click2engage

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is due to taking place, between the 7^th and the 18^th of December 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark and the online world has been buzzing with numerous news, articles, blogs, tweets and Facebook updates regarding climate change. Chances are you either received or seen a plea for signing an online petition which, presumably, will make a positive difference in the actions will the world leaders take on the matter of climate change.

Listed below are some of the, possibly, best known “calls to action” and some statistics on their online presence:

Initiative Description		fans	followers
On the 15th of October, bloggers around the world wrote about the issue of climate change in a unified attempt to raise awareness on the seriousness of the subject.They’ve all reached an incredible 18,085,076 readers!	13, 605 blogs registered from 156 countries	53	5,634
On 24 October, people in 181 countries came together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history	+ 5,200 worldwide events + 22,000 submitted photos	65,268	12,054
“the world’s biggest, most diverse mandate – showing our leaders that the world is ready for a bold climate deal in Copenhagen”	10,505,591	14,280	4,470
“the petition will serve as a reminder that our leaders must negotiate a fair, balanced and effective agreement in Copenhagen (…) that will benefit all nations and people”	438,681	10,249	12,877
Vote to add more weight to the worldwide mandate for positive action against global warming.	1,229,023 Votes in 207  countries	101,768	19,391

At first glance it all seems very impressive: over 10 million people expressed their support for this cause!

From the safety and warmth of our homes, sitting comfortably in front of a computer!

Dare I ask, how will this “passive digital activism” have an impact on what the leaders of the world will decide?

Are online petitions and social media tools truly effective in the attempts of organisations or individuals to gain support / fight for a cause?

The only example that I could dig up so far, was a group on Facebook that had a real contribution in the cancellation by the UK government of the vote on concealing MPs’ expenses. More than 10,000 people joined the group and sent thousands of emails to MP’s about this matter. The group stirred the online waters quite a bit and managed to get some media coverage.

I would love to know if there are cases out there where this type of approach triggered the change desired by those who “signed” the petitions or joined groups on social networking platforms. If you do have such an example, please do share it with the rest of us!

However, despite the fact that I’m basically saying that “seeing is believing”, I also feel that this type of online engagement in social causes (whatever they may be) can have a positive impact in terms of creating awareness and changing some aspects of our lives, by simply empowering or, perhaps, inspiring individuals to make a change themselves. And I think Patrick Ball – Director of Human Rights Program, Benetech perfectly described this issue by saying:

Internet plays a critical, amplifying role in any production, idea that has to get to the world

And if Sami Ben Gharbia, Advocacy Coordinator, Global Voices Online is right in saying that

Empowering the individual to make changes won’t change the world but it is changing some aspects of our lives,

then I’m asking you:

How do these campaigns influence you in taking action?