Quick Facts
Biography
Genevieve Juliette Guenther is an American author and climate change activist. A former Renaissance scholar, she is the founding director of the media watchdog organization End Climate Silence.She is currently affiliate faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. Her upcoming book, The Language of Climate Politics, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Early life and education
Guenther received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University and herPh.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004, in Renaissance literature.
Career
Literature
Guenther started her career as a tenure-track English professor at the University of Rochester. Her book, "Magical Imaginations," analyzed works by Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.
Climate-Related Work
Guenther has written 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).
In 2018 she founded the volunteer organization End Climate Silence, which advocates for increased coverage of climate change in news media, and has been cited as an "incredibly effective advocate for persuading journalists to include the climate emergency in their stories." The group's advisory board is Brad Johnson, Michael Mann, Peter Kalmus, and Margaret Klein Salamon.
Her work has been noted for her criticism of fossil fuel funding for university research, as well as her criticism of discussions (such as What If We Stopped Pretending?) that frame climate change as an "apocalypse" that "we can't prevent".
Guenther has been noted for praising the movie Don't Look Up as being useful in raising "awareness about the terrifying urgency of the climate crisis", and for noting that technologies are available, at least in, "research, development, and demonstration" phases, for decarbonizing the economy, "with the right policies." Guenther was an Expert Reviewer of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
Her upcoming book, The Language of Climate Politics, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Media appearances
Guenther has been interviewed by a number of media outlets. In 2018 she appeared on the CNN show Reliable Sources. In 2019 she was interviewed by BrianLehrer on "The Brian Lehrer Show," on WNYC public radio.In October 2020 her work was profiled in The New Yorker. In 2021 Guenther was interviewed on a climate-focused episode of The New York Times podcast, "The Argument."
Bibliography
Books
- Magical Imaginations: Instrumental Aesthetics in the English Renaissance (2012) ISBN 978-1442642416
Selected Essays
- — (2022-07-01). "The Practice of Anger in a Warming World". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- — (2022-04-04). "Carbon Removal Isn't the Solution to Climate Change". The New Republic. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- — (2021-10-18). "Fossil Fuel Branded Content Is a Form of Climate Denial and Propaganda". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- — (2020-12-11). Claude Henry; Johan Rockström; Sir Nicholas Stern (eds.). "Communicating the Climate Emergency: Imagination, Emotion, Action". Standing up for a Sustainable World. Edward Elgar: 401–408. doi:10.4337/9781800371781.00071. ISBN 9781800371781. S2CID 234932267. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
- Guenther, Genevieve Juliette (2020-09-10). "Americans Want Climate Change News. Media Should Give it to Them". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
- — (2019-12-19). "What Climate Change Tells Us about Being Human". Scientific American. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
- — (2018-10-10). "Who is the 'We' in 'We are Causing Climate Change'?". Slate. Retrieved 2022-12-21.