So Free the Planet, the Sierra Student Coalition, and many others all work on activism. While I think that having an environmental lobby at the national and state levels is critical, I'm curious: For those of you more involved in local and campus-oriented activism, do you think it has visible and significant effects? Do you think we're educating enough people on campus?

I obviously don't go to your school, but let me make a suggestion. When you want to raise awareness, don't be too bold. You know how some people are when they hear "help the planet!" Don't make it appear to them as if they have to be a stereotypical environmentalist. No "Stop Global Warming by planting trees" or "If you don't save the planet now, it will be too late". Those kinds of messages are too strong and they make it look like being "active" is extreme. You want to keep it simple so you don't scare people away.

I completely agree Kelly (and please make comments - I try to phrase things so that conversations are not necessarily Pitt-centric). I generally feel that activism just continues to make environmentalism and sustainability a 'special interest' or 'cause' when I'm pretty sure it's one of the few areas that are based largely on science and affect everyone. I also don't like calling myself an environmentalist for that stereotype.

That being said, how do you balance the fact that the imminant approach of global warming (and other problems) maybe SHOULD be terrifying with the need to be nice? Ease them into it before you show them how bad it really is?

Confession: I'm not a "climate change denier" but I don't believe global warming is going to be as serious as people think...and I don't believe it will cause as much destruction as everyone says. I think other outcomes of our impact on the earth are more serious. It's not that I don't think we should be protecting the earth in these ways. I think we should stay "green" but I don't think we should worry about the "warming". I think we need to worry more about how our actions will affect us in other ways.

You don't want to scare people anyway... Just tell them lightly that it's good for the environment to do(this and that) and that it will effect them positively in the long run. Don't attack them with negatives, be positive.

I agree with alot of what Kelly's saying. I prefer to put aside the global warming issue, because there are a lot of other issues that are just as pressing and have just as much if not more evidence to them, such as potable water scarcity. I believe that we should strive for sustainability because it just makes sense (I think this is party of my engineering mindset to balance equations and in=out).

But I don't agree that gently telling people that it's good for the environment will work. People are mostly stupid and selfish and need to feel an impact on them to actually change.

Sorry, just have been kinda frustrated lately.

True...very true. I guess I wasn't thinking of that when I was typing. But you're right! People say "aw the heck with the environment!" You don't want to scare them or make them think you are overreacting, but yeah you do need to make them feel like they are impacted.

I know this isn't true for all people who try to be good to the environment, but I don't always do it because of how it will effect me or other people. I care about the trees and the animals just because I feel bad for them when we screw up the ecosystem! Especially when I see lakes and rivers messed up. I'm extremely frustrated and disturbed from something I read last night. I was able to diagnose an organic pollution issue in my favorite river and it deals a lot with an ignorant and selfish city on the river. I am so mad, I've been ranting about it all day LOL.

I think there are also two sides here: I feel really really bad when I see rivers with chemicals being dumped into them, or ocean shores with trash all over (and I think gently telling people that it's bad might work in that case). I think things like global warming or overfishing (and maybe eutrophication from fertilizers too) need some different approach since it's harder to directly see the impacts.

Is the problem you diagnosed the PCBs?

No, it's a sewage issue...I was reading a book on water pollution and realized that all my observations of the river fit exactly (to every detail) when I read about sewage. I have already sent e mails to the lake management district with my concerns. They don't like to listen to me and they act like they have no clue what's going on with the lake/river. So I have to keep bugging them lol. What I want to do now is explain that my observations fit this description and hopefully knock some sense into them!

Here's something I did about trash...

People have been throwing trash in the river on a bridge where they fish. So I took some of those mailbox letters and when no one was looking, I posted "The river is not a trash can" on the guard rail where everyone can see it when fishing. I've also seen someone put a box by another fishing site with "Please recycle" written on it. So far, everyone seems to be obeying it. I think little things like this can help.

Alex, I do agree that some other approaches do need to be taken in certain cases. But I still don't think that a hard "you need to do this now or else" approach will make people do what we want them to do. At least, it's never worked for me.