I have been feeling despondent. Why I am trying so hard to prevent further climate breakdown in my small orbit when all around me world leaders seem to pay mere lip service to actual climate action. I want to know how to make them listen. As ordinary people, already busy and beleaguered, what can we actually do to get politicians to listen to us? Having accepted that I am not going to be a Thunbergian trailblazer or Extinction Rebellion radical, here’s my guide to constructively lobbying politicians to help create the change we so desperately need in this world.

STOP AIMING FOR PERFECTION

I avoided engaging with politicians for years because I thought in order to send an email, express an opinion, have a simple conversation about anything I cared about, I needed to sound like the political editor of The Irish Times. This is folly. If I wait to construct the perfect email, I will never write a word. What we strive for when pestering politicians isn’t perfection; it’s practice. A consistent act that, just like exercise or Wordle, we sometimes nail, sometimes fail at, but always attempt. So, stop waiting for the perfect moment, perfect subject line, killer opening sentence and just write.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

The more personal our investment in an issue, the more compelling our argument. Think of the abortion referendum in 2018 or the 2015 marriage equality campaign. What sways governments more than science and fact are the stories and suffering of its people. The same is true of climate change. Greta Thunberg became a global climate icon because she took a seemingly intangible issue and made it personal for millions of people. Our leaders already have all the science and facts at their disposal. That is not what they need from us. What they need is our emotion, our ability to care. So, in your emails, in your letters, in your chats in the supermarket, on your doorstep, make it personal. The most important thing we can bring – and ironically the thing we value the least – is the unique insight of our own experiences. Don’t doubt them. Don’t apologise for them. Voice them.

TURN SOCIAL MEDIA RANTS INTO EMAILS

Just don’t do it on social media. Yes, it’s cathartic and yes, it’s gratifying to be endorsed by likes and shares and retweets. But that’s just about all it is, according to those in politics. Instead, redirect the energy of a social media rant into an email. An email to a TD or better yet, many emails to a TD, will achieve far more than your top-performing social media post. Here’s a quick checklist to make your email stand out:

• Keep it short: two-three paragraphs is more than enough.

• Include a personal subject line and a clear call to action (i.e. what you need from the person you are contacting: can they vote a certain way, raise an issue, provide information?).

• Don’t use form emails (premade templates sent via third party sites) unless you are going to change the subject line and personalise the body text.

• Always highlight that you are their constituent and have the power to re-elect them.

TURN EMAILS INTO CALLS

While emailing is better than petition-signing, Facebook ranting, or form mailing, a phone call will trump the impersonal formality of an email every time. Not only is calling a TD more personal – think of the times you’ve cried listening to Joe Duffy – it’s also far harder to ignore. A ringing phone isn’t just an expression of interest, it’s an annoyance. If workers spend all day answering calls on the same issue, isn’t it pretty likely that every effort will be made to resolve that issue, for no other reason than nothing else is getting done? Of course, meeting your TDs in person – approaching them in the supermarket or attending a town hall meeting – multiplies the impact of what you have to say.

PROTESTS WORK!

In Australia, Germany and Sweden, forest occupations have overturned court verdicts, saving woodlands from destruction (temporarily at least). In the UK, the infamous Extinction Rebellion protests of 2019 led the UK government to become the world’s first legislator to declare a climate emergency. Interest and concern around climate change consequently soared amongst British citizens. Even failed protests can be transformative. The inspirational protests of North American Indigenous communities against the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line 3 projects, though ultimately unsuccessful, still achieved monumental carbon savings. Indigenous resistance to these and other fossil fuel projects has avoided 0.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions being released annually – that’s twelve per cent of the US and Canada’s total yearly emissions.

DO WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT

My final piece of advice, coming both from the experts and my most earnest heart, is simply to do what you can. To find whatever you’re good at, and do that well. If you’re good at taking care of people, then take care of the protestors outside the Dáil. Cook for them, mind their children while they attend meetings, help with social media, carpool. If you’re a good communicator, hop on the phone on your lunch break. If you have a way with words, write emails on your commute and share the template with friends, making it easier for them to act and multiplying your own impact by ten, 20, 30 times its original size. For the artists and makers, use your work to, in the words of the late Toni Cade Bambara, African-American author, documentary-maker and social activist, “make revolution irresistible”. Political pestering is hard. It’s uncomfortable, it’s inconvenient, it’s unglamorous and it’s often unrewarding. Although it might not feel like it makes any difference, there is a chance – potent and strong – that it might make all the difference. Try it. 

Follow Holly on Instagram @holly_hughes_words