(Photo by Paul Hopkinson, from Unsplash.)
A Voice for the Earth
We are often told that, being part of a democratic nation, we all have a voice. Of course, in the United States, many people’s voices are suppressed, and other people just don’t use their voices. Wherever we may stand, though, if we’re to fight effectively against climate change, it’s vital that we learn how to speak into our political system—whether through letters, by phone, or even in person—so that we can encourage our elected officials to take meaningful action for the planet.
Even if you’re not a full-time activist (I’m certainly not), many of us do have opportunities to raise our voices, so in this post, I provide a brief overview of some websites and organizations related to climate lobbying. My goal isn’t to tell you which groups or bills to support, but rather to offer some steps and resources for making those decisions yourself.
Step 1: Identify Your Elected Officials
Your “Step 1” could just be jumping into an online search for environmental initiatives, but for me, it was helpful to start with figuring out who my representatives were. That way, I knew who I’d contact once I finished researching, and having that end-goal gave me a clearer sense of direction.
In any case, this step really comes down to a simple internet search, so here are some links for finding the names and contact information of your political leaders:
GovTrack.us (Information on Representatives and Senators of Congress.)
USA.gov (Information on elected leaders at the federal, state, and local level.)
Step 2: Search for a Good Action Point
(Image by Arek Socha, from Pixabay.)
Before you contact your elected officials, you should research some specific initiatives or bills that you want them to support. (In some instances, you may also write to them about actions that you want them to oppose.) Though you could just tell your representatives that they should “fight climate change” or “reduce greenhouse gas emissions” in general, it’s often more helpful and effective to direct them to specific action points.
One good resource for researching such actions is Congress.gov. You can search for active environmental bills there using key-words like “Clean Energy” or “Climate Change,” and you can also see what stage of the legislative process those bills are in. For a slightly more user-friendly way of checking the bill’s status, you can also search for it on GovTrack.us.
Another good way of finding specific initiatives to advocate for is to find an organization or blog that you trust, then use their resources to find relevant environmental legislation. I’ll introduce some climate advocacy groups later in this post, but one helpful blog for researching bills is called Policy for the Planet. On their homepage, you can find a slideshow filled with links to posts that analyze various environmental bills.
Step 3: Contact Your Elected Officials
(Image by Alexas_Fotos, from Pixabay.)
After you find some environmental initiatives that you want to support, there are many ways that you can contact your elected officials, but one is by writing an email or letter. (Phone calls and in-person visits are also an option. I’m not as experienced in those, but some of the advocacy groups mentioned later in this post can offer more pointers.) Whatever means you choose, you should contact people to whom you are a constituent, briefly explaining who you are and why you support such-and-such action.
You can find many recommendations for political letter-writing through an online search, but after looking at some different websites, I’ve gathered a short list of pointers for composing an email or letter to a political leader:
1) Be polite and concise.
2) Ask for a specific action. (If that action involves a bill, give the title and
number.)
3) When appropriate, link the suggested action to your personal experiences or
values.
4) Thank them for something specific that they have done.
5) Include your contact information, so that they can send you a reply.
Another piece of advice, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, is to send a follow-up message at a later date, perhaps after hearing back from the official you contacted. Persistence is key to social change, and sending a second message—whether to thank your representative or to politely urge them to shift their stance—enables a kind of dialogue, which can have a greater impact than a simple one-to-one, call and response interaction.
Also, when addressing an envelope to an elected official, the proper way to write their name is, “The Honorable [Full Name].” In the body of the letter itself, it’s typical to word your greeting with something along the lines of, “Dear Representative/Senator [Last Name],” depending on the person’s title.
For more resources on finding bills, identifying your representatives, and drafting an appropriate letter or email, feel free to check the “Home” and “Resources” tabs on the Policy for the Planet website. Here’s a link to their sample email.
Step 4: Volunteer
It’s possible to advocate for political climate action on your own, but if you find yourself desiring the support and accountability of a wider community, there are many organizations that you can connect to. Below, I’ve listed three examples of climate advocacy groups.
1) The Citizens’ Climate Lobby
The Citizens’ Climate Lobby (or CCL) is a nonpartisan lobbying organization. Largely run by volunteers, it has established 591 “chapters” across the world, and for those of you living in the U.S., you can likely find a chapter in your area. One distinctive element of this organization is that it’s highly focused, aiming primarily to pass H.R. 2307, the “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.” In essence, H.R. 2307 would establish both a carbon fee and a monthly “carbon cash back” payment to American citizens, aiming to inspire sustainable market innovation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without either shocking the economy or burdening American consumers. For more information on this bill, feel free to look on the Energy Innovation Act website or on this page at Congress.gov. For a helpful overview of different kinds of climate policies, you can read this blog post by Money Crashers.
In any case, if you research this bill and find that it appeals to you, CCL offers various resources for supporting it, including virtual training sessions, online seminars, and a whole website filled with tips for reaching out to communities, local leaders, and politicians. (Of course, the same methods could be applied to any bill that you care about, not just H.R. 2307.) Moreover, if you go to the CCL website, you can find and join a chapter in your area, which can provide you with further support. Since CCL is a nonpartisan organization, you will be welcomed regardless of your political affiliation.
As a final note on the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, one of their values that I admire most is their desire to build relationships with political leaders and to find “common ground” in their pursuit of climate action. Some environmental organizations tend to demonize their opponents, but CCL strives to open conversations with elected officials of both American parties, combining zealous advocacy with respectful dialogue. There’s a place for more aggressive stances, but I do respect climate activists who seek to unify rather than divide.
2) The Evangelical Environmental Network
As evidenced by its name, the Evangelical Environmental Network (or EEN) is a Christian organization that strives to equip volunteers to become political advocates for earth-care. This group understands climate advocacy as a divinely-instated obligation to the created world, as well as a means of protecting future generations. Regardless of whether you identify as Christian (or as evangelical), this organization offers good information and volunteering opportunities for various climate-conscious initiatives.
If you sign up for EEN’s “Creation Care Champion” email list, they’ll notify you about advocacy opportunities such as op-eds and letters to politicians. In addition, their “Take Action” page can introduce you to a wide range of environmental bills, including ones that support reduced methane emissions, energy innovation, sustainable infrastructure, and clean energy jobs.
(Photo by Jordan Wozniak, from Unsplash.)
3) The Sunrise Movement
The Sunrise Movement is a youth activist organization. Using outreach and nonviolent protest, its members urge the American government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to maximize energy innovation, to develop a clean energy economy, and to dissolve systemic injustices. Specifically, this group supports the Green New Deal, and last month, they led two national marches to gather support for initiatives such as the “Civilian Climate Corps,” which would seek to create new jobs and to bolster a sustainable, climate-conscious economy.
This group provides lots of opportunities for volunteers, and though most of its members are youth and young adults, anyone is free to join. On their website, they provide online training for forming local hubs, leading meetings, and organizing public demonstrations, and if you sign up for their email list, you’ll receive notifications for upcoming volunteer opportunities, like phone-banking.
Though Sunrise is much more aggressive and antagonistic in its rhetoric, the group has still been effective in drawing attention to the climate issue, its members have good values, and I admire many of the demonstrations that they've organized.
Also, for those of you who want to do further research on the Green New Deal, here’s a link to the original text, and here’s a helpful summary from the Sunrise website. Basically, the Green New Deal is a framework for what actions would be necessary to reach net-zero emissions, to develop a robust clean energy economy, to ensure the just distribution of environmental services, and to fight against systemic injustices, such as those inflicted upon women, indigenous peoples, and communities of color.
Does it Make a Difference?
Climate lobbying is accessible to everyone. Whether you dedicate a lot of time or just a little, whether you volunteer with an official group or advocate alone, there’s something that anyone can do to raise their voice for the environment.
Will our voices make a difference, though? Particularly in the case of letters, emails, and phone calls, it’s reasonable to wonder whether our elected officials will pay much mind to our input. Drawing on two articles from The New Yorker and WIRED, I do believe that our voices can influence our leaders’ decisions, provided that we do it in the right way.
To summarize these articles, our elected officials do receive and record our messages, and in a surprising number of instances, voter input plays an “underappreciated but crucial role” in initiating political action (Schulz). The catch is that voter input tends to have the greatest effect in uncontroversial issues. When it comes to topics of “intense partisan fervor,” voter input is often discounted outright, even when large numbers of people raise their voices (Schulz). (Both articles offer disturbing examples of this.) For instance, constituent outreach would be much more likely to “increase federal funding for research on Alzheimer’s” than to convince an official to change their mind about abortion or immigration (Lapowsky). Less controversial issues pose less risk to a leader’s reelection.
This does create an obstacle to climate lobbying, since climate change is often (sadly) viewed as a partisan topic in the United States. However, there are ways of pursuing climate lobbying that could make it less controversial. The Citizens’ Climate Lobby, for instance, tries to seek out common ground between the American parties, supporting environmental legislation that can appeal to liberal and conservative values. This approach could frame climate action in a way that is universally appealing, and thus less of a threat to someone’s reelection.
Many climate activist groups also engage in relational advocacy. In other words, they don’t practice sporadic or aggressive outreach efforts, but seek to form connections with political leaders through consistent, respectful communication. This method takes time, but as most of us can affirm from our own experiences, people who we’re friends with are much more likely to change our minds, even regarding controversial topics.
So, in light of that, I’d argue that while there are some notable obstacles to our communication with elected officials, environmental lobbying can still be a good tool for supporting climate action, especially if we seek out connections and common ground with our elected officials. Moreover, we may be able to multiply the efficacy of our efforts by investing in long-term, relational advocacy in conjunction with established activist organizations.
(Photo by Gerd Altman, from Pixabay.)
Conclusion: Sowing the Many
In the novel My Name is Asher Lev, the religious leader of Asher’s community, the Rebbe, says, “Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown” (Potok 249).
When applied to moral action in general, this is a helpful image, and I believe that it could apply to environmental lobbying, too. I may not be sure that my individual letter, or my phone call, will be the one to make a difference in the world. As the above articles pointed out, there’s a chance that my voice—and even a large, collective voice—could be ignored outright, depending on the approach. However, there is reason to believe that if many people speak, and if we pursue respectful dialogue with our leaders, that some of those efforts will achieve good results.
Moreover, I would emphasize that lobbying is not our only tool for pursuing climate action. From what I’ve read, there are good arguments that lobbying alone will not be enough. As long as we combine climate lobbying with other tools, however, I believe that some good can still come of it.
At any rate, for climate activism to bear fruit, many seeds must be sown, but for the many to be sown, we need many people to plant. So, when opportunities come, I want to do my part in sowing my seed. Not every seed will take root, but the fruits of climate action, whenever they come, will be enjoyed by all.
