What happens when we stop accepting the unacceptable?

As acclaimed activist Clover Hogan stood in front of a room of industry titans assembled to receive awards for their so-called ‘climate leadership’, she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream. In this room, they celebrated over glasses of champagne. Outside it, they were responsible for destroying ecosystems, exploiting workforces and driving humanity to the brink of climate collapse.

In The End of Pretending, Clover argues that most people can feel that something is wrong: democracy is eroding, wealth is pooling in fewer hands and climate change is no longer a distant threat. Yet there is a machinery designed to keep us numb, distracted and overwhelmed.

Few people have lived the cognitive dissonance of our time so intimately. Clover was just eleven when she announced over dinner that she wanted to be a climate activist. That quest led her onto world stages, before heads of state and through the doors of the world’s biggest corporations. It also put her in the firing line of the rich and powerful: from being booed by business leaders to being turned into a viral meme by Elon Musk.


Now, with raw vulnerability and dark humour, Clover explores how social media turns outrage into currency and how accountability is misdirected into individual responsibility. She names the dismissal of the concerns of young people as intergenerational gaslighting and calls out performative pain. But she also offers a way out: how to face what’s broken, refuse the script and find our power in each other.

A searing critique of our times, The End of Pretending asks who benefits from us feeling powerless – and what happens when enough of us stop playing along.

About The Author

Clover Hogan is a 26-year-old climate activist and the founder of Force of Nature—the global youth non-profit turning climate anxiety into action. She has worked alongside the world’s leading authorities on sustainability, consulted within the boardrooms of Fortune 50 companies and counselled heads of state. Clover has taken the stage with global change-makers such as Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva, and interviewed the 14th Dalai Lama. Her TED talk, 'What to do when climate change feels unstoppable', has been viewed 2 million times. At 22 she was recognised on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and has featured in outlets including the Guardian, the BBC, the New York Times, the FT and Vogue. 

Clover is a recognised voice in the climate movement. Her work with high-profile NGOs (the UN, Global Optimism, WWF, Greenpeace, TED), activist groups (Fridays for the Future, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil) as well as corporations (P&G, Unilever, Nike, M&S), has helped her build an engaged community of professionals. She is in the unique position of being able to speak at protests and within boardrooms alike.   

She has tapped into the zeitgeist with a number of viral moments, from being turned into a meme by Elon Musk (+75m online impressions), to her appearance on Subway Takes (+4m online impressions) in 2025.