The reluctance to say "climate change" is also very noticeable in the business and investor communities right now. It's like everyone (in the U.S. at least) has collectively decided that it's too polarizing or risky of a topic to speak about publicly. It's a somewhat different story behind the scenes, but I feel like this "green-hushing" phenomenon is only going to alienate more people who can see with their own eyes what's happening to the world around them.
I hope and suspect you're right. And would you know, I did include the words "green hushing" 'in an earlier draft of this piece...ended up taking them out for whatever reason. Wish I had kept them in!
Name the problem! We can also talk about the way climate change is pummeling our pocket books and everything else but we can’t allow Orwellian obfuscation. We must speak up against this. The science is there, even if this admin is trying to hide it. Facts don’t hush up even if we do.
This is such an important column, Sammy. The literal "gas"lighting that happens when elected officials tell us that what we *are seeing with our eyes, isn't true. Didn't happen. Didn't happen for the reasons you think (fossil fuels) that it happened. I work with our local climate accelerator non-profit, the sentiment that we can just ignore the math (CO2 PPM, sea ice extent, average temps, percipitation, storms, droughts and weather 'whiplash' events) is everywhere. If we just don't talk about it, it won't happen. Wrong. It's happening; we will just be less prepared both physically (infrastructure and preparedness) and emotionally. Thank you for this column, Sammy, and for not gaslighting us!
Thank you for reading, Jane...I think you've hit the nail on the head. I'm hoping to get into this more in a future piece, but yes, regardless of political strategy, I don't think there's any way to be truly prepared (mitigation or adaption) if we're not at least naming the problem.
For the reason politicians won’t say “climate change,” look no further than scrolling down your column, to Phillips 66 Mark Lashier, throwing the fossil fuel industry’s $$$ and influence around.
Sammy, I’ll leave here what I posted on my LinkedIn share of your post:
Sammy’s latest Substack hits close to home. As an Eaton Fire survivor, I’ve noticed that little of the discussion in the community points to climate change/global heating as one of the main underlying causes of the firestorm. I’ve tried to talk to folks about the climate-induced weather intensification factors (hella Santa Ana winds unlike anything this native SoCal human has seen, chronic drought etc etc), but many just shrug it off, pointing the blame finger at Edison, county infrastructure, outdated water systems, and response team failures, and such — all true, all culpable, and all made worse by the impact of climate change. Thanks, Sammy. #climate #EatonFire
Hey Tom, I'm grateful for your reading, and sharing your perspective. I'm sorry to hear this is your experience, but appreciate your fighting the good fight...hope you keep it going and don't give up. We'll get there.
It's that stupid book Abundance, among other things, that's driving this abandonment of environmental standards, Sammy. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are going to have a lot to answer for. And Park should be recalled.
That's an interesting thought! I wonder how much "Abundance" might have to do with the green hushing phenomenon. I don't think it explains everything, but I have a hunch you might be right that there are some folks who have decided talking about climate is a bad idea as a result, as opposed to talking exclusively about building large-scale renewables. I would say they shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
I was working for a cleantech co when Trump was re-elected and that’s when deleting talk of climate change in favor of domestic energy production or anything else began to spread, even at Silicon Valley companies actually manufacturing solutions. Real talk! Nobody wanted to cross Trump.
The reluctance to say "climate change" is also very noticeable in the business and investor communities right now. It's like everyone (in the U.S. at least) has collectively decided that it's too polarizing or risky of a topic to speak about publicly. It's a somewhat different story behind the scenes, but I feel like this "green-hushing" phenomenon is only going to alienate more people who can see with their own eyes what's happening to the world around them.
I hope and suspect you're right. And would you know, I did include the words "green hushing" 'in an earlier draft of this piece...ended up taking them out for whatever reason. Wish I had kept them in!
Name the problem! We can also talk about the way climate change is pummeling our pocket books and everything else but we can’t allow Orwellian obfuscation. We must speak up against this. The science is there, even if this admin is trying to hide it. Facts don’t hush up even if we do.
This is such an important column, Sammy. The literal "gas"lighting that happens when elected officials tell us that what we *are seeing with our eyes, isn't true. Didn't happen. Didn't happen for the reasons you think (fossil fuels) that it happened. I work with our local climate accelerator non-profit, the sentiment that we can just ignore the math (CO2 PPM, sea ice extent, average temps, percipitation, storms, droughts and weather 'whiplash' events) is everywhere. If we just don't talk about it, it won't happen. Wrong. It's happening; we will just be less prepared both physically (infrastructure and preparedness) and emotionally. Thank you for this column, Sammy, and for not gaslighting us!
Thank you for reading, Jane...I think you've hit the nail on the head. I'm hoping to get into this more in a future piece, but yes, regardless of political strategy, I don't think there's any way to be truly prepared (mitigation or adaption) if we're not at least naming the problem.
For the reason politicians won’t say “climate change,” look no further than scrolling down your column, to Phillips 66 Mark Lashier, throwing the fossil fuel industry’s $$$ and influence around.
And you may want to add to your list of climate disasters The Blob, which warmed the West Coast ocean so much that ecosystems changed. See my story on sea otters in Mongabay, https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/zombie-urchins-and-the-blob-california-sea-otters-face-new-threats-and-ecosystem-shifts/.
An extremely salient point about oil industry money! And thanks for flagging your Mongabay story, I'll check it out.
Sammy, I’ll leave here what I posted on my LinkedIn share of your post:
Sammy’s latest Substack hits close to home. As an Eaton Fire survivor, I’ve noticed that little of the discussion in the community points to climate change/global heating as one of the main underlying causes of the firestorm. I’ve tried to talk to folks about the climate-induced weather intensification factors (hella Santa Ana winds unlike anything this native SoCal human has seen, chronic drought etc etc), but many just shrug it off, pointing the blame finger at Edison, county infrastructure, outdated water systems, and response team failures, and such — all true, all culpable, and all made worse by the impact of climate change. Thanks, Sammy. #climate #EatonFire
Hey Tom, I'm grateful for your reading, and sharing your perspective. I'm sorry to hear this is your experience, but appreciate your fighting the good fight...hope you keep it going and don't give up. We'll get there.
It's that stupid book Abundance, among other things, that's driving this abandonment of environmental standards, Sammy. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are going to have a lot to answer for. And Park should be recalled.
That's an interesting thought! I wonder how much "Abundance" might have to do with the green hushing phenomenon. I don't think it explains everything, but I have a hunch you might be right that there are some folks who have decided talking about climate is a bad idea as a result, as opposed to talking exclusively about building large-scale renewables. I would say they shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
I was working for a cleantech co when Trump was re-elected and that’s when deleting talk of climate change in favor of domestic energy production or anything else began to spread, even at Silicon Valley companies actually manufacturing solutions. Real talk! Nobody wanted to cross Trump.