Taking Action

I keep seeing this book around called The Lazy Environmentalist. I haven't actually read it but I don't think I agree with the message, which is basically that you don't have to sacrifice any of your lifestyle to be green (you can decide for yourself by checking out the website). Anyway, the point of my bringing that up was that the title pretty much describes me a lot of the time (as much as I hate to admit it).

One fairly important facet of environmentalism is political lobbying. For most of us, that means calling or emailing state representatives. If I had to figure out how to do that myself, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get done (sometimes I'm an ideas person and not really an action person). Lucky for my conscience, there are a bunch of websites that set it up for you by providing convenient "take action" buttons and prefab letters (which you can customize, of course). Just as a warning, you will get emails often if you sign up for some of these lists.

1. Union of Concerned Scientists: This group sends action alerts fairly frequently if you subscribe to the UCS Action Network. They also include a personalized email in the action emails they send you (so all you have to do is click "Take Action" and you can send an email to whatever representative or official needs to be contacted for that campaign). They run a lot of campaigns ranging from food safety to energy issues. There are also some newsletters you can subscribe to (a digest specifically about food and one entitled "green tips"
2. Sierra Club: This website has too many actions to count (see, I told you I was lazy). Once you become a registered user, you get personalized actions as well as an action history (cool). There are actions under such categories as "America's Wild Legacy," "Safe and Healthy Communities," and "Smart Energy Solutions"
3. Environment America: This organization is a federation of 23 state environmental groups whose focus is "to build support for federal legislation." It's a pretty easy site to navigate--there are sections for each issue (New Energy Future, Stopping Global Warming, Healthy Oceans, Clean Air, etc) and on most pages there is a "take today's e-action" box. Here's the Environment Connecticut website.
4. Save Our Environment: Like the Sierra Club website, this one has a personalized actions and action history profile type thing. It's harder to tell if some of these actions are up to date, but hey. The fact is, they're partnered with Ben & Jerry's to create a website called Lick Global Warming, which includes a Global Warming Game called "Ben & Jerry's Eco-Mission." Definitely worth a look.
   
5. Clean Water Action: This is a more specific website about...water-related issues. Okay. They offer national campaigns as well as state-by-state listings of petitions and such. Right now there's a campaign underway regarding the Clean Water Act ("The Bush Administration is attempting to redefine what waters would be protected under the Clean Water Act by issuing a series of policies that offer "no protection" for our critical water resources"). They're accepting public comments until January 21st, so that's something you could do now if you're interested.

If you know of any other helpful websites or whatever, leave a comment!