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Environmental Activism and Social Media

Anjelica Petsch

Environmental activism is not new but has received a heightened platform in the anthropomorphic era through the use of social media to create the term “Cyberactivism”.

Environmental cyberactivism has established new policy reforms for a sustainable lifestyle, brought communities together through natural disasters, but in some cases have also gained support and momentum from social media followers supplying discourse but little physical effort, or “slacktivism” (popularized by Evgeny Morozov), towards the same cause.

Social media has allowed quick sharing properties of photos and other posts showing over 150 million metric tons of human single use wastes, like straws, plastic bags, etc., floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or harming and killing marine life (Viswanathan, 2018).

These images and posts lead to environmental organizations declaring an end to single use plastic, such as the Surfrider Foundation, an organization determined to protect Earth’s oceans and beaches, has set out to declare 2018 as “the year we say goodbye to straws” (Houck, 2018) as around 175 million plastic straws are used and disposed of daily (Viswanathan, 2018). Other environmental activist groups began challenging legislature to ban or reduce plastic bags and containers in order to decrease human waste and pollution. One impactful image originally shared on , on September 12th, 2017, by a photographer, Justin Hofman, was of a small Petsch 2 seahorse holding a used, plastic q-tip in the ocean off the coast of . Hofman shared the image with the caption:

Figure 1 Photo credits to Justin Hofman

“It’s a photo I wish didn’t exit but now that it does I want everyone to see it. What started

as an opportunity to photograph a cute little sea horse turned into one of frustration and

sadness as the incoming tide brought with it countless pieces of trash and sewage. This

sea horse drifts long with the trash day in and day out as it rides the current that flow

along the Indonesian archipelago. This photo serves as an allegory for the current and

future state of our oceans. What sort of future are we creating? How can your actions

shape our planet?”

In the photo’s existence on Instagram, Hoffman has tagged the image with environmental groups’ accounts related with reducing plastic use such as: Plastic Ocean Festival, Plasticides, Petsch 3

Plastic Oceans, Plastics for Change, and Life Without Plastic. The image has been liked over 34 thousand times on Instagram and comments in various languages around the globe. With the hashtag #plastic, the photo is shared into a group of other images promoting the same agenda of cleaning oceans and reducing single-use plastic with images of whales, turtles, and other creatures alive, dead, or impacted by human waste.

Like Surfrider Foundation, the Earth Day Network and National Geographic has taken up the fight to end single use plastic dependency however, both websites have placed pledges on their main pages regarding plastic waste. Designing pledges offers viewers to revalue their dependence on single use plastic and determine a goal amount of plastic to use weekly. After submitting the pledge, the website calculates the viewer’s goal number for the year, states how reducing the viewer’s plastic waste can decrease the world’s impact on the environment created by plastic, and presents pledgers with the option to share their devotion on social media for friends, family, and followers to see and take an oath as well. Plastic pledges where consumers promise to reduce their use of single use plastic offers awareness of the big issue but in some cases ends quickly as there is recurring reminder of their impact of the individual’s plastic waste.

Using social media to create discourse around environmental topics, for instance climate change and single use waste, among a global audience can be easily written off by some researchers, like Evgeny Morozov, as “slacktivism” where activity on social media “distracts from meaningful action such as real-life protests, strikes, or community engagement” (Hodson et al., 2018) and in some cases replaces it completely. Plastic straw pledges and bans have been criticized by various organizations, like those advocating for people with disabilities and groups fighting for the reduction of all single use plastic wastes. Lily Padula, an illustrator and animator, took to Instagram like Justin Hofman and shared an image of a woman wading in the ocean Petsch 4 proud she removed all the plastic straws from the water, however more plastic bags, containers, and cutlery are still flooding around her.

Figure 2 Image credits to Lily Padula

Both Justin Hofman and Lily Padula have shared on social media about the plastic crisis.

Viewers of each photo can share across social platforms spreading awareness among their friends whether they decide to reduce their own use of single use plastics.

Environmental organizations can reach out to celebrity names to further their social media presence and fight; however, the opposite, a rapper named Lil Dicky released a song in support of 2019’s Earth Day. The rapper collaborated with around 30 artists and Leonardo

DiCaprio to share with listeners the importance of understanding human’s impact on climate change. Although the rapper stated in a Rolling Stone interview that the origin of the song had no environmental activism focus, but he did have a slight understanding of the anthropogenic Petsch 5 change humans have caused on Earth, such as pollution. Along with the music video of different artists from various genres casted as animals, Lil Dicky launched a website giving fans more information on climate change as well as ways to help, for example buying merch with all proceeds going to help the planet, signing a petition that calls for government leaders to support a Global Deal for Nature, etc. (Green, 2019).

Along with information regarding renewable energy and deforestation, on Lil Dicky’s website welovetheearth.org a direct link to the website for #FridaysForFuture, or sometimes also known as #ClimateStrike. #FridaysForFuture was started by a Swedish teenager, Greta

Thunberg, the hashtag and movement calls for people and students to protest the government and societal requirement for children to attend school in order to become educated for a future they see will not be inhabitable by the time it comes around. Greta Thunberg is one of the main figureheads for the movement and consistently calls on politicians to support science and scientist when making new laws that impact the earth and climate, may that be laws in business, health regulation, or others. Around the globe, school children have access to the internet and each other that previous generations never had. The impact of hashtags and internet events allow word of a protest or movement to spread quickly and worldly.

Environmental cyberactivism is fueled by hashtags and geo-tagging events and places; bringing people together during disasters as well as bringing people out into nature to ground them back to Earth in hopes they will too want to help protect and preserve. The internet and social media have given an influencer aspect to environmentalism grown from young entrepreneurs who have “fostered cross-cultural literacies, raised the value of digital estates, demonstrated the potential of networked social movements, and seen the spread of vernacular practices on a global scale” (Abidin, pg. 87). Environmental influencers can originate out of a Petsch 6 activist group, like Greta Thunberg, or from certified social media persons with a large following base, like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Social media sites, like and Twitter, allow “citizens to engage with each other and learn more about pressing societal issues” (Carew, 2014) as well as maintain communication between friends and family. Environmental organizations using social networking platforms give users quick access to the frontlines with originally 140 character per tweet but has been increased to 280 character. Organizations’ Twitter accounts and hashtags can create “Twitter storms” around environmental issues, for instance in 2013 the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) created a campaign hashtag, #Iam4rhinos to coincide with World Rhino Day and bring awareness to the increase of rhino poaching in . Hashtags, like #Iam4rhinos, make environmental topics more visible to users, however users’ “slacktivism” is typical to make campaigns and hashtags highly popular. #Iam4rhinos was one of the biggest Twitter campaigns originated around a predetermined hashtag with around 53,624 Twitter users shared over

150,000 tweets. Twitter users and their “slacktivism” involved with #Iam4rhinos used their tweets to call upon popular celebrities and even the Queen of to join in the spreading of the hashtag and information regarding rhino poaching (Carew, 2014).

The access to social media by environmental organization allows groups to disseminate their platform and messages within a short, dynamic method to a diverse consumer base; similar to how large-scale environmental organization use social media, people in communities devastated by environmental issues, such as hurricanes, access to clean water, etc., can humanize the issues for the world to see and show sympathy (Moss 2016). Humanizing natural disasters and other environmental issues help propel environmental activism groups’ platforms among governmental organizations. However, in some cases, such as hurricanes and large floods, Petsch 7 crowdsourcing and acts of “clicktivism” are ways people can give toward a cause. For instance, after Hurricane Sandy devastated New York, a group partially resurrected from Occupy Wall

Street offered “mutual aid, solidarity, and direct participation” (Tufekci, pg. 215) for the families in the area which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not able to deliver.

Five years after Sandy, Hurricane Harvey hit the Greater Houston Area in groups and individuals took to raising funds and supply aid to residents effected by the immense flood waters, like that of the Occupy Sandy organizations in New York. Using his celebrity status created from America’s national sport of Football, JJ Watt took to social media to share a video of himself watching news coverage of devastated areas in Houston. In the caption of the video, he includes a link to a crowdsourcing page, “YouCaring.com/JJWatt”, encouraging donations of any size in order to help “our communities and the families of our great city to rebuild” (Boren,

2017). Watt is very supported by the city of Houston, although it is not his home state, offered the recognition of his name to popularize an online fund where he would “match the first

$100,000 in donations” with his own money.

Environmental cyberactivism is equally interested in mitigating anthropogenic change as it is natural disasters that threaten human safety, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, etc. In most cases, environmental disasters are labeled with a hashtag to connect social media users together for aid and shelter. Similarly, Facebook starting in 2017 began offering a permanent tab that collects users’ statuses marking themselves “safe from [disastrous event]” to share with friends and family members after increased amounts of “terrorist attacks and extreme weather events” (Kastrenakes, 2017). Facebook’s “safe from [disastrous event]” and crowdsourcing

Typically used after disaster strikes Petsch 8

Environmental cyberactivism can take different forms, from organizing rallies and strikes, encouraging local projects and movements, or simply educating others on important issues through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Connections between organizations and users allows for the accessibility to information regarding issues as well as move past “slacktivism” to empower people to act past a share or “like” (Hodson et al., 2018) or promote change within personal lifestyles creating activists (Tufekci, pg. 16). “Weak social ties are part of every [social] network, and can be highly beneficial to accelerate innovation by bringing more diverse people with different experience together” (Hodson et al., 2018) because of shared interests. Unifying and displaying public opinions across social media can give the ability to adapt and quickly change strategies (Fuchs, pg 231) as well as place pressure on political members and lawmakers to act in the best interest of the public and environment.

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Annotated Bibliography

Abidin, Crystal, Internet Celebrity, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018.

Environmental Cyberactivism can use social media influencers in order to reach users quickly. Her book explains the entrepreneur spirit of influencers, but I was most interested in the impact these social media users have on environmental issues.

Boren, Cindy, “Houston sports stars leverage social media to help victims of Hurricane Harvey”, , Aug 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early- lead/wp/2017/08/28/as-harvey-rages-on-clint-capela-and-j-j-watt-harness-the-power-of- social-media-to-help-houston-residents/?utm_term=.f29407c012cd.

Crowdsourcing during an environmental disaster can support the argument of “slacktivism” but the use of an influencer, like JJ Watt and other athletes, can produce monetary aid quickly.

Carew, Joanne, “Online Environmental Activism in South Africa: A Case Study of #IAM4RHINOS Twitter Campaign”, Global Media Journal: African Edition, 2014, Vol 8 (2):207-230.

This case study supports how Twitter can spread information quickly and globally in the benefit of an environmental issue through the use of a case study centered around Twitter, the WWF, and rhino conservation.

Fridays for Future, https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/.

Fridays for Future is both a hashtag and an organization rallying students to strike from school in order to achieve the public and lawmakers’ attention when it comes to making new regulations toward climate change. I found this organization from rapper Lil Dicky’s website about his music video. Fridays for Future organizational page speaks of hashtags and Twitter accounts which creates a community of protesters around the world.

Fuchs, Christian, Social Media: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edition, Los Angeles: Sage, 2017.

Along with Tufekci, Fuchs introduces Morozov’s idea of “slacktivism.” Fuchs furthers Morozov’s discussion by comparing it to Shirkey’s argument that “slacktivism” is important to physical activism as it distributes the environmental issue’s information among social media.

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Greene, Andy, “Lil Dicky Enlists Bieber, Ariana, Halsey, Shawn Mendes for All-Star ‘Earth’ Video,” Rolling Sone, April 19, 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music- news/lil-dicky-enlists-bieber-ariana-halsey-shawn-mendes-for-all-star-earth-video- 823618/.

Rapper Lil Dicky’s song and music video “Earth” introduces the environmental importance to the public as a catchy song with various celebrities. His music video links viewers to a website he set up with more climate change information and groups as well as links to buy merchandise where proceeds go toward climate change organizations.

Hodson, Jaigris, Ann Dale, and Brigitte Petersen, “The Instagram #climatechange Hashtag Community: Does it Impact Social Capital and Community Agency?”, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Vol 12, Issue ¾, 2018.

Involving Twitter and other social networking sites allows for environmental discourse to be shared and added to quickly because of hashtags. The article by Hodson et al. reports the use of “slacktivism” of itself as well as sees its potentiality to create activists in the real world.

Hofman, Justin, “Seahorse with plastic q-tip”, Instagram, Sep. 12, 2017, https://www.instagram.com/justinhofman/?hl=en.

Hofman’s image of a seahorse holding a q-tip with its tail was one of the first images I thought of when I began arguing the impacts of environmental cyberactivism. Images like these are quick to “share” and “like” supporting arguments regarding “slacktivism” but also giving fuel to environmental organizations that are driven to reduce single use plastic waste ending up in Earth’s oceans.

Houck, Brenna, “How the Plastic Straw Ban Became a Trend of 2018,” Eater, Dec 27, 2018, https://www.eater.com/2018/12/27/18156734/plastic-straw-ban-biggest-trend-2018.

Unlike Viswanathan, Houck explains the reasons environmental organizations, like the Surfrider Foundation, have called for bans against plastic straws. This article gave more information regarding “slacktivism” within environmental cyberactivism.

Kastrenakes, Jacob, “Facebook launched a dedicated tab for Safety Check”, , Aug 21, 2017, https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/21/16179530/facebook-safety-check-feature- gets-own-tab.

Environmental cyberactivism creates a connection between users in order to humanize environmental disasters, Facebook’s safety check status allows friends and family members to see that the ones they care about are safe from a disaster.

Padula, Lily, “Woman removing plastic straws from the ocean”, Instagram, Jan. 2, 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJ5zeKBJXP/. Petsch 11

Images can be quickly shared across social media accounts with limited text and allow for connotative and denotative discourse to take place among users. Padula’s image of a woman wading in the ocean holding an armful of plastic straws furthers the act of “slacktivism” as well as critics it.

Tufekci, Zeynep, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, New Haven and : Yale University Press, 2017.

Environmetnal cyberactivism can be criticized by some as “slacktivism” where the issue is furthered or achieved by physical inactivity and “shares” and “likes”. Tufekci mentions Morozov and “slacktivism” but also sections regarding Operation Sandy can denotate crowdsourcing as a factor working for environmental cyberactivism.

Viswanathan, Radhika, “Why Starbucks, Disney, and the EU are all shunning plastic straws”, Vox, Dec 21, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17488336/plastic-straw-ban-ocean- pollution.

Single use plastic is one of the main arguments of environmental activists. This article explains the pros and cons of fighting to ban plastic straws as there are people who require the use of straws as well as there are more types of plastic waste in the oceans.