Charting a New Course With Rupert Read

This episode features a conversation with Rupert Read, co-director of The Climate Majority Project. It was recorded in March 2025.

Rupert is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, a former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, and at the Climate Majority Project, works to build a mass, moderate climate movement by supporting community-led adaptation, democratic participation, and practical climate action across the UK. 

He’s the author of several influential books on climate and society, and is a frequent commentator on the likes of the BBC, Al Jazeera, and other major platforms.

His latest book, Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible, argues that we are now beyond the safe climate threshold and must bring adaptation to the cenre of our response — not as retreat, but as an opportunity for deep change. 

Transformative Adaptation offers a framework for reimagining how we live, work, and govern in the face of climate impacts. It champions localism, community resilience, and working with nature, while challenging dominant systems that are no longer fit for purpose.

Amongst other things, Rupert and I discussed how communicators can help audiences meet the realities of our current predicament with active hope and a sense of agency, which actions and interventions need to be taken and how we can support them, and what the concept of “thrutopia” offers for imagining what it all might look like.

Additional links:

Get Rupert’s book Transformative Adaptation: A new world is still just possible

Check out Rupert’s website

The Climate Majority Project website

Some words from Rupert on Thrutopia

Article with Caroline Lucas about climate populism