Democrats’ ‘climate hushing’ prompts activists to turn up the volume

This summer, torrential rains have washed away Texas neighborhoods, dangerous heat has blanketed swaths of the country, and smoke from Canadian wildfires has choked communities as far south as Florida.Research makes clear that global warming is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe. Yet the climate crisis has largely disappeared from the political agenda, with many Democrats who once described it as an existential threat now shying away from talking about it.Now US activists are pushing back against this trend of “climate hushing”, arguing it is misguided. During the summer’s federal recess, during which lawmakers leave the nation’s capital to work directly within their home states or districts, demonstrators organized by the environmental advocacy coalition Climate Action Campaign are calling on representatives to put climate back on the political agenda.“The long history of the climate movement proves that we move fastest when there’s real pressure from the grassroots,” said Bill McKibben, the environmental author and activist who co-founded climate non-profit 350.org, “All the evidence shows those grassroots are as worried about [the] climate crisis as they ever were.”An aerial view shows flooding in mid-July in Ozona, Texas. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/APThe events, set to take place over the next month in at least 20 states during the House and Senate recess periods, will mobilize members of groups including local Sierra Club chapters, the senior citizen-led climate organization Third Act, which McKibben founded, and local affiliates of the racial justice group the NAACP.“It’s the broadest brush that we are working with,” said Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign. “The message is, talk about climate, climate can’t wait, and we want to see action.”Actions began on Thursday and will take a variety of forms. In Michigan, participants will demonstrate against the Republican representative Bill Huizenga who voted for Trump’s so-called big beautiful bill, which boosted planet-heating fossil fuels.In Arizona, young activists will meet with the Democratic representative Adelita Shirley Grijalva, a climate champion, and encourage her to continue talking about global warming. In other districts, organizers have circulated petitions calling on the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, to prioritize climate issues or plan to call on their representatives to connect the climate crisis to recent heatwaves.Participants seen holding signs at a rally at Union Square Park in Manhattan in April against Governor Kathy Hochul’s attempt to weaken the state’s climate law. Photograph: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty ImagesThe activists’ campaign comes as new polling challenges the need for “climate hushing”, a trend that took off as some policy wonks argued that talking about global warming could alienate voters and distract from the message of affordability. July research from the University of California, Santa Barbara found that emphasizing climate change was neutral to beneficial for Democratic candidates, suggesting that talking more about the issue does not alienate voters and can even increase support in competitive races.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThough the Trump administration frequently derides climate policy as a “scam” and a “hoax”, polling indicates most Americans are not onboard with that view. Another July poll from Data for Progress found that 61% of likely voters believe extreme weather has become more frequent over the past five years, including nearly half of Republicans. And one month earlier, a Yale survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans are worried about global warming.“Smart politicians will grab on this issue,” said McKibben. “There’s perhaps no other question where the gulf between Maga and the general public is higher.”Alt said she saw climate-hushing as “the climate denial of 2026”.“I don’t think that ignoring the climate crisis is smart politics,” she said. “I think that it is dropping the ball on the biggest threat the US and the world faces.”