Virtual Activism

Activists find new ways to advocate their cause without marching in the streets

By Jacob Pederson

You don’t have to take to the streets to fight for your beliefs. Photo by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash

While COVID-19 stops the world in its tracks and leaves many paralyzed with anxiety, a dedicated member of the Sunrise Movement works tirelessly to keep environmental activism alive. Ethan Manns, the Politics Team Lead for Sunrise Seattle, spends his days in video meetings with Sunrise members from across Washington State to initiate, fine-tune and delegate social media advertising, script writing, and phone group leadership roles for online activities on the 50th Earth Day.

This is just one example of how activists are adapting to a new era of social distancing, when public support for climate action can’t be shown by marching in the streets. The movement itself is shifting to promote public aid for COVID-19, which is similar to the climate-oriented Green New Deal policy agenda.

The Green New Deal calls for social safety nets like living-wage jobs for every American as well as bold climate action. It also aims to eradicate systematic injustices such as homelessness and lack of access to adequate healthcare, according to Sunrise.

Sunrise Washington is gearing up to mass-call Washington’s federal representatives and senators on April 24 to garner support for the People’s Bailout. This Green New Deal spinoff calls for reforms to the United States’ health, social and economic systems to support people during and after the coronavirus era.

“The same societal structures that have left us unprepared for this virus are the same sort of failures that leave us so unprepared for this climate crisis,” said Manns.

The word of this mass call is being spread through an online invitation sent to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles of Sunrise hubs in Seattle, Bellevue, Bellingham, Spokane and Walla Walla.

The national Sunrise Movement will also be hosting Sunrise School during Earth Week (April 20 — April 24), which teaches participants how to build movements, said Karen Russell, the Hub Coordinator for Sunrise Bellingham.

Washington Youth Climate Strikes has a similar educational lineup for Earth Week with three days of action packed with webinars on their website.

“The same societal structures that have left us unprepared for this virus are the same sort of failures that leave us so unprepared for this climate crisis.”

Day one will be on Earth Day, featuring an online presentation with activists from around the world speaking about the parallels of the COVID-19 crisis to the gradually progressing climate crisis, said Kimaya Mahajan, the Co-Executive Director for WAYCS.

Day two will be a webinar on the “money pipeline,” which is the investment of endowments and stocks in fossil fuel companies that use it to expand their extractive enterprises, said Mahajan. She said the webinar will be followed by an online training to show people how to encourage their local banks and universities to withdraw their investments from the fossil fuel industry and redirect their money into eco-friendly companies.

The finale will be a webinar on day three about advancing progressive agendas like the Green New Deal with Biden as the Democratic nominee, said Mahajan. The progressive nonprofit organization Our Climate and the Joshua Collins for Congress campaign team will be the presenters.

Mahajan said the biggest challenge was finding a way to make these Earth Day events compelling and impactful for the public and politicians despite being online-only. They are engineered to mobilize people rather than disrupt society through a strike, which is a new adaptation for WAYCS.

The Nature Conservancy is also trying something new for Earth Day by putting the beauty and solace of nature on the internet for nature lovers to enjoy from their homes, said Deborah Kidd, the Content & Communications Strategist and Earth Month Campaign Manager at the Washington State Nature Conservancy.

One needn’t leave home to marvel at nature’s majesty. Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Videos, artwork, and descriptive information about preserves all across the state are available on the Washington Nature Conservancy website throughout Earth Month (April). There are also ideas about ways to observe, enjoy, and absorb nature from people’s own backyards.

“Nature is always there, it is always providing for us, even if we can’t have that direct connection,” said Kidd.

Research shows that images of nature are enough to quell the anxiety that people often feel in stressful situations, like the ones coronavirus puts people in, said Kidd. Finding ways to maintain and strengthen people’s connection to nature also enhances their desire and ability to protect it, she said.

Despite the software and artists that bring the outside indoors for people in quarantine and isolation, certain joys and actions in nature are still sacrificed, such as spending time with groups of people in the preserves or saving small patches by pulling invasive weeds, said Kidd.

Sunrise also struggles with the loss of connections between people that form when activism is done in groups, said Karen Russell. Doubts are being raised about whether online movements will be as effective as in-person movements at achieving policy goals, she said. But, Russell said, that is true of anything when something new is tried.

Even a picture of nature will help quell anxiety. Photo by Riccardo Chiarini on Unsplash