Especially one who is not making people happy, not contributing to world peace, and not truly trying to protect the environment. If they are doing a good job, encourage it. In Elizabeth May’s “How To Be An Activist ” pamphlet, here are four of the ten getting started points, the ones which apply to this sort of activism.

• Refuse to be intimidated. If you are told that a subject is too technical or scientific for you to understand, don’t believe it. Elected politicians make these decisions all the time based on general knowledge and their sense of public opinion. The claim of “expert” versus average concerned citizen is inherently anti- democratic and elitist. You may not be an expert. But you can read and understand what experts have to say. Make a note of good quotes (including the source) of expert views concerned with the environment.

• Don’t take no for an answer. Be persistent. The squeaky wheel.

• Ask lots of questions. Get to the bottom of issues. Do your homework.

• Be unfailingly polite. Being persistent is not the same thing as being rude. You may be in this for the long haul, so don’t burn any bridges.

And here are a few things I would like to add:

• Use detail. Do not just say “Don’t log the forest. Bye” for example, list all the reasons why the forest should not be logged, and information about species, especially endangered ones, that live there. Use interesting words, lots of description, accurate stats, etc.
• Don’t be fooled by greenwashed responses. See my blog post on greenwashing to tell between ‘green’ as in government/corporation propaganda and green as in sustainable.
• Don’t always show which ’side’ of the issue you’re on. Usually you’ll get more information if you are not obviously opposing it.
• Get more people to write letters. The more letters a politician recieves on a specific issue, the more attention that issue gets.

Good luck !