"Be the change you want to see"
Mahatma Gandhi

Activism, whether it is social or environmental in focus, involves people who take direct actions to protect or change the environment (social or environmental) or how these environments are managed. Activism provides the combined political force of the people involved to increase the likelihood of appropriate change.

Environmental activism became a widespread movement in the 1960’s when the world started to see the risks and results of problems such as nuclear technologies, over-exploitation of natural resources, and chemical pollution. People in both developed and developing countries are becoming involved in environmental activism as they become more aware of the need to take action.

It is difficult to gauge how successful the work of activists has been. There have been many achievements and successes. The Sunshine Coast has a history of effective and successful environmental activism. Yet, if we look at the current state of the environment the success might not look so great.

The aim of activism is often as much to influence politics as it is to change the actions of industry, developers, or community. In the area of political influence we also could say that activists have had only limited success. In many cases, environmental activism takes the form of damage control, initiated after a proposal for action or commencement of action, and results in stalling the activities.

If we were to look at the results of environmental activism in this way and see only how things are now, we could question if the effort is worth it. But the important question to ask is “What would the world (or the Sunshine Coast) be like if the actions of environmental activists had not happened?” It is obvious, we have to take action, and if enough of us take action, we can have a real impact and can change the world.

So, what is it we can do to change the way things are? We can act individually to change the way we do things! We can act within a group to change more things! And we can become involved in broader scale activism! We can choose where we direct our action - to the local, national, regional or international level.

There is a wide range of effective strategies that activists can employ to create or influence change. For example, we can organize, or become part of, group action, local campaigns, consumer campaigns, media campaigns, political lobbying, and demonstrations. In all our activist actions we need to make sure we use only ethical strategies.

Taking part in environmental activism gives a sense of empowerment, of being a part of the solution rather than being a bystander.