Using comedy to combat climate change

The Climate Comedy Cohort aims to help comedians infuse climate activism into their creative work.

A car pulls up to a street corner, and a young, bearded man hops in the passenger seat, only to come face to face with a weathered and bald future version of himself.


The two have an offbeat, funny conversation that veers from their shared dream of marrying Taylor Swift and the pronunciation of the word “Worcestershire” to the power of hope in the face of climate change and the benefits of electric vehicles.

No, it’s not a fever dream—it’s a sketch comedy video produced by Esteban Gast, the comedian in residence for Generation180, a clean energy nonprofit. Gast, along with Generation180 and the American University-based Center for Media and Social Impact, has created a new project to help comedians become climate ambassadors through their craft.

The project is a response to growing research and understanding about how comedy, even about topics as serious as climate change, can be an important avenue for activism.

Comedy meets science 

This isn’t the first time comedy has been used as a tool to engage people in climate conversations — last September, seven popular late-night hosts dedicated one night of their shows, dubbed “Climate Night,” to covering climate stories. The jokes ranged in accuracy and effectiveness, highlighting the need for more, and more responsible, climate comedy.

Toward that end, the Climate Comedy Cohort aims to put established comedians into conversation with climate experts and scientists — the “serious people,” said Caty Borum, executive director of the Center for Media and Social Impact. In this first year, nine comedians will spend six weeks in workshops and conversations with prominent voices in the climate movement, such as Dyanna Jaye, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement and Niklas Hagelberg, an environmental expert at the United Nations.

Learning about climate science from these experts, Borum told EHN, will help comedians infuse accurate climate science into their creative work — after all, comedians work by taking cues from the world around them. This kind of crosstalk rarely happens between the activist world and the world of comedy. “It's kind of an amazing experience that no one has really had in comedy,” Borum said.

At the end of the six-weeks, the fellows will pitch their comedy ideas and design sketches and standup comedy shows that will tour the country this coming fall.

Solutions and sustaining social movements

Comedy can be a valuable tool for social change, said Gast and Borum. Research has shown that the public is more likely to take action on an issue if they feel like their actions can make a difference. Comedy can do that by changing a typically gloomy narrative into a hopeful one, helping the audience understand that solutions are possible. For example, in Gast’s sketch, his older self assures him that, while the future is different, humans found a way to live sustainably.

If comedians decide to talk about tangible solutions in their work, Gast said, they can inform people about tangible ways society can move toward a sustainable future. “We're not just going to talk about hope or solutions because we're naive but because there actually are [solutions].”

Comedy is also a way to “sustain” social movements that might otherwise become overwhelmed with anger or hopelessness, Lauren Feldman, a professor of media studies at Rutgers University who studies the role of comedy in social movements, told EHN. Additionally, she said, comedy can be disarming, making divisive topics like climate change more accessible to people who might not otherwise want to pay attention.

The purpose, said Gast, is not to turn comedians into activists, but to help them make responsible and accessible creative work that includes climate change as a topic. “They are not going to be ‘climate change comedians,’” said Gast. “They're going to do their set. And if they do an hour, maybe seven minutes or maybe one bit is [about climate change].”

Comedy as a communication tool 

Another goal of the program is to instill curiosity in climate experts to learn how to use comedy as an effective communication tool. “If serious advocates in climate start to really take comedians seriously and invite them into [climate activism], that can be really powerful over time,” she said.

Comedians, said Gast, have an appetite for creating comedy about current issues facing society. “The climate crisis is going to be more and more and more relevant, right?” he said. At a certain point, comedian or not, “we're all gonna have to talk about it.”

climate desantis politics
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

DeSantis dismisses climate change, calling it ‘politicisation of weather’

Ron DeSantis began a whirlwind media tour around the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign with an interview on Fox News on Wednesday evening when the governor outlined his misconceptions about climate change.

Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.

Is Sadiq Khan really taking air pollution seriously?

London is killing us. That’s the conclusion of Sadiq Khan’s alarming new book, Breathe: Tackling the Climate Emergency, which he publicised last night at a 90-minute event held in the Royal Festival Hall.

connecticut transportation climate pollution
Photo by Derek Story on Unsplash

Zoning slows efforts to cut transportation pollution

Connecticut won’t achieve its 2030 climate targets if it leans on electric vehicles alone to lower transportation emissions. The state also needs to convince residents to drive less.

Clean energy experts are stretched too thin

“Stakeholder fatigue” threatens to tap the brakes on policy progress as many states move fast on decarbonization.

false spring climate impacts
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Gardeners beware: Climate change is setting a trap for you

More crop-killing “false springs” are bedeviling gardeners and farmers alike
washington heat pumps climate
Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash

Washington state hits the brakes on landmark gas ban

Washington state building code officials voted Wednesday to delay the first statewide mandate for electric heat pumps in new buildings, dealing a blow to a landmark restriction on natural gas.

The surprising reason Coca-Cola is struggling to slash its carbon emissions

Coca-Cola has made huge strides in lowering its carbon footprint, but its biggest contribution to climate change is all of its branded refrigerators.
From our Newsroom
halliburton fracking

How the “Halliburton Loophole” lets fracking companies pollute water with no oversight

Fracking companies used 282 million pounds of hazardous chemicals that should have been regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act from 2014 to 2021.

President Joe Biden climate change

Op-ed: Biden’s Arctic drilling go-ahead illustrates the limits of democratic problem solving

President Biden continues to deploy conventional tactics against the highly unconventional threat of climate change.

oil and gas wells pollution

What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt?

Diversified Energy’s liabilities exceed its assets, according to a new report, sparking concerns about whether taxpayers will wind up paying to plug its 70,000 wells.

Paul Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich: A journey through science and politics

In his new book, the famous scientist reflects on an unparalleled career on our fascinating, ever-changing planet.

oil and gas california environmental justice

Will California’s new oil and gas laws protect people from toxic pollution?

California will soon have the largest oil drilling setbacks in the U.S. Experts say other states can learn from this move.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.