Jane Fonda has opened up about the moment that climate anxiety left her bedridden—and the decision that shifted her from despair to determined activism.
The actor and lifelong campaigner appeared on the podcast On With Kara Swisher, where she discussed the psychological toll of the climate crisis, the origins of her Fire Drill Fridays protests, and why she believes global warming and rising authoritarianism are inseparable issues.
Fonda, 88, described a period during a Los Angeles heatwave when temperatures reached around 112 degrees Fahrenheit and wildfires turned the sky “brown, orange, apocalyptic.”
“I read that birds were falling dead out of the sky […] I went to bed, and it was hard to move. And then I said, ‘F*** it.” I said, “I’m going to make a difference,” Fonda added.
She said she decided she needed to channel her despair into action and contacted Annie Leonard of Greenpeace USA, telling her she wanted to come to Washington, D.C., make a difference and “raise a ruckus.”
According to the Grace and Frankie star, the pair went on to create Fire Drill Fridays, and she felt her depression lift almost immediately.
Fire Drill Fridays is a climate‑protest movement launched by Jane Fonda in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. It was inspired by Greta Thunberg’s warning that “our house is on fire,” as well as other civil‑rights protest traditions.
According to Fire Drill Fridays’ official site, Fonda moved to Washington, D.C., specifically to begin a series of peaceful, highly visible weekly protests aimed at forcing U.S. political leaders to treat climate change as an emergency.
Fonda has said she was motivated by the youth climate‑strike movement and by her belief that her platform wasn’t being used fully enough to push for climate action.
“I heard Greta Thunberg say, you know, everybody goes looking for hope. Look for action, and hope will come” Fonda added.
“Hope is very different from optimism. You know, optimism is everything’s going to be fine and you don’t do anything about it. Hope is a muscle. Hope is when you fight. Hope can be rage filled, breaking down the door with a battering ram,” she said.
She cited the playwright Václav Havel’s belief that hope is not tied to the likelihood of success but to the moral necessity of acting regardless of the outcome.
Fonda said she realized she had not been using her platform fully and made a firm decision to step up her climate activism, which restored her sense of purpose.
She added that working within a community has helped sustain that hope.
The Jane Fonda Climate PAC (also known as JanePAC) is a U.S. political action committee founded by Fonda in March 2022 to remove fossil‑fuel‑backed politicians from office and elect “climate champions” at the state and local level.
