Green Causes

Young people can perhaps make the most difference through several different types of activities:

1) First become an opinion leader on climate change. Talk up the issue among friends in face-to-face conversations and share news and information. Use social media such as Facebook or forwarded news articles to complement this face to face interaction. I wrote about this process with former AU grad student John Kotcher in a paper published last year at the journal Science Communication:

http://scx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/3/328

2) Work to make climate change a top issue and part of the criteria by which your university, community, organizations, and employer make decisions around.

3) Encourage your colleagues and friends to contact local and national elected officials as well as local and national news organizations, urging them to make climate change a top priority in terms of attention and meaningful action/coverage. Also insist that political institutions and news organizations promote attention to a range of voices and possible policy solutions rather than focusing narrowly on the given policy option of the moment that appears most politically feasible.