Campaigning To "Save Our Seasons"

On Being Publicly Political

The frightening thing about being politically active is that you can never really know enough to get started. To me, the politically active were a different class of people entirely: they were more informed, more argumentative, and more accomplished in the age-old art of rhetoric – in a word, they were intimidating. I’ve been a conscientious citizen for a long time - I recycle, I drive a fuel-efficient car, I compost and I vote. But outside of these anonymous and private (though, yes, significant) decisions to take control of the size and extent of my own environmental footprint, I have done very little in the vein of direct public participation.

This year, however, I came out. When I began volunteering with the Carbon Coalition this fall, I was commissioned as a bird-dogger. Bird-dogging, for those of you who haven’t before carried this title, entails talking to political candidates about their views on specific issues. The benefit of bird-dogging is that it is a way for citizens to express to politicians those issues that are of deep concern to the voting public. It is also a way of informing other citizens about problems that affect them.

For the Carbon Coalition, the issue of global climate change is of deep concern. Very careful research confirms that the ocean is rising, the ice caps are melting and the temperature is climbing. Each part of the world is telling its own story about the effects of these events. If you talk to anyone who lives on an island, they will tell you about the increasing scope of flooding and coastal storms. In Alaska, they will tell you about the changing migratory patterns of their birds. Here in New England, the sugar maples tell us their story: New Hampshire and Vermont are becoming inhospitable hosts. Tapping occurs a month earlier than it did for our forbearers and with decreasing results.

As both a non-partisan bird-dogger representing the Carbon Coalition and as a citizen, I have spent the last few months attending town meetings and gatherings across New Hampshire talking to presidential candidates about this topic. What have I learned? For one thing, my myth of the politically active as an elite group of super-people has been dispelled. It was an outstanding experience to have been surrounded by citizens who have been likewise compelled to seek out their presidential hopefuls and find out for themselves who might next lead our country. However smoothly or gracelessly, people all over this state were able to approach their candidates and investigate their ideas and their visions for our country.

For the candidates themselves, who could say how willing they would be to discuss topics that did not involve the vocabulary of Iraq, security, economy, health care or education? After having heard in person from Joe Lieberman, Howard Dean and John Edwards on the subject of global climate change, however, I am heartened to know that they have done their homework. Each was willing to talk at length about their environmental plans and concerns. From the consistent efforts of citizens across the states and groups like the Carbon Coalition, the message of a strong need for environmental care and leadership has broken through and the candidates are responding.

I also believe that I am not alone in my hesitation to pull back the protective shroud of political anonymity. Many of us shy away from political debate and public participation because it’s possible that we are not absolutely informed about the many issues confronting us. But perhaps we are hard on ourselves. To have had the opportunity to speak directly with those whom we hope will have the chance to invest in creating positive and lasting change in America was a real gift. As I overheard someone saying once, something worth doing is worth doing badly at first. I believe that public participation in the democratic process is worth doing badly at first. We’ve all got to start somewhere.

Emily Mason is currently a student in the field of environmental science at Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, New Hampshire. She began volunteering with the Carbon Coalition this year and continues to be active with the organization.