Climate change, ecological breakdown, mass suffering – the barrage of bad news about our environment is relentless.

This evokes powerful emotions: Anger, despair, powerlessness, depression. Millions suffer from a worldwide epidemic of ‘climate anxiety.’ The super-rich make preparations for apocalypse, unsettling the rest of us.

The situation seems so bad that most of us would prefer not to think about it.

But despair is demotivating. Given everything that we know about climate change, is it possible to feel hopeful about the future?

Is there a way off the path that we seem to be on? What can we do collectively to save ourselves? How do we feel hopeful and motivated about the future?

In an event designed to uplift, inspire and motivate, award-winning Belfast-born environmentalist Adam McGibbon will introduce the following panel of experts, writers and scientists to discuss whether there’s hope to be found in a time of climate crisis.

Kendra Pierre-Louis is an award-winning climate reporter whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Popular Science and the Gimlet/Spotify podcast How to Save a Planet. She is also the author of the book, “Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet.”

Jacquelyn Gill is a climate scientist, currently an Associate Professor of Paleoecology & Plant Ecology at the University of Maine. She hosts the climate podcast Warm Regards and has written extensively on climate hope. In 2017 she organized the March for Science in response to the election of Donald Trump, which resulted in 600 demonstrations on April 22, 2017 (Earth Day).

Assaad W. Razzouk is a clean energy entrepreneur, author and broadcaster. He co-founded and runs a clean energy company financing, building and operating renewable energy projects in Asia. He is the author of the book “Saving the Climate Without the Bullshit”. He is also a Board member of ClientEarth, the environmental charity using the power of the law to protect people and planet.

Adam McGibbon (Moderator) is an award-winning activist originally from Belfast. He has led campaigns that have derailed university fee increases, shut down government fossil fuel financing and elected climate-friendly politicians in the UK and Ireland. He is currently a Campaign Strategist with the climate group Oil Change International. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The New Statesman and elsewhere.