The new Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities series, Climate Change Conversations: Taking Action against Shock, Silence, and Stupidity, aims to re-energize interdisciplinary conversations at Columbia about the climate emergency, at a moment when confronting the urgent and ever-growing challenges posed by global warming feels extraordinarily difficult. In the context of diminished funding for climate science and other federal actions that aim to roll back or obstruct climate action, it’s easy to be shocked into silence and despair, or to be burned-out to the point of wondering, what’s the point?

In this difficult moment, what are we not talking about, and why? Given the scientific consensus about human-caused climate change, this war on climate action seems, at best, extraordinarily stupid. How can we counter arguments that climate concern is “woke” or that climate action is “radical” or economically harmful? What can we learn from previous environmental setbacks? How can we reckon with climate change without being overwhelmed by climate anxiety? What modes of intelligence—in the university and beyond—can help us to counter these tendencies toward silence, stupidity, and despair? How can we forge a new common sense about the necessity and possibility of climate action?

Climate Change Conversations is spearheaded by Faculty Director and Governing Board Chair Jennifer A Wenzel.

All events take place at the Heyman Center Second Floor Common Room.

Full Roster of Events

Climate and the Economy
February 24, 2026 | 4:15PM
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Climate Justice Now Round Table
March 5, 2026 | 4:15PM
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Climate Re-Imaginaries
March 31, 2026 | 4:15PM
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Climate Impacts of AI: Alternatives to Techno-Utopianism and Doom
April 21, 2026 | 4:15PM
Read more and register here