Speaking during a recent event with college students at the University of Southern California Annenberg, actress Jane Fonda, known for her protesting and infamous visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam War and for recent climate activism, alleged that the “climate crisis” is the result of “racism, misogyny and patriarchy.” Her comments came as part of her speech on climate activism.
In her speech, Fonda spoke fondly about getting arrested during a 2019 “Fire Drill Friday” climate protest in Washington, D.C., during which protesters chanted in favor of the Green New Deal and about climate change, attempting to draw legislative interest in climate change policies.
Speaking about the event and how she was arrested around her birthday, then going on to say it was “great” because many of the protesters had never been arrested before, Fonda told the USC Annenberg students, “I turned 82 in jail. What was so great is that most of the people that came had never been to a rally before and never gotten arrested before.”
During the speech, Fond also apologized to the young college students for what she sees as being the potentially devastating effects of climate change, telling them, “I’m sorry that we’ve created this issue for you.” Continuing, she claimed continued activism could help rectify the situation, saying, “But we can overcome it if we work fast and create awareness.”
Then she got to the part about the “climate crisis” being the result of “racism” and “misogyny,” telling the USC Annenberg students, “We have to change people. The climate crisis is a manifestation of racism, misogyny and patriarchy. It’s a mindset. When we confront the fossil fuel industry, we have to work on our mindsets.”
Turning to tactics, Fonda told the gathered crowd that protest stories should be calculated to pull on people’s emotions, saying, “It’s how you make them feel. Stories are the best way to make people feel furious, sad, angry, whatever.”
At the 2019 protest in which she was arrested, Fonda said, “Efforts to turn back climate change can be exponentially enhanced if the needs and priorities of women were addressed.” She continued, “This is why the Green New Deal calls for inclusive representation of women in political and economic decision making around environmental and climate policies. Women bear the brunt and women hold many of the solutions to the climate crisis.” Watch Fonda’s 2019 Fire Drill Friday arrest here:
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This wasn’t the first time Fonda blamed the climate situation on climate change. In 2023, she said, “Well, you know, you can take anything — sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, whatever, the war.” She continued, “And if you really get into it, and study it and learn about it and the history of it, everything’s connected. There’d be no climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism.”
Asked to explain, she said, “Where would they put the sh—? Where would they put the poison and the pollution?” She continued, “They’re not gonna put it in Bel Air. They’ve got to find someplace where poor people or indigenous people or people of color are living.” She added, “Put it there. They can’t fight back. And that’s why a big part of the climate movement now has to do with climate justice.”
Featured image credit: By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9071701