Let Your Voice Be Heard (UPDATED)

There are many ways to do good for the environment, and there are many things that you can do as an individual.  However, there are some things that are best done by governments, such as pass laws to fund large clean energy projects or set emissions limits.   When there is something you want to see the government do, the most effective way to let your voice be heard is to call your local, state or US representative and let them know what you think.  To be clear, unless you’re calling your local town council person, you’re not likely to get them on the phone, you’re going to get a staffer in their office.  However, that staffer, and all their other staff, are keeping careful track of what issues people are calling about, both pro and con, and how many calls they’re getting.   They monitor email as well, and it is not bad to send email,  but they know as well as you and I do that it is *easy* to get people to send an email, or fill out a form to have an automated email sent.   It’s a lot harder these days to get people to make a phone call about an issue, so they’re only getting calls from people who really care.  It also takes real time from real staffers to field these calls, so they get more attention from your representative.

 Today I got perhaps the most effective political action phone call I’ve ever received.   I must say that I’m not sure what group it was that called me,  but their goal was to get me to make a phone call to my new US State Senator,  Scott Brown.   The person who called asked me if he could connect me to Scott Brown’s office so that I could tell his staffer that I am one of Senator Brown’s constituents and that I’m in favor of the Clean Energy Jobs Bill and I want him to vote for it. [Note update on Jobs Bill at the end of the article.]

I try to be very careful about what I’m saying I’m in favor of, and I didn’t want to find out later that this was one of those tricky things that sounds like one thing but is really something else, so I told him that I wasn’t really familiar with this bill.  When he told me that it was co-authored by Senator Kerry, I said “stop right there, if Senator Kerry wrote the bill, then I’m sure I’m in favor of it.” OK,  I’m a little biased, but I didn’t want to waste his time if I didn’t need any more information.   I agreed that he could connect me to the Senator’s office because I have heard of the bill Senator Kerry had sponsored and I do support it.

When I was connected to the Senator’s office I ended up speaking to his voicemail.  The message stated that if I have a specific need that I should fax it to them, but that otherwise I could leave a message.   I left a message with my full name, that I was a constituent,  my address and that I want him to support this bill and anything else that is in favor of clean energy.

It’s easy to click on a form and send an email through sites like moveon.org, and I encourage you to get on their email lists and send those emails.  However,  to have your voice be really effective, it’s important to pick up the phone and make the phone calls.

One site that provides you with information about who to call and what to tell them is 1sky.org.   This site actually has a tool that helps you make these calls without running up your phone bill (other than paying for incoming calls).  You enter your phone number and address and then their system calls your phone with a connection to your Senator’s office.  They even provide you with talking points and what the important issues of the day are.  If you would rather call yourself, they also have a lookup based on zipcode to provide you with the phone numbers for your US Senators and Representatives.

1sky.org has a lot of great information about actions you can take in person as well as coordinating phone calls and other campaigns.   They focus on climate issues and have a page on their positions.

It’s important that each of us continue to turn off the lights, compost our food scraps and recycle,  however, take a minute to reach out to your government as well.  Here in the US, the most effective way for most of us to do that is with a phone call (outside of voting on Election Day!)

Happy Greening,
Alicia

Feb 23, 2010: Update on the Clean Jobs Bill: It is going to the Senate floor for voting, because Senator Brown, the one I called, voted with the Democrats.   WBZ TV Boston Coverage   Wall Street Journal Coverage