Jane Fonda on Kamala, Taylor, and Our Existential Climate Crisis

The climate crisis has been keeping Jane Fonda up at night. “I was so angry, it was hard to go to sleep,” she says. “We are being killed with cancer, heart diseases, because of the burning of fossil fuel,” Fonda presses. “We have the solution to the climate crisis, why don’t we employ it, instead of allowing a bunch of rich people to destroy everything that’s been created by humankind? We’ve got to rise up.”

It’s early September and we’re sitting in a sunny Los Angeles living room. Outside, everything appears as if it’s business as usual: traffic humming, glossy palms swaying, and Hollywood Boulevard swelling with tourists. Speaking with Fonda just a day after the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, however, it’s clearer than ever that the country is hurtling toward a seismic change.

Fonda, who has been an activist for over 50 years, beginning with her controversial opposition to the Vietnam War, has often called the 2024 election an “existential” one. It’s the first time she has actively endorsed a candidate, first with President Joe Biden. After he dropped out of the race, Fonda was one of the first leaders in Hollywood to support Harris.

She lays out the stakes in November with a candid urgency, drawing a clear distinction between Harris and Trump’s climate and energy policies. “Every candidate has issues. Nobody’s perfect, but the Harris-Walz ticket is the ticket that will allow us to fight, to get the solutions that climate scientists are saying we need,” she says. “They give us a chance, at least, to fight. They give us a platform on which we can try to pressure.”

The alternative, Fonda points out, is a man who “invited all the CEOs of the fossil fuel industry to Mar-a-Lago” and promised to “drill, baby, drill” and slash environmental regulations in exchange for raising $1 billion to help him win back the White House. “We don’t have four years to lose. We can’t afford to allow him to be elected.”

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When discussing young voters disillusioned with Biden’s and Harris’ handling of U.S. policy amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Fonda says, “I understand why young people are so upset, but to sit this out or to vote for a third party candidate, is to allow fascism.”

“That will elect somebody who will deny you any voice in the future of the United States,” she continues. “Vote for a voice if you really care about Gaza, vote to have a voice so that you can do something about it, and then be ready to turn out into the streets by the millions and fight for it… If the young people stay home, we’re going to lose. They have such power. So show us your power. Vote and then fight.”

With election month less than two months away, artists across the music and entertainment industries have used their voices in an effort to impact America’s future. Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel shortly after the debate and Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris, Fonda celebrated the news on television. “I think she’s awesome. She’s amazing and very smart, and I’m very grateful and excited that she did it,” says Fonda. “I think it’s going to have a big impact.”

When reflecting on her own choice to use her celebrity to garner attention to the climate fight, Fonda quips, “What other way would there be to spend it?”

Fonda has long emphasized the potency for civil disobedience to create systemic change. The two-time Academy award-winning actress co-founded Fire Drill Fridays in 2019, a recurring climate protest in Washington, D.C., during which she was arrested five times. She later founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC in 2022 to financially back “climate champions” at the state and local level. “That’s where the really robust work is being done on climate right now — mayors, city council, state legislators, county executives,” Fonda points out. “It’s incredible how much effect people in these positions can have on climate. We have well over 100 candidates all over the country.”

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“This is a collective crisis, and it requires a collective solution,” says Fonda. “[Trump] wants to do away with all regulations and open up the floodgates for the fossil fuel industry and the nuclear industry. So the choice is very clear, do we vote for the future, or do we vote for burning up the planet?”

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While Fonda has called her activism in the climate fight all-consuming, she underlines that the work is to ensure a healthier planet for future generations. “When you’re on your deathbed, you want to feel that it’s been worthwhile,” she says. “You want people who love you around you, which means you have to deserve their love. And you want to feel that you’ve had meaning in your life. And for the first time, I felt my life has value.”

Fonda’s remarks came in a wide-ranging interview organized by the global media collaborative Covering Climate Now and conducted by the Guardian, CBS News, and Rolling Stone magazine.