A Climate Activist Guide for Regular People: 3 Pillars of Participation
An introduction to a practical framework on advocating for Nature
As a follow up to my recent post, On behalf of Nature, I offer the A Climate Activist Guide for Regular People: 3 Pillars of Participation. My hope is that you use this practical framework in daily life as we — regular people — become advocates and activists for Nature.
The context
There are two gaps in the Nature advocacy movement:
Regular, everyday people. There are lifelong activists (thank God), folks in government (barely but they do exist) and organizations (who do great work). But it’s missing the most influential majority: regular people. Like you and me.
There’s no clear and strategic place for a regular person — like you and me — to start with the confidence that you’re making an impact and the number of options is overwhelming.
Hence, this guide.
I’m a regular person new to Nature advocacy. When I started, I specifically aimed to take a strategic approach to activism. I wanted to ensure I was actually making an impact and, at the beginning, I was entirely overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed with the sheer amount of tragedy, abuse and death. Overwhelmed with the amount of organizations to support, theories of change to understand and species to protect. Overwhelmed with my own life realizing I contribute to ecocide every single day.
Though I am in my infancy as it relates to the movement, I emerged from that experience with a simple framework that was useful in shifting from sitting stuck to taking strategic action that actually makes an impact.
In this mini-series, we’ll take the next three weeks to explore each of the following pillars:
The Stress & Safety Ratio: Our apathy is Nature’s enemy
Individual Agency: You can do it yourself
Collective Action: Let’s do it together
Orienting notes
First, I use ‘Nature’ in exchange for ‘environment’ and ‘climate’. The reason being Nature (with a capital N) seeks to recognize and honor her as a living being with agency worthy of respect, rather than an inanimate object or backdrop that exists solely for our needs or, worse, our exploitation. It also aims to recognize all beings — including humans — as interconnected members of her, rather than separate entities. This may seem like semantics. That’s because it is. And semantics create our reality so it’s vital that we intentionally write and ideate with Life at the center. (The title of the guide is simply to appeal to the SEO gods — ugh).
Second, the link between advocating for Nature and clearing the way for Love is simple and direct. Nature is being oppressed to the point of death. One key indicator of receiving Love is actively reversing oppression. Reversing oppression includes advocating on behalf of the oppressed by standing up to the oppressor with Truth and Love. It’s looking the bully in the eye and, with precision and clarity, saying, “Absolutely not. Stop it.” We can do so with every day actions as laid out in this framework.
Third, each of the ‘pillars’ all involve and impact each other. In fact, they aren’t like pillars at all but rather, they are trees with deeply interconnected roots and branches. Each ‘tree’ of participation within the framework touches and directly impacts the others. Holding this ‘both/and’ reality in mind will increase your impact. (Again, re-creating our world through intentional semantics). So you might notice I call them ‘tree pillars’.
Lastly, this framework is not exhaustive (that sounds, well, exhausting), nor is it meant to be perfect. It’s meant to be orienting and helpful to your own Nature advocacy. Aligning with the third tree pillar, I welcome feedback that may make it even more useful.
Now let’s get to it. Here are the Tree Pillars: