". tishmancenter.org. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  9. ^ a b "Interview: Five Questions With Genevieve Guenther on Climate Communication". amasia.vc. Archived from the original on 2022-12-23. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  10. ^ Margaret Klein Salamon; Molly Gagedate (2020-04-21). Facing the Climate Emergency. New Society Publishers. ISBN 9780865719415.
  11. ^ "About". End Climate Silence.
  12. ^ Jonathan Franzen (2019-09-08). "What If We Stopped Pretending". New Yorker.
  13. ^ Michael E. Mann (2021-01-12). The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. PublicAffairs. p. 188. ISBN 9781541758223.
  14. ^ "Jonathan Franzen's made-up climate change model sparks online pile-on". The Guardian. 2019-09-09.
  15. ^ "'It's now or never': UN climate report's 4 urgent takeaways". National Geographic. 2022-04-04. Archived from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  16. ^ "The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It". Publishers Weekly. 2024-05-01.
  17. ^ "Press – Genevieve Guenther". Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  18. ^ "How media can improve climate change coverage". cnn.com. 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  19. ^ "How Can the Media Cover Climate Change Better?". wnyc.org. 2019-09-19. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  20. ^ "Got Climate Doom? Here's What You Can Do to Actually Make a Difference". The New York Times. 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
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