A New Social Movement
When it comes to tackling pollution, governments are embroiled within state or international politics, economics and at times more pressing social issues. As such, local or community level responses are equally important in the fight against pollution. At the forefront of this, is environmental activism, a movement that has garnered new traction in today’s digital age of the Internet and Social Media.
The Effectiveness of Activism (Conserve Energy Future, 2020):
First and foremost, collective action provides hope and inspiration. An argument against environmentalism that is often cited is that one’s individual actions are too small to inflict change. Environmental activism with the creation of green groups or social media communities provide a sense of solidarity and proper organisation to the movement (Kong, 2019). This fuels the longevity of the movement since there is a sense of camaraderie and working towards a common goal.
“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share”
~ Lady Bird Johnson
Secondly, it provides crucial education to the general public. By raising awareness regarding consumer habits, national legislation and effects of environmental degradation, activism can aid governmental educational efforts while at the same time provide a critical lens to keep national policies in check. For instance, in the recent 2020 Singapore General Elections, @sgclimaterally and @theweirdandwild activists on Instagram, broke down each political party’s environmental policies and gave them aggregate scores. This put pressure on each party to ensure their policies were in line with the environmental needs and wants of future generations.
Check out the environmental activists links here:
https://instagram.com/theweirdandwild?igshid=1opztb6bk9vox
https://instagram.com/byebyeplasticbags.sg?igshid=nvton8rdhawl
https://instagram.com/nocarrierpls?igshid=1bjavd7cc6k2p
https://instagram.com/lilearthgirl?igshid=1cy5a7zjfss2z
Thirdly, it puts pressure on the private sector. With a large group of people increasingly involved in green goals and environmental change, corporations are increasingly aware that their own practices and behaviour can easily come under fire for being non environmentally friendly. This drives private firms to rethink their practices, including “limiting carbon footprint, reducing waste, enhancing energy efficiency…employing eco-friendly innovative technologies” (Conserve Energy Future, 2020).
Last but not least, Gerlach (2001) highlights that social movements such as environmentalism have the benefits of challenging the social and political norm while their large and fast spreading nature make it difficult to suppress (particularly in today’s digital age), penetration of different socioeconomic classes, promotes diversity in the movement thus leading to greater social innovation and problem solving.
Given these benefits, it is heartening to see that environmental activism in Singapore is gaining fast traction. Inspired by the famous activist Greta Thunberg, an online protest was held in March 2019, with people sharing their proposed policies and business measures to combat climate change on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtags #climatestrike and #climateactionsg.
Figure 1: Singapore’s Online Activism movement (Source: Kong, 2019)
This was followed by Singapore’s first ever Climate Rally on September 21st, with speeches from local activists and a “die-in” that reflected the gradual collapse of the planet that humanity is heading towards.
If such public declarations of environmentalism support is not your cup of tea, there are less overt ways of activism that one can adopt today. This includes the concept of anti-hauls, which encourages consumers to rethink their purchases and stop their support for brands and products that do not align with their values (Forbes, 2017). Such a concept can be significant in encouraging de-materialisation and the slowing of consumerism within the environmental movement.
Moreover, Singapore has multiple green groups that promote environmentally friendly habits and products that can help us in our own environmental journey. Click here for a useful list of them.
At the end of the day, it is up to each of us to do our part in fighting environmental pollution and its heavy consequences! Such individual action is at the crux of the solutions to pollution and the main call to action behind our @thepollutionrevolution blog posts. Below are the key highlights of the past 15 blog posts and we urge everybody to continuously learn and grow in our journey to end pollution.
Author: Madeleine Shutler
References:
Conserve Energy Future. (2020, May 15). Importance, Types and Excellent Examples of
Environmental Activism. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/importance-types-examples-environmental-activism.php
Gerlach, Luther. (2001). The structure of social movements: Environmental activism and its
opponents. Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy.
Forbes, J. (2017, April 21). There’s A Seriously Problematic Side to All Those YouTube Hauls People
Love. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from https://www.allure.com/story/anti-hauls-take-over-youtube
Kong, Y. (2019, July 09). Protesting for the planet: Is climate activism alive in Singapore? Retrieved July
24, 2020, from https://www.eco-business.com/news/protesting-for-the-planet-is-climate-activism-alive-in-singapore/