LIFI 22: What’s Wrong With Climate Activism?

Activism can be fraught with grey areas and narratives driven by small groups within society. When it comes to the climate, this is an approach with many holes in it, as eventually, the climate crisis will affect us all. As part of Leeds International Festival, Judy Ling Wong CBE will be interrogating how politics and the media limit the engagement of marginalised communities in climate talks. Join her alongside a panel of activists, artists and experts to ask ‘What’s Wrong With Climate Activism?’.

we should be talking about climate justice and the ways in which equality can be found within a media narrative

Among the panel are Dominique Palmer, Lee Pivnik, Hamza Yassin and Sarah Elvira Kuhmunen. Each of these artists, activists and campaigners bring a unique combination of lived experience of the climate crisis, and the barriers currently in place, preventing those with valuable contributions to make, from reaching a platform that will allow them to speak.

We often think about the climate as a simultaneous global issue, however, just from what mainstream news does show us, it clearly affects some communities a lot harder than others. When we talk about climate, we should be talking about climate justice and the ways in which equality can be found within a media narrative.

In ‘What’s Wrong With Climate Activism?’, the panel of experts will share their experiences from the perspective of their personal research, the organisations they work for and the communities that they’re from. Giving an alternative view on this issue which is oversaturated with a small number of perspectives.

Judy Ling Wong CBE is the director of the Charity the Balck Environment Network. Her work has massively impacted the involvement of ethnic minorities in the voluntary environmental sector. She has multiple honorary fellowships and was awarded a CBE in 2007 for her role in climate activism.