The university hosted an event featuring White House National Climate Advisor, Gina McCarthy, in a webinar moderated by Journalism Program Director, Neil Swidey (JOUR). McCarthy currently serves under the Biden administration as the nation’s Climate Advisor. 

Prior to working under the Biden administration, McCarthy served as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under former President Barack Obama. McCarthy has been cited by the New York Times as being, “The most powerful climate change official in the country.” 

With all her time in public service, McCarthy is well versed in navigating conversations that lead to productive solutions when advocating for common-sense climate change mitigation strategies, she explained during the webinar. McCarthy spoke to the idea of connecting one on one with individuals and finding common ground to work towards effective solutions. 

McCarthy described how personalizing conversations and making them more achievable is far more effective than using fear to motivate you, “… fear as an instrument to engage [is] the worst thing I think you can do…it’s either you…put your head in the sand….Or to deny something or run away from or you ignore it.” McCarthy used the metaphor of running a marathon, and how everyone deserves to celebrate the smaller achievements like making it up heartbreak hill, she explained in the analogy. “I deserve to…actually get all excited about that, and pat myself on the back. Even if I’m not over the finish line yet,” said McCarthy.  

McCarthy also explained the importance of not only recognizing every achievement but also the importance of bringing people together. “Celebrate every damn step, and bring as many people onto that step as you can, then they’ll wonder what comes next,” McCarthy told students. Although often considered a partisan issue, McCarthy explained how that is not the case, and also how she’s helped people to come to this realization. Citing the fact that ultimately this is a people problem: the planet will be ok, we just may not be. 

She went on to explain how, “you need to figure out what motivates people, how you can be helpful to put things in perspective so that progress can be made… I try to curate the information in a way that allows me to speak to people, because the whole clue isn’t to make people understand climate,… the goal is to get them to act in a way that’s content with what climate tells us.” 

For example, McCarthy explained how families are a form of common ground that can often be used to connect people to the issue who initially see themselves as too distant from it. McCarthy explained to the audience how using family could be a means of getting the public to think about the impacts of climate change.“Do you have any kids?” McCarthy asked, “What do you want for them as they grow up? What if you told you that I thought climate was going to impact their ability to lead that life?”

McCarthy offered an “optimistic” view, she explained, that contrasts the message of fear most of Generation Z grew up hearing. “ Right now, in DC, for the past year— and a little bit more— I’m amazed that we have shifted away from climate denial- period…Right now I am having trouble finding a climate denier— not that I’m looking for them.” 

McCarthy is hoping that more attention will begin to be brought to the issues of climate change, this is due to undeniable changes to the environment. “With all of the wildfires, and the droughts, and the heat, and the floods, and the hurricanes, all that has made people realize that we are in trouble, and people are looking for answers,” McCarthy explained. 

“While there still is a lot of embracing this fossil fuel reliance… there are… reasons for that well beyond whether they believe in climate change,” McCarthy told students.  She went on to describe how, “in the end, people will do what’s right. For themselves and their families, we just have to make sure that we’re telling people that the clean energy solutions are exactly that. They’ll grow jobs, those unions are all in on this…so you gotta get down to those human values that everybody shares and make sure you are raising those as the reasons to do it, instead of ‘I worry about the planet.’”

McCarthy explained the first-hand accounts she has witnessed about the actions officials are taking now in addition to looking into opportunities in investing in smart agriculture and electric vehicles, “We’re spending the $1.2 trillion in the bipartisan infrastructure law in a way that’s entirely consistent with resilience and adaptation and smart climate action moving forward, that’s also going to heavily invest in communities left behind… there’s a lot of questions about whether the government works for people or not, we better show that it does,” McCarthy told students

McCarthy ended with a message for Brandeis students, on how they can instigate change, “thinking about how you can open up opportunities for the communities left behind, even if it’s a small act, it’s the best thing that you can do…It’s been too far too long that those injustices have continued… and there’s nothing profound about that, but what is profound, is just doing something meaningful in those communities. So get together, think about it, and hang out together. And be hopeful, please. I’ll come to chase you down and find you and track you down!”

The event was on Tuesday, March 8 and was sponsored by the Journalism Department. McCarthy is a Massachusetts native and attended University of Massachusetts her undergraduate degree, and Tufts University for graduate school.