In the spring of 2020, Kianni's physical activism was curtailed by the school closing and social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her scheduled paid speaking engagements at colleges including Stanford University, Princeton University and Duke University were delayed.[11][12] Kianni was able to continue her activism remotely with her talk at Michigan Technological University.[13] In addition, Kianni decided to accelerate development of a planned website, Climate Cardinals, that would translate climate change information into different languages.[11]