By creatively participating in local climate action, we can collectively reimagine our experience of, and responses to, the climate emergency.

In doing so, we lay the foundation for new possibilities.

Quiet activism is not a panacea. Like any other form of activism, it can be ineffective or, worse, damaging. Without an ethical framework, it risks enabling only short-lived action, or leading to only small pockets of localized activity.

But when done ethically and sustainably — with long-term impact in mind — quiet activism can make a profound difference to lives and communities." - https://theconversation.com/ordinary-people-extraordinary-change-addressing-the-climate-emergency-through-quiet-activism-160548

Examples of Quiet Activism

• Veganism This drastically reduces our impacts on forests, water scarcity, soil health, air quality, and helps ensure enough food for everyone.

• Citizen Science projects can include collecting data about rubbish, local wildlife, or even street safety.

• Community Gardening can help reduce local hunger, reduce food emissions, spread education, and bring people together.

• Picking Rubbish/Trash This can be done while running errands, dog walking, and even with young children.

• Wildlife Rescue The need for this can strike at any time. Perhaps a baby bird falls from a nest, or a hedgehog fell in a fishpond. Check in with your local wildlife center who can tell you if the animal needs to be brought in, or if there are simple things you can do before releasing the animal to nature.

Financial Activism

Financial Activism can come in many forms. You can donate to your favorite charities, buy stocks or shares, buy carbon credits, give financial or physical gifts such as expensive equipment or even land. 

Carbon Offsets

Lately there has been growing awareness of the many flaws in carbon offset projects, such as:

•  lack of monitoring of trees past the first 2 years (trees don't sequester adequate carbon till around 10 years or so, meaning when they die early, carbon estimates are thrown off)

• double counting

• wild fires

• damage from flooding and disease

• unplanned deforestation

Such serious ethical and practical problems with carbon offset programs may make you feel like the idea is totally hopeless, and worry about being scammed.

Poorly executed carbon offset programs can do more harm than good, so with that in mind any carbon offset programs listed here focus on helping schools and communities get carbon cutting upgrades that they would otherwise struggle to afford.

Donations

These can be done sporadically, or you may want to set up a small but frequent payment to organizations you trust.

End of Life Planning

Since we can't take anything of value when we die, one of the best things we can do is to include one or more charities in our final will or even set up a trust.

International

Europe

UK

• CarbonFootprint: Solar Schools Offsetting "Sponsor Solar Panels At A UK School With Guaranteed Carbon Offset"

• Egni Co-op "develops rooftop solar energy in Wales and has over 4.5MWp of capacity on 88 sites, including schools, community buildings and businesses.  We’re the largest rooftop solar co-op in the UK. All surplus goes into climate change education in schools.
  
  We generate clean energy, enabling our sites to take action on climate change and be more financially stable. Through our co-op share offer, we also give people the chance to invest their money towards in a more sustainable future and get a fair rate of return.
  
  We’re part of the same team which set up the award-winning Awel Co-op- this is a community wind farm that raised over £3m in community shares and was commissioned in Jan 2017. Both Awel and Egni Co-ops have repaid interest to their members annually in line with their Share Offers. – www.awel.coop."

• Schools’ Energy Co-operative "installs community funded solar panel systems on schools free of charge as well as paying all its profits to its member schools. As a social enterprise, we are dedicated to supporting our school members and providing an alternative to the prevailing commercial rent a roof or leasing model. Central to this is our aspiration to retain as much as possible of the benefits for the schools, their students and the surrounding communities. We also work with our school members and local community groups to maximise the environmental, educational and community impact of the solar installations."

Oceana

New Zealand

• NZGIF (New Zealand Green Investment Finance) " is a green investment bank established with the purpose of accelerating investment to enable New Zealand’s low carbon future." They help build a greener world today by helping schools transition to solar, expanding EV charger distirbution, and more.

3rd Party Charity Reviews & Ratings

International

• GiveWell "Our goal is to produce the world's top research on where to give. Free, for everyone. We recommend a small number of charities that do an incredible amount of good."

North America

USA

• Charity Navigator "Use our ratings to find and support nonprofits that align with your passions and values." This organization uses self-reported information from the organizations themselves, and some other concerns have been raised about their updates.

• CharityWatch ""is the pit bull of watchdogs. Its staff members dig deeper than most other overseers, going to state and federal records to get information that charities do not volunteer, honing in on program efficiency and exposing abuses."

Further Reading

Maps

International

• Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."

• 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."

Europe

UK

• Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."

Grants

International

• The Pollination Project (TPP) "is a vegan foundation that offers seed funding to grassroots activists working to build a kinder, more compassionate world for human & non-human animals.
  
  TPP focuses on early stage ideas and funds individuals directly. Over the years, they’ve seen the power of bottom-up, community-led grassroots activism. Through “pollination philanthropy”– a democratic model of peer-to-peer decision-making — TPP works with a global network of grantees, community partners, and volunteer advisors to identify extraordinary project leaders who, due to the grassroots nature of their work, are often not in a position to receive funding from other foundations or institutions.
  
  They make micro grants 365 days a year to grassroots global change agents and have a growing global community of 4,500 grassroots leaders in 150 countries. They support vegan outreach projects around the world, and have a special program for farmed animal activists in Brazil, India and Mexico. Their goal is to offer not just seed funding, but capacity-building support and connectivity with other activists working in the same geographic or issue area. "