Genevieve Guenther

Genevieve Juliette Guenther is an American author and climate change activist. A former Renaissance scholar, she is the founding director of the media watchdog organization End Climate Silence. She is currently affiliate faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. Her next book, The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Early life and education
Guenther received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004, in Renaissance literature.

Literature
Guenther started her career as a tenure-track English professor at the University of Rochester. Her book, "Magical Imaginations," analyzed works by Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.

Climate-Related Work
Guenther has written articles about the language of climate change, media coverage of climate change, and the cultural aspects of the climate crisis (see Bibliography below for examples).

In 2018 she founded the volunteer organization End Climate Silence, which advocates for increased coverage of climate change in news media,      and has been cited as an "incredibly effective advocate for persuading journalists to include the climate emergency in their stories." The group's advisory board is Brad Johnson, Michael Mann, Peter Kalmus, and Margaret Klein Salamon.

Her work has been noted for her criticism of fossil fuel funding for university research, as well as her criticism of discussions (such as What If We Stopped Pretending?) that frame climate change as an "apocalypse" that "we can't prevent". Guenther has noted that technologies are available, at least in "research, development, and demonstration" phases, for decarbonizing the economy, "with the right policies." Guenther has also been noted for praising the movie Don't Look Up as being useful in raising "awareness about the terrifying urgency of the climate crisis."

Guenther has been an Expert Reviewer of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

Her next book, The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book a "revelatory study."

Media appearances
Guenther has been interviewed by a number of media outlets. In 2018 she appeared on the CNN show Reliable Sources. In 2019 she was interviewed by Brian Lehrer on "The Brian Lehrer Show," on WNYC public radio. In October 2020 her work was profiled in The New Yorker. In 2021 Guenther was interviewed on a climate-focused episode of The New York Times podcast, "The Argument."

Books

 * Magical Imaginations: Instrumental Aesthetics in the English Renaissance (2012) ISBN 978-1442642416