This summer, the United States has faced severe weather events including torrential rains devastating Texas neighborhoods, widespread dangerous heat, and smoke from Canadian wildfires reaching as far as Florida. Research indicates that global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of such major weather events.

Despite this, the climate crisis has largely faded from the political agenda, with many Democrats who previously called it an existential threat now avoiding the topic—a trend activists call “climate hushing.”

In response, the environmental advocacy coalition Climate Action Campaign is organizing demonstrations across at least 20 states during the House and Senate recess periods over the next month. These events will involve local chapters of the Sierra Club, the senior citizen-led climate group Third Act founded by Bill McKibben, and affiliates of the NAACP.

Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, stated, “It’s the broadest brush that we are working with. The message is, talk about climate, climate can’t wait, and we want to see action.” Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, emphasized the importance of grassroots pressure, saying, “The long history of the climate movement proves that we move fastest when there’s real pressure from the grassroots. All the evidence shows those grassroots are as worried about [the] climate crisis as they ever were.”

Activists are also circulating petitions urging House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to prioritize climate issues and link the climate crisis to recent heatwaves. Alt described climate-hushing as “the climate denial of 2026.”