The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. That feels true lately, more of the time than we’d like. Witness a British Prime Minister mildly looking on as a visiting American president trashes his climate and energy agenda, renewable energy (especially wind), and in a deranged rant of dozens of calumnies calls for the PM to use the UK military to “stop the boats” of migrants - a non-zero percentage of whom left home for reasons aggravated by the already-here effects of climate change.
It’s wild:
We’ll have more to say about the whole thing - preceded by the “Grand Tour” of Europe by US Secretary for Energy Dominance Chris Wright.
Hope vs Optimism
As our friend Jenny Chase of BNEF said on BlueSky, celebrating the Ws on climate no matter how small are essential to avoid despair, even if the line between optimism and delusion is a fine one.
Another take on this might be the old-fashioned term “hope”. Which isn’t a passive wish but a serious discipline, some would argue.
So I thought this is a perfect moment to bring you a conversation with Dr. Lorna Gold.
Lorna is the executive director of the Laudato Sì Movement, which was inspired by the late Pope Francis’ 2015 letter. That document, considered pretty radical for the leader of the Catholic Church to issue at the time, was credited by former Irish president Mary Robinson and others with influencing the Paris Agreement - and you can hear echoes of it as recently as the advisory opinion issued this summer by the International Court of Justice.
On its 10th anniversary, Francis’ successor Pope Leo will lead the Raising Hope Conference, 1-3 October in Rome - but also available via livestream - talking about the relevance of its ideas for the situation we’re in now. More than a “Catholic” thing, it will feature people as diverse as Brazil’s climate minister Marina Silva (in the runup to COP30), climate scientist Dr.
, , Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tuvalu climate minister Dr Maina Talia, Bianca Pitt of SHE Changes Climate, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty president Kumi Naidoo, and more.Somehow, Lorna was able to take a break from organising the event to speak to us.
Lorna earned a PhD in economic geography from Glasgow University before becoming a policy analyst working on climate at the Irish NGO Trócaire. In her 2019 book, Climate Generation: Awakening to our Childrens’ Future, she recounts a moment when - launching a report on climate impacts more than a decade ago at the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont - it really hit her that all children, including her own, were being condemned to a much worse future. And she decided to fight.
It’s a great chat and we think you’ll enjoy it. We get into:
In This Conversation
01:22 Introduction to Dr. Lorna Gold
02:21 Personal Tragedy and Resilience
05:29 Hope vs. Optimism
09:17 Relevance of Laudato Si'
13:01 International Court of Justice Ruling
15:21 Economic Systems and Climate Action
21:51 Pope Francis, Pope Leo and COP 30
22:31 Upcoming Conference and Call to Action
24:25 Personal Reflection on Climate Impact
27:56 Discussing Future Conversations
28:40 Mother's Role in Climate Action
29:39 Women of Faith for Climate Justice
31:37 The Raging Grannies and Activism
33:12 The Sharing Economy and Climate Generation
34:42 Sufficiency and Economic Inequality
41:17 The Role of Storytelling in Climate Education
44:34 Hope and Action in Climate Movements
47:31 Pope or Nope Quiz
On that last part, we thought the ICJ Opinion and Laudato Sì sounded so similar we put it to the test to see if Lorna could tell the difference.
Exit Music
In honour of the Raging Grannies activists Lorna wrote about and we discussed, today’s outro is from the legendary Bill Withers:
Check out all our Outros on Spotify:
Tomorrow we’re headed out to the Make Them Pay demo in London, bringing together a coalition of groups fighting for climate, workers, migrants, and more, including faith groups.
We’ll be back with reporting on that and - it has been a while - some catching up on tech stories that also offer a bit of hope.
