The American Assembly partners with Hothouse Solutions to promote climate action

Columbia University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE) and The American Assembly have partnered with Hothouse Solutions, a solutions-oriented media venture dedicated to making climate action accessible to whoever is ready to take on the challenge.

Climate change has historically been ignored as a top issue in the US press. That’s changing amid unprecedented concern about the climate crisis among millions of people. A focus on solutions is more urgent than ever.

Hothouse’s original journalism gives readers a blueprint to enact the climate solutions the world needs—right now, in their own lives. Through stories, from detailing the climate benefit of eating oysters, to a how-to guide on re-careering for the climate, Hothouse aims to show how we can advance solutions in our lives, communities, and political institutions. 

“A pillar of our work at INCITE and the American Assembly is the belief that trust is foundational to our collective capacity to act upon research,” said INCITE director and The American Assembly president Peter Bearman. “We know this is especially true about a topic as fraught as climate change. That’s why we are so pleased to work with and fund Hothouse, whose mission is to lead with trust by invoking curiosity in readers, avoiding reductive narratives, and advancing solutions.”

During the next year, Columbia University will collaborate and support Hothouse in order to help deliver actionable climate coverage wherever readers find their news, serve as a climate desk to supply dedicated climate coverage to other media outlets, and to train and advance early-career journalists in climate solutions journalism.

“The time is right for this approach,” said Hothouse co-founder Michael J. Coren. “Recent research shows that more Americans than ever say they are being harmed ‘right now’ by global warming. By pairing original journalism and rigorous scientific research, Hothouse will experiment with ways to deliver effective stories that illuminate both the personal and systemic behavior changes needed to address climate change through a new digital media venture.”

Hothouse has been attracting new readers and content and has been syndicated in major national publications such as Popular Science. As one reader put it, Hothouse is “a source for fascinating information on climate action—it's not all doom and gloom.”

“Hothouse’s mission of civic engagement embodies our belief that citizens can and do shape the future,” said The American Assembly executive director Michael Falco. “We are excited to partner with Hothouse to watch them grow, and step up to addressing one of the greatest challenges of our time alongside them.”