Author seeks reckoning with climate change complicity

After being a longtime participant in the environmental movement, climate activist Auden Schendler says he began to realize the shortcomings in its effort to combat climate change. His new book, “Terrible Beauty: A Reckoning With Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul,” dives into failures of the modern environmental movement and advocates for a paradigm shift.

Schendler will host a conversation and book sale on Tuesday at the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum.

“‘Terrible Beauty’ captures a painful duality in its title,” he said in an interview with the Express. “The things we hold most dear—our families, communities and the natural world—are directly threatened by climate change. It’s the idea that everything we love is at risk—our kids, our family, our community, the natural world—it’s all in danger.”

Schendler emphasized that climate change isn’t just an environmental crisis, it’s a human crisis. He said this existential threat isn’t just about statistics or rising temperatures—it’s about the erosion of human joy, culture and connection.

“What you’re faced with if you allow climate change to continue is simply a loss of joy and human thriving,” he said. “Culture, sports, music, poetry—these are the first things to disappear when survival takes precedence.”

Schendler said his career in sustainability led him to an unsettling realization: Much of environmentalism plays directly into the hands of the fossil fuel industry.

“I was riding my bike one day and thinking about all the things conventional environmentalism tells you to do—measure your carbon footprint, set targets and buy offsets,” he said. “And then I thought, if I were the fossil fuel industry, what would I want people to do to make it look like they’re acting on climate, without actually threatening the system? The answer was exactly that.”

Schendler said the traditional sustainability movement focuses on individual and corporate actions that don’t disrupt the fossil fuel economy.

“We’ve been complicit,” he said. “We’ve changed our homes, our businesses, our operations, but we haven’t changed the system.”

Schendler believes rebuilding the movement from the ground up starts with reframing it.

“We need to ask, ‘What if we really cared?’ And how does change happen in society?” he said. “It happens when large movements of people force elected officials to govern differently. You don’t need 50% of the population—under 10% mobilized can drive real change.”

He hopes environmentalism will shift from individual guilt to collective power.

“We need to stop blaming ourselves for our carbon footprints and instead focus on political action,” he said. “You have to get dangerous. Build social movements, influence elected officials, write op-eds, take out ads demanding action. That’s how change happens.”

Schendler said protecting American democracy is fundamental to solving climate change.

“You can’t solve climate without functional governance,” he said. “If we had a democracy where everyone voted, we could solve this.”

Yet, voter apathy remains a major roadblock, he said.

“Americans say they care about family, community and nature, but many don’t vote, even when all those things are at risk,” he said.

Schendler’s book is, in part, a plea to recognize how much could be lost and to channel that fear into action.

Many feel paralyzed by the climate crisis and are unsure where to start. Schendler offered simple advice: “Get a six-pack, gather your five best friends and ask, ‘Where is our power? If we truly cared, what would we do?’”

He pointed to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as an example of individual power turned into a movement.

“She was just a high school kid who decided to sit in one place,” he said. “And she changed the world.”

Schendler acknowledged that civic engagement isn’t easy.

“You have to talk to people. Go to town council meetings. Call your elected officials. Participate in democracy,” he said. “We’ve forgotten what it means to be citizens, but that’s the only way we change things.”

Schendler said that he hopes those who attend his talk or read his book walk away with one key message: Solving climate change isn’t just a crisis, it’s an opportunity.

“This is the greatest chance humanity has ever had,” he said. “It’s a chance to live a dignified, graceful life, and to treat others the way we’d like to be treated. That’s all humans have ever aspired to do, and we can achieve it by acting on climate change.”

Schendler’s talk will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Limelight Hotel’s Silver Creek Room. Doors open at 5 p.m. for book sales, drinks and mingling. The event is free and open to the public.