Jane Fonda has two Best Actress Oscars (and five more nominations) to her name, but over the past five-plus decades, the Hollywood icon, 86, has become far better known — and sometimes excoriated — for her political activism. She’s protested the Vietnam War, fundraised for the Black Panthers, and stood with Native Americans fighting to reclaim their land. She’s condemned violence against women and advocated for reproductive rights. She’s been jailed, spat on, and cursed at. And she’s been undeterred. These days, it’s the climate crisis that consumes her. In 2019, Fonda co-founded Fire Drill Fridays, a recurring climate protest in Washington, D.C. (She was arrested five times during those actions.) In 2022, she founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC to fund state and local candidates who refuse to accept money from fossil-fuel companies.
As the November election approaches, she views the problem with growing urgency. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are “worried” about the climate, Fonda notes, but they don’t always bring that concern to the ballot box. “I’m trying to encourage people to vote with climate in mind,” she says. “There are enough of us that if we band together, we can win.”
How do you see the upcoming election dictating how the United States approaches climate change?
November’s election is an existential election, because who becomes president is going to be a big determining factor on whether there’s a livable future. [But] down-ballot — city council, state legislators, boards of supervisors, mayors — is where the robust work on climate is happening. In California, there are so many empty state legislative seats. We have to be sure that we fill those with climate champions.
If Trump is reelected, he is likely to pull out of the Paris Agreement again, and he has said he’s going to “drill, baby, drill” on Day One. President Biden, meanwhile, has signed the Inflation Reduction Act — touted as the government’s largest investment in renewable energy — into law, but many say he hasn’t done enough.
Here’s the thing: Biden provides us with terrain on which we can fight. This is a man who can be pressured. We can make him do more. The other guy, there’s no making him do more. He’s going in the other direction.
Voting for somebody isn’t marrying them. It’s not even going on a date. It’s a pragmatic decision. When you consider the stakes … nobody’s perfect — no candidate, no marital partner. But we are on the precipice and time is running out. We have to elect people who will stand up to this issue.
You’ve urged political candidates to bring fearless ideas to the table. What are examples of approaches to climate issues that you support?
The majority of the problem in terms of the climate is caused by burning fossil fuels: oil, gas, and coal. That’s at the root of it. Candidates must understand this and must have a plan for what to do about it — and they have to have the guts to make it work, to enact it.
That can be Dana Nessel, Michigan attorney general; chief executive in Harris County, Texas, Lina Hidalgo; land commissioner in New Mexico, Stephanie Garcia Richard — these people all have climate plans. They all come from oil-producing states. They all have to be able to thread the needle. So, you have to find somebody that’s smart and brave, and that will stand up to fossil fuels.
How do you feel about RFK Jr., who was once a leading environmental lawyer, is now one of the loudest conspiracy theorists in the nation, and whose third-party candidacy could boost Trump in the polls?
Perplexed. He has been a friend of mine. I really respect what he’s done for rivers and waterways in the U.S., but I was just watching TV before you called and he was saying that prosecutors [in the Jan. 6 case] maybe pushed too far for political reasons, and we have to take another look. It’s just so disturbing. I don’t get it. But this is no time for [people to cast] a protest vote [for him]. We have to face the facts. A third-party candidate is not going to win, and we cannot go there.
You often call the climate crisis a health crisis. Can you elaborate?
The fossil-fuel industry is a wounded beast right now. Fossil fuels are on their way out, and so [those corporations] are poking holes all over the place as fast as they can to try to get the last drop of gas or oil to ratchet up profits. It’s really dangerous. This isn’t just happening in California. I’ve seen it all over. We have to stop them. Asthma and cancer and strokes are on the rise. We are breathing in fossil fuel and other chemicals all the time. It is a health crisis.
For individuals who want to help make a significant change in the climate movement, what is the best way forward?
If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. Join an organization, join a protest. You’ll make good friends who share your values. I went from a hedonistic, meaningless life to becoming an activist in 1970. And it was meeting new friends that really did it for me. I thought, “Oh, my God, I’ve never met people like this before. They’re living for something bigger than themselves. They could be running corporations, they could be going for money, but they’re not — they’re going to make the world better.” It was like looking through a keyhole of the world that we were trying to create. Fundamentally, we all want our lives to have meaning, right? I know what it feels like to not have meaning, and I know what it feels like to suddenly begin a life where you know why you’re here.
What issues are you tackling next?
Honey, what I’m doing now is what I’m going to do till I die. I can’t think about anything else. I go to sleep on it. I’ll wake up thinking about it. Because, you know, if we started doing everything correctly right now, my four-year-old grandson would be living in a pretty cool world in 25 years. Now that’s worth fighting for.