'I was slipping into despair': Jane Fonda finds hope, purpose in climate change activism

Jane Fonda’s 82nd birthday party was a doozy.

The Oscar-winning actress spent the special day in December with some of her celebrity friends: Rosanna Arquette, Gloria Steinem and Casey Wilson were all there. Hundreds of other new friends showed up, too, waving signs and chanting, “We love you!” Fonda smiled and waved, wearing a fetching fire-engine-red coat.

Then, the best part: She got arrested.

In her new book, “What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action,” out Tuesday, Fonda calls her day in police detention the “best birthday party ever.”

It was all part of the plan for that very special Fire Drill Friday. Fonda had launched the initiative in October with Greenpeace and other environmental activism allies to protest every Friday in the streets of the nation's capital. Those protests would culminate in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. Many people, including celebrities, were arrested, to draw attention to the climate crisis.

Her birthday Fire Drill Friday arrest was Fonda’s fifth. On another occasion, she used her detainment to get in a quick workout.

“I did wall squats for a while, meditated, and eventually was able to sleep using a sweater as a pillow and my red coat both to soften the metal under me and as a cover,” Fonda writes.

Fonda is using the full force of her considerable celebrity to help execute a relentless public pressure campaign to raise awareness – and ultimately, she hopes, pressure Congress into passing the Green New Deal, a sweeping climate change proposal that seeks to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

“I was slipping into despair before I went to D.C. I spent a year depressed about climate change and feeling I wasn’t doing enough,” Fonda tells USA TODAY. “Once I went to D.C. and began that action, my despondency disappeared.”

She’s hoping her book can help pull others out of their climate despair and start putting in the work to save the planet. “What Can I Do?” isn’t a rhetorical question – Fonda details her journey as a climate change activist and charts a course for readers out of climate despair.

Here's what else Fonda has to say about the climate crisis, the importance of organized activism, the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

Giving up is not an option

A committed activist for most of her adult life, Fonda has long stood up to forces bigger than herself and held her ground (including, but not limited to, the United States government). She’s opposed the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, supported the civil rights and feminist movements and fought for Native American land rights.

Still, the generally unflappable Fonda despaired when confronted with the gravity of the climate crisis.

“I would wonder if perhaps humankind deserved the fate it had created,” Fonda writes. “Just get rid of us Homo sapiens ASAP and things will restore themselves.”

A mother and grandmother, Fonda knew that wasn’t an option.

“I knew this fatalist thinking was a cop-out, and I didn’t like myself for it,” she writes. What helped convince Fonda to fight for change was actually listening to what climate scientists were saying.

“The scientists are very clear: We have to cut our fossil fuel emissions in half by 2030,” Fonda says. “They say we have the technology to do it, we have the money to do it, we have everything we need to do it except enough people to force the government to actually do it.”

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Hence Fire Drill Fridays. Fonda doesn’t have the power to single-handedly lower global temperatures, but she does have the power of celebrity. With it, she can draw attention to the cause and help to build a nonviolent army that may someday be big enough and loud enough to compel the government to take action.

She’s drawing other celebrities to the cause, too, including some rather unlikely ones. Sam Waterston, her co-star on the popular Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” and a self-described moderate, is nearly 80 and wasn't exactly a rabble-rouser – at least not until he joined Fonda at a Fire Drill Friday protest. Two weeks later, he was sending Fonda pictures of himself in handcuffs again – this time on the playing field at a Harvard-Yale game in support of students demanding their universities divest from fossil fuels.

Fonda says, “He was holding up his handcuffed hands saying, ‘Look what you started!’”

COVID-19 is an omen

As with so many other things – school, work, major political conventions – the coronavirus pandemic has forced Fire Drill Fridays to go virtual. Each week, Fonda hosts Fireside Friday Drills, conducting video chats with prominent political, social and activist figures. There are also teach-ins with scientists, professors and other experts, and virtual rallies to help keep up the energy of the virtual volunteer army. Fonda says a recent Friday saw 600,000 people following across all platforms.

But while the pandemic didn’t kill the movement, Fonda sees it as a harbinger – and argues that climate change is partially responsible.

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“Pandemics are becoming more and more frequent, and that itself is connected to the climate crisis,” Fonda says. As climate change warms weather and shortens winters, Fonda says, disease-carrying animals and insects begin to move into new areas. Cutting down forests releases bats and other animals into populated areas, possibly carrying diseases that humans aren't immune to. Melting permafrost in the Arctic could release pathogens.

“What we learned from (COVID-19) is the importance of having a robust federal government, that it be prepared, and that it listen to the experts, the scientists,” Fonda says. “I think people really realize with COVID how non-resilient the United States is in the face of increasingly extreme weather events. We are not ready.”

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The 2020 election is a moment of truth

Fonda is critical of President Donald Trump’s administration and its record on climate change. When asked whether she sees the coming election as a do-or-die moment for climate reform, Fonda doesn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she says emphatically.

“Maybe a whole lot of people, especially young people, were big supporters of Bernie Sanders, and they’re disappointed that he and his policies didn’t win,” Fonda says. “My message is: I’d rather push a moderate than fight a fascist.”

That “moderate” is Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, whose climate policies are less progressive than Sanders’. Fonda understands the disappointment young progressives in particular might feel, but still, she says they need to get out the vote for Biden this November.

“We’re not asking them to send him a valentine, we're not asking them to fall in love with him or date him,” Fonda says. “Come on, get over yourself, and get ready to fight the fight of your life.”

To get involved with Fire Drill Fridays, text JANE to 877-877, or visit firedrillfridays.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'What Can I Do?': Jane Fonda book has hope in climate change activism