Civic Action
Civic Action can count as level 3 or 4 activism depending on what level of government you are interacting with.Â
Small organizations including HOAs, panchayats, and village, town or city councils would fall under level 3, while national leadership and international agreements or laws fall under level 4 activism.
Civic activism can include:
Writing to politicians about the things that matter most to you.
Voting for leaders who will tackle climate change, pollution, and inequality.Â
Attending meetings and speaking publicly about pressing topics.
Volunteer at your local polling station to help those who may have trouble reading, seeing, or moving around the site.
Filing complaints to the appropriate hotline/app/website/utility/government branch so that repairs or improvements can be made.
Filling out surveys or similar documents to help community planners improve community amenities or infrastructure.
Become a civil servant by applying for a government job or run of office.
As you explore different pages on this site, we try to include a selection of "Calls to Action" where appropriate. Some of the level 3-4 suggestions include links to petitions and other campaigns to encourage action from our leaders.
More People Care About the Environment Than You Think
Share of people who say their government should do more to tackle climate change, 2024 "Based on representative surveys of almost 130,000 people across 125 countries. Participants were asked: "Do you think the national government should do more to fight global warming?"
Share of people who support policies to tackle climate change, 2023 "Support was measured on a scale from 0 to 100 across nine interventions, including carbon taxes on fossil fuels, expanding public transport, more renewable energy, more electric car chargers, taxes on airlines, investments in green jobs and businesses, laws to keep waterways clean, protecting forests, and increasing taxes on carbon-intensive foods."
Government Trackers
In order to help everyday citizens hold our leadership accountable, some organizations have created helpful trackers that alert the public to important issues such a environmental action, social justice, lobbying and other monetary movement within politics.Â
Please feel free to alert us to any such trackers that should be listed here.
International/Global
Climate Action Tracker (CAT) "is an independent scientific analysis produced by two research organisations tracking climate action since 2009. We track progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C."
Energy Policy Tracker "As governments across the world continue to invest hundreds of billions in the energy system to reboot their economies, our analysis is expanding to cover more countries and provide a more comprehensive global picture. Countries are also grouped by regions, which helps to identify trends and patterns in their local contexts."
North America
Canada
Federal Oil & Gas Lobbying Bot / @FedLobBot "Automatically tweets when Big Oil lobbies the Canadian federal government, usually to get more subsidies and block #ClimateAction"
USA
Agriculture Fairness Alliance: Ag Payments Tracker "Uncover the Truth: Our (AFA’s) Interactive Tool Exposes Massive Fraud, Overpayment, and Negligence in the Livestock and Animal Feed Industry. You can pick any state, county, city, payee, farm name, address and see how much money every livestock, dairy and animal feed farmer is getting. Learn more here: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104397 "
LittleSis "is a project of Public Accountability Initiative, a 501(c)3 organization focused on corporate and government accountability. We receive financial support from foundations and benefit from free software written by the open source community.
The code powering LittleSis is free & open source."OpenSecrets "is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Our mission is to track the flow of money in American politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy."
Oceana
Australia
Fossil Fuel Watch "The demands for support from the fossil fuel lobby range from company tax cuts, to slashing Howard-Government era environmental legislation, support for import gas terminals and exploration projects, and cuts to mine workers’ pay and conditions.
Use the filter to see the different demands, who’s asking for them and their status."
Resources
International
DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database "find a record of companies and organisations’ current messaging on climate change, lobbying around climate action, and histories of climate science denial."
DeSmog’s Climate Disinformation Database "browse our extensive research on the individuals and organizations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming."
Europe
UK
DeSmog’s Air Pollution Lobbying Database "find out about organisations opposing or seeking to weaken planned air quality measures in the UK’s most polluted cities, including Clean Air Zones and London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone."
North America
USA
DeSmog’s Koch Network Database "browse our extensive research on the individuals and organizations linked to Charles Koch or other members of the Koch family, Koch Industries, and related entities."
Organizations
Asia
The Asia Society Policy Institute "works with policymakers, scientists, economists, business leaders, and experts from other fields to enhance the regional and global fight against climate change through accelerating the transition to net zero emissions, carbon pricing, clean energy and climate diplomacy."
Maps
International
More People Care About Climate Change than You Think "The majority of people in every country support action on climate, but the public consistently underestimates this share."