This study works to answer the question: How are pre-service social studies teachers conceptualizing the difficult knowledge of climate change during a pedagogical encounter related to impending and unfolding climate catastrophe? Drawing on small group discussion and using critical discourse analysis, the author theorizes moments of hope, agency, and deferral in making sense of the difficult knowledge of climate crisis. The analysis reveals the multitude of challenges pre-service teachers face as they work to make sense of climate crisis in both grappling for themselves and in imagining the pedagogical demands of engaging young adolescents in issues of climate crisis.