Climate Fundraising Update: Hope amid Doom

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 19, 2025

“Climate activists are in denial. A great reset is underway…. But are they willing to emotionally reject their prior thinking for cause?”

It’s a funny, scary time in the climate alarmist camp. Once-favorable economic and political trends are going the other way in the U.S. and increasingly in the world. What to do? Literally thousands of climate-issue employees (grifters?) need to find alternative employment, almost all in net-positive (CO2) industries where value is being created rather than redistributed and lost. Big Money Green will keep priming the pump for many, however, so a base of false-green advocacy will remain.

Scaleback

In 2024 (Google summary):

• Breakthrough Energy, the climate group funded by Bill Gates, laid off all of its US public policy team and its entire European staff. This decision was seen as a major retreat from public policy advocacy in a shifting political landscape.
• Rewiring America, a nonprofit focused on housing electrification, announced layoffs after its grant funds were frozen by the EPA.
• The Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs also announced layoffs, citing a decline in grants, which they linked partly to Bill Gates’ foundation pulling back on funding for policy-focused organizations. 

And in 2025, Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund halted funding, while 350.org suspended programming in the U.S. and cut back worldwide. Greenpeace USA might be next.

Grist Appeal

At Grist, a fundraising appeal begins with weather-climate Doomism followed by this:

But the truth is more complicated — and in some places, more hopeful. As our recent story highlights, positive tipping points are happening all around us. Cities are rapidly shifting to clean energy. E-bikes are outpacing gas-powered vehicles in some regions. Nations are hitting milestones in renewable power that once seemed impossible.

These are turning points that matter — and they deserve to be reported with clarity, context, and depth.

At Grist, that’s exactly what we do. We shine a light on the progress unfolding across communities and hold power to account when that progress is obstructed. We report on the breakthroughs not to distract from the urgency of the crisis, but to show what real, durable change looks like.

NRDC Misinformation

Pure misinformation is also being peddled to keep the faithful from bailing. National Resources Defense Council (Manish Bapna) reported from COP30:

… after everything that has happened in 2025, including the Trump Administration slamming the brakes on clean energy and climate action… what is the mood? … Yet the mood is not one of despair. The urgency is real, but so is the determination. New leaders are stepping up, and the global community continues to move forward. I am hopeful, and so are most of my colleagues. This is not only because I believe in humanity’s ability to rise to the occasion, although I do. It is also because the numbers tell a clear story. Clean energy is winning on economics.

I commented:

“Clean energy is winning on economics.” Bunk. The heralded ‘energy transition’ is really ‘energy duplication’ inflating rates. Repeal the IRA, ITC, and PTC immediately to get your verdict–and spare the living space of wind, solar, and battery industrialization (and duplication).

Final Comment

Climate activists are in denial. A great reset is underway despite tons of money and legions of soldiers for their public-rejected cause. I have challenged the Climate Industrial Complex, the Church of Climate, to open their minds to reject the industrialization of wind/solar/batteries and accept the benefits of CO2 growth (global greening) and fossil fuels (human betterment, adaptation). But are they willing to emotionally reject their prior thinking for cause?