Eco-Activism 2.0
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
President Obama’s recent televised fly swatting impacted more than just the fly. It sparked both PETA to send Obama a device that traps flies for subsequent outdoor release and an online debate across social media sites as to whether or not PETA overreacted. The result may influence whether or not Obama swats again. It is clear that Eco-Activism 2.0 is in full swing but it begs the question ‘can online eco-activism actually make a difference?’
For those people who are unfamiliar with the term ‘Eco-Activism,’ it is used to describe a person, such as Van Jones or Al Gore, who is involved in heightening consciousness and promoting potential behavioral solutions to environmental issues. There are many types of Eco-Activists. The type to which I am referring is rooted in good old fashioned person to person conversations. The more people to whom you speak, the more likely you are to reach the ‘tipping point.’ As the need to ‘go green’ intensifies, so too does our need to spread the world quickly. And what spreads the word more quickly than social media? The problem is to make sure that the word does not just spread online, but that corrective solutions are taken offline.
Two social media websites, 2people.org and changents.com, are designed to enable eco-activists to connect and to form online communities focused on solving environmental problems. 2people.org’s goal is to create a critical mass of activists who will create enough buzz about global warming that it will cause people to do something about it. Its basic social networking features allow people to form activism teams, to create a virtual workspace, and to monitor events, people, and actions in the world. Changents.com then enables Change Agents (Changents) to team-up with a receptive audience of Backers who can respond to, spread, support and consumer their innovations and ideas. They have offline abilities to back a Change agent through Action Requests.
Although still in Beta, in its first year, changents.com has already received 235 action requests for 157 Change Agents. One such Change Agent is the Big Green Bus team – a group of 15 Dartmouth students who are driving a huge green solar paneled veggie-oil powered bus cross-country to bring awareness to how we can all change the reliance on energy. The requested action: that their 122 Backers forward their schedule and message to their friends. Eco-Activism 2.0 is working. The team met with Senator Jeanne Shaheen and House Representative Dave Reichert last Friday.
For those people who are unable to make the time and effort to “change the world,” supporting an online eco-activist site makes it incredibly fun and easy. All it takes is just getting online and enabling social media to spread the word.
We really can move a nation—if each of us moves two people. And going out and changing the world is really as simple as clicking a mouse.
