Paloma JacomeKey Takeaways:
- Cancel culture is undermining climate progress. Jenny Morgan’s book Cancel Culture in Climate reveals how public shaming, purity tests, and division are slowing down a movement that can’t afford delay — replacing real solutions with silence and inaction.
- Accountability without exile. Instead of perfectionism and polarization, Jenny calls for an “altruistic climate movement” rooted in responsibility, transparency, and keeping people at the table long enough to change.
- Collaboration outperforms cancellation. From climate communicators to community builders, leaders across the movement echo the same truth: progress depends on cross-pollination, shared learning, and unity across sectors, identities, and ideologies.
- Imperfection is necessary for innovation. Whether it’s emerging climate tech, grassroots advocacy, or corporate sustainability, meaningful solutions require experimentation, iteration, and space for people and organizations to grow.
- **The only way forward is together. **As voices across the field remind us, climate action scales when we build trust, welcome diverse perspectives, blur boundaries, and center shared humanity. Division delays progress while collaboration accelerates it.
The climate crisis has never been more dire. And yet the movement built to fight it is losing momentum. No commitments are even close to being met. Instead of rallying together, we’re fighting amongst ourselves. A new obstacle has emerged: cancel culture within the climate community.
In her recent book Cancel Culture in Climate, author Jenny Morgan names a truth many have felt but few have said aloud: public shaming, purity tests, and tribalism are slowing down progress when we can least afford it. Cancel culture, she argues, “universally does not work… it is a fake resolution which simply results in more inaction and silence.”
Jenny will be joining us on our podcast* It Shouldn’t Be This Hard* just in time for NY Climate Week to elaborate on the book and her call for a new approach: accountability without exile, collaboration without perfectionism, and what she terms an altruistic climate movement.
And she’s not the only one who’s calling out call-out culture. Across the movement, leaders are echoing a common theme: collaboration over cancellation.
Voices from the Climate Movement
For Michael Braithwaite , Founder of Big Bite Communications, the sheer scale of the climate crisis makes siloed thinking impossible.
“The scale and complexity of our climate predicament doesn’t allow for a single right way, or for anyone to have the corner on imagination. This is a yes-and moment, a collective opportunity to rise to the challenge across industries, communities, and borders to shape a better future together. History shows what’s possible when we choose collaboration: the world came together to heal the ozone layer and to eradicate smallpox. We all have something to contribute to the multifaceted solution, and we can summon that collective power now.”
That spirit of inclusion is echoed by Lisa Siems , facilitator of Climate Curious in Portland, Oregon and advocate for the B Corp movement. After reading Morgan’s book, she was struck by the need to bridge divides rather than deepen them:
“Cancel Culture in Climate exposes corporate sustainability failures and shows how individuals and organizations can move beyond division to unite in the fight against climate change. As a facilitator of our Climate Curious, Hike & Chats in Portland, Oregon, a hiking networking group, which brings together people from diverse backgrounds interested in collaboration and climate action. I was drawn to the section of the book, where Jenny explores building an Altruistic Climate Movement. Our group Climate Curious, is currently exploring how to share our climate action stories more widely, including at local universities to support and inspire students to become forces for good in the climate movement. This book left me inspired to help bridge divides and amplify stories that can accelerate meaningful climate action.”
Cancel culture thrives on drawing lines. But Jason Grillo, Co-Founder of AirMiners Carbon Removal Community, points out that climate progress depends on blurring them:
“A strong community of fellow industry practitioners can accelerate progress beyond the ability of any one person or organization to achieve. Especially at an industry's early stages, everyone is in the same boat - experimenting with new technologies and business models, sharing information on best practices, and seeing people leave one company to join another that does roughly the same thing. There's a lot to be said for the cross-pollination of ideas across boundaries, geography, ideology, or demography. Being open to learning from others and contributing to that learning in kind has a multiplier effect that can be profoundly influential."
Movements scale when we share best practices, swap roles across organizations, and work together across ideologies. And as Kip Pastor , Founder & CEO of Pique Action , puts it:
“The most effective social movements don’t work because everyone agrees. They work because people with wildly different lives and fears come together anyway. Community and solidarity are how we move past division. Together is the only way through.”
How We Move Past Cancel Culture
Jenny Morgan offers a roadmap for shifting the climate movement from fracture to function. A few gems from her book:
- Choose accountability over exile. Hold people and companies responsible, but keep them at the table to change.
- Make space for imperfection. Progress dies on the altar of perfection. Start where you are, with what you have.
- Lead with altruism. Build a movement motivated by shared humanity, not ego or fear.
- Redefine success. Don’t chase flawless pledges, chase collective impact.
It’s a reframing that requires courage, empathy, and patience… but it’s the only way through.
A Grounded Perspective
At Grounded World, we’ve seen how fragile trust in sustainability has become. One misstep, and a brand can be crucified. One wrong phrase, and a professional can be sidelined.
But here’s the paradox: the climate movement needs more people trying, failing, and trying again. We need messy collaboration. We need experiments that don’t always work. We need to welcome more imperfect players onto the field, not fewer.
Because if we keep canceling each other, we’re just accelerating the very thing we’re trying to stop.
Author:
Paloma Jacome
linkedin Paloma Jacome is content lead and Junior Strategist at Grounded. With over 8 years of experience at the intersection of business and sustainability, she has launched and led multiple ventures —including ECOAVSOLUTIONS, local sustainable audiovisual production company in Southern California— before bringing her entrepreneurial perspective to client work at Grounded. She holds a Bachelor’s in Entrepreneurship and a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation from Loyola Marymount University.
Paloma is also an active ambassador and city coordinator for the Los Angeles chapter of Top Tier Impact, organizing events that connect impact founders, investors, and sustainability professionals to collaborate on solving the most pressing challenges of our time.
As part of Grounded’s partnership with rePurpose Global, Paloma represented the agency in the Plastic Reality Project in India, an immersive program designed to experience the scale of plastic pollution firsthand and explore circular solutions addressing the crisis at its source. She is also recently certified in sustainability legislation and regulations for the fashion industry by the Sustainable Fashion School, strengthening her expertise in policy-driven transformation.
Paloma was a core co-author of Grounded’s debut white paper Policy to Profit: How New Rules Can Create Commercial Wins for Fashion—featured in Forbes—and continues to explore how circularity and regulation unlock commercial and societal value.
LinkedIn | paloma@grounded.world
