“Taking Action in Community Is Much, Much Preferable to Doing It Alone”: An Examination of Multi-Level Facilitators of and Barriers to Sustained Collective Climate Change Activism Among US Residents

Abstract

To enact climate mitigation policies, sustained collective activism is essential to create political pressure and prioritize addressing climate change. Climate change activism includes behaviors such as contacting elected officials to urge them to take action on climate change, volunteering, and signing petitions. Climate change activism is often measured as a one-time event, not sustained activism efforts, which are necessary to enact sufficiently impactful policy changes. To examine barriers to and facilitators of sustained climate change activism, 23 in-depth interviews were conducted between August and December 2023 among members of an innovative national climate change-focused organization. Eligibility included being at least 18 years of age, English-speaking, a US resident, and highly engaged in a climate change activism group. Content analysis of interview transcripts was employed, and five themes emerged as barriers, four themes as facilitators, and five themes as both facilitators of and barriers to sustained climate change activism. The study identified strategies to promote the critical behavior of sustained climate change activism, which included fostering a community of climate change activists, clear instructions on how to engage in activism behaviors for all technical abilities, supporting mental health, and creating climate change activism as a habit and identity.

1. Introduction

Climate change is a critical global threat to public health, safety, and well-being. Extreme weather and climate change facilitate hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, flooding, and wildfires, impacting all dimensions of human health. To curtail the deleterious impacts of climate change, it is critical that policy solutions are swiftly implemented. Despite the robust body of literature documenting the adverse effects of climate change, the development and implementation of policy solutions have been grossly inadequate in the United States. Greater collective action or activism is necessary to resolve these current shortcomings in policy response to address climate change. Climate change activism includes contacting elected officials to urge them to take action to reduce climate change, voting for candidates who support measures to reduce climate change, as well as donating money, volunteering with organizations, attending protests, and signing petitions [1,2]. In the United States, there is a high level of concern about climate change, with more than 64% of residents reporting concern about climate change [3]. Yet few concerned about climate change engage in activism behaviors, with only 21% of US residents engaging in climate change activism behaviors in 2023, a decline from 24% in 2021 [4]. Even among those who report engagement in climate change activism, this may only entail a one-off activity and not sustained activism efforts, which are necessary to enact sufficient policy changes. This study sought to understand strategies to promote sustained climate change activism by assessing facilitators of and barriers to climate change activism among US residents who are regularly engaged in a climate change activism organization.

Climate change activism involves a paradigm shift for many, as attention on behaviors to address climate change and other environmental issues has traditionally focused on individual-level, pro-environmental actions such as recycling, plant-based diets, using public transportation, and reducing energy consumption. While individual-level climate change actions have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, these behaviors do not have the capacity to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate on a global scale. To significantly mitigate global warming, the focus should move away from individual-level behavior and instead focus on collective activism to support strategies that can mitigate climate change at scale, such as policies to invest in green energy and carbon sequestration through reforestation and reducing deforestation [5]. In the US, where climate change is often a partisan issue, creating political pressure to prioritize and enact climate change mitigation policies through collective action is essential.

Despite the critical need for widespread climate change activism, only a small percentage of the public actively participates. Environmental organizations may be able to help address this gap by recruiting and training members to advocate for climate-friendly policies. Many environmental organizations already provide opportunities to engage in climate change activism, but these opportunities are frequently narrow in scope and duration, typically focusing on a specific issue, such as a fossil fuel pipeline or a short-term event, such as a strike or lobbying for/against the passage of a bill [6]. Furthermore, the activism engagement strategies employed by environmental organizations vary, notably in their use of different modalities, such as online or in-person activities. Often, online activities require minimal effort, such as e-signing a petition to be sent to a legislator. However, few environmental organizations primarily focus on sustaining long-term, collective climate change activism. Han and colleagues make the theoretical distinction between organizations focused on time-limited engagement versus long-term collective engagement. Specifically, Han and colleagues classify organizations by primary engagement strategies identifying three types of organizations—mobilizers, organizers, and lone wolves [7]. Mobilizer-focused organizations tend to have a large membership and use advocacy strategies that require minimal engagement, often prioritizing broad participation over more intense involvement, whereas organizer-focused organizations invest in developing leaders and emphasize building relationships among members and the community. These endeavors are often time-intensive. Lone-wolf mobilization focuses on the individual and not on building collective capacity.

The advent of teleconferencing, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to the rise of hybrid organizations that have both in-person and online components, containing elements of both mobilizers and organizers. These organizations utilizing hybrid modalities have the potential to have larger membership, lower investment for participation, and varied levels of social interaction. This analysis focuses on one such organization that has capitalized on this hybrid approach. Primarily engaging individuals via Zoom teleconferencing, the nonpartisan organization promotes active civic engagement to accelerate systemic solutions to the climate crisis. We will refer to this organization using the pseudonym Climate Mitigation Action (CMA). The organization encourages one hour of activism each week and provides written guidance that outlines specific steps to urge elected officials and other decision-makers across all levels of government in the US to implement climate change solutions. Participants of CMA can elect to attend a virtual hour of activism, complete the action independently using the written guidance, or, in select metropolitan locations, participate in in-person opportunities. CMA’s approach to climate activism engagement provides opportunities for developing social relationships while also potentially reducing transportation and time barriers for those involved virtually. However, such a configuration may have other barriers or impede certain facilitating factors present in traditional organizer-focused organizations. Given the potential of environmental organizations such as CMA to promote collective action, it is important to document barriers to and facilitators of sustained participation. Research on social movements and collective action indicates that building a successful social movement requires more than shared values [8,9]: strong connections and relationships between movement participants are critical in driving sustained action [8,9].

Previous research on climate change activism has often defined and measured climate change activism as one-time event [10]. A small body of research has identified various factors impacting engagement in climate change activism behaviors, including self-efficacy and mental health. A study by Garfin and colleagues on climate change activism behaviors among a representative sample of Texas and Florida residents repeatedly exposed to climate-related hazards found that self-efficacy and response efficacy in regard to climate activism was low; however, when efficacy was present, it was associated with increased activism engagement [11]. Some research has examined the relationship between climate anxiety and climate activism. Climate stress/anxiety has been associated with various positive climate activism behaviors, such as canvassing and voting in accordance with climate interests [11,12,13,14]. Despite evidence favoring climate anxiety as a facilitator for climate activism, the harms of climate anxiety and distress, such as impaired cognitive functioning and mental illness facilitated by stress, despair, and hopelessness, may hinder action in some individuals [14]. Additionally, a meta-analysis assessing the relationship between self-identity and environmentalism found associations between pro-environmental behaviors and connectedness to nature, self-identity, and social identity [15]. In a national longitudinal study, Latkin and colleagues assessed barriers to climate change activism engagement [16]. Commonly expressed barriers reported in this study included “I haven’t been trained”, “Not encouraged to become involved”, “Too busy”, and “Other people reacting negatively to involvement.” The findings largely align with a large study of UK university researchers across disciplines and career stages, which found that the majority of respondents wanted to do more themselves to address climate change [17]. However, high workload, uncertainty about what actions to take and perceived lack of agency or power were some of the many barriers researchers face in taking action to address climate change.

The current body of research on factors impacting engagement in climate change activism is limited in that it has largely assessed climate change activism as a one-time event, such as a specific protest or behavior like donating to a climate change organization [10]. This is not surprising, given the large variability in measures of climate change activism, which range from voting every few years to joining a climate group [10]. It is critical to understand factors impacting sustained activism in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement climate mitigation policies. Additionally, targeting individuals who have already engaged in climate change activism may be a feasible and efficient strategy to build a collation of climate change activists who are involved in sustained collective actions to mitigate climate change. This study addresses this gap by examining individuals’ perceptions and experiences of facilitators of and barriers to their involvement in sustained climate change activism among a group engaged in climate change activism via a hybrid organization.

2. Materials and Methods

Interviews were conducted with 23 participants between August and December 2023 on Zoom and lasted approximately one hour each. The study used purposive sampling. Participants were eligible for the study if they were over 18 years of age, English-speaking, United States residents, and highly engaged in climate change activism (attended at least four action meetings with CMA in the previous 90 days). Participants were recruited through CMA. CMA contacted eligible participants and provided the research team with a list of eligible individuals who indicated that they were willing to be interviewed by the research team (Supplement Figure S1). Standard qualitative research methods were employed, with recruitment ending once code and meaning saturation had been reached [18].

The interview guide was developed by the study team that had expertise in climate change activism and behavior change. The guide was informed by climate change activism research, which highlights the wide variety of definitions of climate change activism [10]. Additionally, CMA reviewed the guide and provided feedback. The interview guide was further refined during the first three surveys to ensure the clarity and specificity of questions. The interview guide probed participants’ personal definitions of climate change activism, engagement in activism activities, and what climate change media they had consumed. After the participants provided their perceptions of climate change activism, to ensure consistency, participants were provided a standardized definition of climate change activism as “engaging in behaviors like volunteering with organizations that work to mitigate climate change, contacting elected officials to advocate for climate change policies, voting for candidates who support climate change mitigation, or attending protests/rallies related to climate change issues.” The guide also assessed facilitators of and barriers to sustained climate change activism. Example interview questions and probes included the following. “What are some of the challenges you face with engaging in climate change activism”? “What things prevent you from doing more climate change activism”? “What things in your life support your engagement in climate change activism”? “What/who helps you engage in climate change activism”? “What things make it easier for you to engage in climate change activism”?

Interviews were recorded, and audio files were transcribed verbatim. Dedoose, a qualitative software program, was used for data management and analysis [19]. Data were analyzed using a content analytic approach [20]. Transcripts were read to achieve immersion. Next, a codebook was iteratively developed by the whole research team based on the interview guide, study aims, summaries of the interviews, and transcripts. Three study team members coded the transcripts. To build consensus on the coding strategy, three transcripts were coded independently by the three team members, and discrepancies were discussed and resolved by consensus. Codes were then sorted into meaningful clusters or themes. Codes and themes were compared across transcripts to identify commonalities across the sample. Strategies used to enhance the credibility of findings included journaling, triangulation, and peer debriefing [20,21]. These strategies ensure that the interpretations of the researcher reflect the perspectives of participants [21]. Throughout the study, we worked with the organization to obtain feedback on the research process, including a formal feedback session with the organization’s leadership.

3. Results

Participants’ mean age was 36 (range 27–73). Half identified as female (57%), 30% as male, and 13% as other. The majority of participants were Caucasian (83%), followed by 9% Asian, 4% Black, and 4% other. Participants were highly educated, with all participants having some college education. 22% reported engaging with CMA for five or more hours per month, 65% reported between one and four hours, and 13% reported an hour or less involvement per month. Many of the participants (61%) had engaged with CMA for a year or more, while 30% had been involved for six months to one year and 4% three to six months. Themes emerged from the analysis for facilitators, barriers, and both facilitators of and barriers to sustained climate change activism. The last category includes themes that both serve to motivate and discourage sustained activism behaviors. Five themes were identified as barriers, four themes as facilitators, and five themes as both facilitators of and barriers to sustained climate change activism (

Table 1. Barriers to and facilitators of sustained climate change activism.

Barriers to sustained climate change activism
1	Not knowing what action to take
2	Skills required/technical capacity
3	Emotional capacity, overwhelmed, and burnout
4	Lack of time
5	Political activism is not the norm
Facilitators of sustained climate change activism
1	Values, personal norms, and identity alignment
2	Habit and routine
3	Establishment of community
4	Action is personal/local
Both barriers to and facilitators of sustained climate change activism
1	Climate anxiety/distress
2	Modality of activism
3	Impact
4	Social network support
5	Geographic location

).

3.1. Barriers to Sustained Climate Change Activism

The five central themes identified as barriers to sustained climate change activism spanned multiple levels of influence and encompassed factors related to knowledge, emotion, time, and social networks. Knowledge-related barriers included uncertainty about which actions to take and lack of technical capacity. Emotional barriers involved emotional capacity and burnout. Additionally, time and social network factors played a role, specifically that climate change activism was not a social norm among family and friends.

3.1.1. Not Knowing What Action to Take

Participants expressed high levels of climate change concern, but often lacked guidance on effective actions to mitigate it or how to carry out these actions. CMA addressed this issue for many respondents by providing clear and specific instructions on how to engage in climate change activism.

I don’t think that it’s a lack of information about what’s happening. I think it’s a lack of information about how you can get involved and how simple it can be. So these hours of action are a really great example. It’s like, you dedicate one hour a week for just three weeks out of the month. So it’s the three hours a month that you’re dedicating to climate change, that is making an impact, and it’s easy and it’s accessible. I think that is really a key thing to get more people engaged.

(Non-binary, age 28)

So even if you don’t know anything about climate action, they guide you through it. Like, it’s very easy to explain what and I think a lot of the other organizations, it’s more about here’s who we are here, it’s kind of more watered down and confusing. Okay, what do you actually do? Whereas [CMA takes] guided action, they provide playbooks, it’s just different than what I have seen in any other of the groups that I was researching.

(Female, age 33)

I think they’re called calls to action, where they will send a text message. Sometimes I get these very rarely, but I really like them when I do. It says, “Hey, this is coming up.” We make a phone call regarding whatever topic to this person, or your city council person When the request is very specific, and says contact your city person about this topic, please do it by Friday. Those I find are really helpful. Because, when you’re acting alone, what I can struggle with is picking a direction to follow.

(Male, age 32)

3.1.2. Skills Required/Technical Capacity

Feelings of not being climate change experts or having the knowledge/skills to engage in specific behaviors were identified as a barrier to engaging in sustained climate change activism.

I’m worried they’ll ask me a question about a topic, and I won’t feel quite as informed on it as I would like to, so that I’ll feel flustered about answering, and so that’s kind of what leads me to not doing the phone calls is what if I what if I get a follow-up question…

(Female, age 29)

CMA helped address the barrier of not feeling like a climate change expert by providing written information on each issue. However, lack of a perceived skill set was also an identified barrier, and the type of action taken (or not taken) sometimes was related to the participant’s skill set.

I think I’m learning that I need to learn like new skills, which is like you know, to write a convincing argument, I think it’s a skill to write to like a senator in a way that sounds both like personal, but well-informed, but you know, like I think like it’s, it’s not a type of writing that I like do outside of this work, so I feel like I’m working on that, and then writing like op-eds or letters to the editor also feels like an area that is challenging for me, but luckily with this group, I don’t feel like I need to be personally an expert in any of these policies or any of the science because they lay out briefs and things like that for me, so for me, the challenges are all just kind of the writing challenges.

(Male, age 31)

I think that one of the reasons that, other people in my age range don’t love it the same way that I do is, that it is pretty technologically intensive for people that aren’t used to having three screens up.

(Female, age 73)

3.1.3. Emotional Capacity, Overwhelmed, and Burnout

Feelings of being overwhelmed and not having the psychological bandwidth due to personal factors impacted both engagement in and sustainment of activism behaviors. For some participants, the emotional strain arose from juggling conflicting priorities in their lives.

…[T]here’s mental health issues. People have with their kids or their life and they have the time, but they’re like, I can’t handle any more stress.

(Female, age 57)

With a full-time job and with a life outside of that, it’s really easy to get burnt out and then feel guilty for not taking as much action.

(Non-binary, age 28)

For others, engaging in climate change activism can feel draining, with some participants reporting feelings of burnout and exhaustion related to their activism.

I don’t want to show up to something that’s going to leave me feeling drained and scared and hopeless, right? Because that is not a place from which I can act effectively. So that’s a big one, and I think that kept me away from climate action for a long time actually, because I assumed that all spaces were like that.

(Male, age 27)

3.1.4. Lack of Time

Lack of time was a major barrier to maintaining climate change activism. Participants noted that career and family responsibilities often took precedence, which impacted their ability to commit to activism. Consequently, the available time influenced the types of activities individuals chose to participate in, such as attending rallies and city hall meetings.

I suppose career and family responsibilities are kind of what hold me back from being more involved. I mean those prior responsibilities do in my hierarchy of necessity, being able to have happy and healthy kiddos and a happy and healthy wife, and a career that lets me afford living at least the way I want to. Those do seem to come first, but I have found that I will compromise on career time specifically to engage more with climate activism. So if there’s a thing over at three o’clock at a city hall meeting, I’m going to disengage from work, attend this meeting and be really present with it and then go back to work later. I’ve taken my family to exactly one climate change meeting and it went fine. But I don’t think it’s the sort of thing I’m going to do again. Because as a parent, parenting mode and, being productive, those are two very different things. I can find I can do one or I can do the other, but I can’t do both at once.

(Male, age 32)

CMA’s hour-long activism-focused meetings helped people build climate change activism into their weekly structure, but several participants reported that if they could not make it, they had difficulty engaging independently.

At the beginning of the year, I set myself a goal to live my values more consistently. I feel like I have a set of values and I wanted to be acting on them more consistently and I set aside a certain number of hours per week for climate activism of different sorts. And just climate focused efforts outside of my day job, because like I said, I in my heart of hearts believe that the ideal activist is consistently engaged in climate activism in the ways that we described. But, what has felt difficult, especially the last couple of months as relationships in my life, just like basically as the things in my everyday life that I’m committed to have taken up more time and given me less flexibility and had me in transit, a lot has just been finding slash choosing to make the time to engage. That has been my biggest blocker in the last couple of months. For example, I really, as you can probably tell really support what [CMA] is doing. I’ve been trying to bring them to my team, et cetera. But the Thursday [CMA activism hour], that I was going to most often, I haven’t been able to make it to a number of weeks just because that hour on Thursdays, there’s been other things that pushed me and then I don’t do a good job of doing the action independently another time or signing up for a different [CMA activism hour]. So, time has felt hard. Finding the time, the energy during that time has been probably my biggest blocker.

(Male, age 27)

3.1.5. Political Activism Is Not the Norm

Many participants reported that political or climate change activism was not a common practice within their social networks.

I would say is that in general, even people who might vote like me and have similar beliefs to mine, don’t feel compelled to political activism and I was raised in a family where that was pretty much, we did it, even as a child.

(Female, age 73)

Participants shared experiences of attempting to recruit family and friends with mixed results. Some felt discouraged by their lack of success in engaging their networks or perceived a lack of support for their activism from those close to them.

I’ve been trying to bring friends into this, and I find people are pretty like disengaged, so I think like people close to me not being more involved in this kind of activism probably keeps it from feeling like a more organic part of my life, and I think at times just the feeling of pessimism can, can make it something I, a topic I don’t want to engage in more than this, this once a week kind of way.

(Male, age 31)

3.2. Facilitators of Sustained Climate Change Activism

As the participants in this study were engaged in climate change activism, they could identify factors that promoted their sustained involvement in activism behaviors. Key facilitators of sustained climate change activism included both individual-level and social network factors. Individual-level factors included self-identity as a climate activist and establishing climate change activism as a habitual practice. Social network factors were also facilitators of sustained climate change activism and included the sense of community created through engaging in climate change activism with others and the feeling of supporting their local community.

3.2.1. Values, Personal Norms, and Identity Alignment

Some participants discussed how climate change activism aligned with values, personal norms, and perceptions of self. Self-identity as a climate change activist helped them prioritize engaging in activism behaviors, even when faced with conflicting priorities.

It was the feeling of my commitment to climate activism and my commitment to my values and not just holding them in principle, but acting them out in practice. That is rising above the noise and rising above the, not the noise. That is rising above the cycles and day-to-day ups and downs and feelings and commitments of my life and is taking the place that it, it should be, it was the feeling of my, the ways that I allocate my time and energy are aligned with how I believe that I should be and that felt really good.

(Male, age 27)

A few participants also discussed how being recognized as a climate change activist by family and friends was motivating for them. They wanted to maintain their reputation and felt supported by their network for having this identity.

My family and friends, I’m the weird one in the family, and I get gentle teasing. But overall, they’re very proud of me. Which is really helpful. Because it’s hard being the weird one. It’s nice that I have a supportive family who, I have a hard time activating them. But they’re very kind and sweet and supportive of the work I’m doing, and if I can give them a, hey, sign this petition, sign this, call your rep about this thing, or do that, one of those email forms. Tell them that you care about this. They’ll do that. It’s just more continuous engagement they really struggle with. But it is helpful. It’s hard being the weird one out, you know. To have a circle where at least no one’s mean to you about it is helpful.

(Female, age 29)

3.2.2. Habit and Routine

In alignment with many psychological and behavioral change theories, study findings emphasized the crucial role of habit formation in sustaining engagement in climate change activism behaviors [22,23,24]. Having the intention to engage in climate change activism often does not directly result in action without being accompanied by the establishment of cues and routines that promote and maintain the behavior.

I am a very like kind of goals and habits oriented person. I very much believe in the power of habit and that we are the sum of our habits, so I would say my belief and my desire to really form a climate activism habit, despite some of the obstacles I’ve been dealing with to doing that is something I can fall back on.

(Male, age 27)

Participants described creating structure so that activism behaviors became routine. For example, one participant described having a certain day dedicated to climate change activism.

I get into a routine. So if there’s something that’s not happening on my usual day, which is Thursday I just won’t do it. Even though they do all these cool kickoff parties on Mondays for instance and it’s not Thursday. Thursday’s my day.

(Female, age 29)

3.2.3. Establishment of Community

Being part of a community of like-minded individuals was a key factor in maintaining long-term climate change activism. Participants emphasized that belonging to a positive and goal-oriented climate change community offered both accountability and crucial support.

A bunch of other people are doing this alongside me and even if I’m not in the best of moods other people will be super jazzed about it and that kind of optimism and good vibes, a little infectious sometimes.

(Female, 31)

I think the impact is a big part, is a part of it, but there’s, I think, also, it’s the community element, right? It’s I’m not doing it by myself, because it’s not something that you can solve by yourself, obviously, because it spans the whole world. So that’s having other folks around is an important part of that, too.

(Male, age 27)

My ideal way to engage in them would be to join the Zoom calls and to do it with other people in my community close friends, family, partners around me joining with me. I definitely believe that taking action in community is much, much preferable to doing it alone. I think I prefer that so much so that when I’m not able to make it to the [CMA activism hour] I’ve had a hard time motivating myself to take the action myself.

(Male, age 27)

A few participants highlighted the significant role that community plays in easing climate anxiety and reducing feelings of isolation. While some participants preferred meeting via Zoom and others favored opportunities for in-person interactions, the central tenet that ran throughout this theme was that they liked engaging in action with others.

Once I understood what was happening I felt either I was suffering alone or I was the only one that cared or the only one that knew. This information’s been out there, why isn’t everyone terrified about this? This should be the biggest emergency ever, and people are going about the day, and so it felt isolating. So getting to see the whole group on Zoom or on Slack or whatever, it kind of pulled me out of that loneliness and isolation. Why isn’t everybody else freaking out about this?

(Male, age 33)

It’s nice to just meet people who are thinking about the same thing. I think with climate, it’s so important to meet like-minded people because it just keeps you from being siloed and stressed out all by yourself.

(Female, age 29)

3.2.4. Action Is Personal/Local

Some participants shared that they felt motivated by engaging in actions where they had a local impact. They noted that these local efforts garnered more personal feedback and provided positive reinforcement that their actions had an effect.

I find that going much smaller and much more local, you can get a lot better feedback from the people you’re writing to and that feedback, it’s basically sort of a positive reinforcement about, Oh, somebody did read this and, they may not be fully on board with what I’m trying to do, but they are at least listening and have their ears open…

(Male, age 32)

It does feel super cool to get a response from my mayor. That’s like not a generic response, it’s like, oh wow I didn’t hear, know about this, I’ll contact the school districts. I do feel like local activism does feel more effective.

(Male, age 31)

3.3. Both Barriers to and Facilitators of Sustained Climate Change Activism

Personal, social network, and geographic factors both supported and hindered sustained climate change activism behaviors. Furthermore, aspects of the activism behaviors—including the method of action and the perceived impact of the action—also influenced sustained climate change activism in both positive and negative ways.

3.3.1. Climate Anxiety/Distress

Feelings of climate change anxiety motivated and hindered ongoing involvement in climate change activism. Participants described cycling through various emotions, sometimes leading to paralysis and other times leading to action. For some, a sense of distress about climate change fueled their activism. However, several participants highlighted that working with organizations like CMA, which maintained a positive outlook on climate change mitigation, was especially helpful.

Because I think anyone who does any climate work kind of goes through this cycle of fear, denial panic, acceptance and when it comes to climate change and what it’s– like, how catastrophic it can be and I think a lot of people get in the camp of paralysis, and they know it’s a problem, and they don’t know what to do about it, and so they ignore it and then, eventually, hopefully, they make it into action, because that’s kind of the only thing you can do in the face of all of those feelings is take an action, to be effective at addressing it. So, yeah, so for me I don’t know. Climate change is something I’m constantly thinking about if I weren’t doing something about it through my job and my extracurricular activities, then I would just sit there and be anxious about it and I think the action definitely leads me to be still anxious, but less anxious, because if you’re doing something about it, that’s all you can do.

(Female, age 29)

We’re so lucky. We have this great planet that supports life so well, and we’re so perfectly adapted to it, and it’s just going to be a string of really bad days when we can’t go outside anymore. But really the great thing about [CMA] and I’m sure you’re highlighting this in your work, is how when you engage in that activism, you spend a lot less time dwelling on the negative. You feel a lot more positive. That’s my experience, at least.

(Female, age 43)

Other participants reported feeling overwhelmed by the negative impacts of climate change and a sense of helplessness regarding their ability to tackle such a large, systemic issue.

I think climate is such a humongous thing, both in terms of chronological scale, geographic scale, but also its reaching implications throughout our world. So even though the impact, yes, we all understand, suddenly we have hurricanes in California due to anthropogenic climate change. Like we have insane wildfires and droughts and all these flip-floppings of rainy versus dry seasons… I think feeling that these forces are so much bigger than you and that I can’t just call the president and be, hey, do me a solid and to declare a climate emergency, but have to be at the whim of all of these forces, is incredibly, it’s an absolutely debilitating feeling sometimes. It’s all these factors that kind of bury you at times and so it’s hard to work past that to feel like, oh, if I write this letter to the editor, everything’s going to be okay.

(Female, age 31)

3.3.2. Modality of Activism

Perceptions that climate change activism actions and organization are the right (or wrong) personal fit impacted activism behaviors. Preferences varied, with participants expressing different likes for specific types of organizations and approaches to activism. Some found it challenging to identify an organization that aligned with their preferences, especially regarding meeting formats (in person versus remote), topics addressed, and the types of activism behaviors promoted.

It felt hard to find a group that I truly aligned with that weren’t either focusing on actions that I didn’t feel were enough, or they were a little too unwilling to create a wide coalition.

(Male, age 31)

There are some of the other organizations they have face to face meetings, not as easy for me.

(Female, age 73)

Participants shared different preferences for specific activism activities compared to others. For example, a few described discomfort in activities such as making phone calls and attending protests.

I feel very anxious kind of doing those, those phone banks, because you are calling people. It’s really valuable, right? And it moves the needle in terms of who gets elected and what policies move forward. I just feel more anxious about being on the phone with people and sometimes they’re, they really don’t want to talk to you. Though sometimes it’s really nice, you meet someone who’s like, yeah, I’m definitely going to vote and I care a lot about climate change. But I think it feels a lot more low key, a lot easier to do the [CMA activism hour] where we’re meeting up together, but I’m just kind of quietly working in a Google doc on my own thing and it feels, it’s just it’s just kind of easier.

(Male, age 31)

3.3.3. Impact

A critical theme that arose from many participants was the perceptions of their actions’ impact. Perceived impact of the actions motivated engaging (or not engaging) in sustained climate change activism. Some participants talked about how protesting, signing a petition, or emailing a legislator did not feel impactful.

I don’t feel like marching on something or protesting in front of a bank building is that effective, and so I think the biggest thing is wondering about the effectiveness of the thing that you’re doing.

(Female, age 29)

The other groups seem more like come to a meeting, let’s talk about it. Let’s maybe do something once in a while. It’s like a couple of the groups, I mean, I’m on every online group imaginable, but some of them are just sign a petition. I don’t think that that has an impact, and so while I do occasionally sign a petition that seems particularly important, that doesn’t feel impactful to me.

(Female, age 73)

I think prior to recently, I would say that there’s kind of that demoralizing aspect of sending things into the abyss is definitely a big part of it and I think that’s just the way general activism works in general when you’re reaching out to your local leaders, there’s only a chance, a small chance that they’re actually going to respond and not just check a box that, you know, another email came in on that topic.

(Male, age 31)

While participants’ perception of impact varied by individual, perception of the impact of their action was a motivating (or deterring) factor for many participants.

3.3.4. Social Network Support

Encouragement from social network members—or the absence of it—played a significant role in influencing engagement. Many participants discussed having partners, family, or friends who supported their climate change efforts. The sense of support and being surrounded by like-minded peers frequently served as a motivator of their climate change activism.

So I think that they—I have the feeling of, I want to feel like their belief in me, their belief that I am an engaged person on the issue of climate change is true and not unfounded. In order to live up to their perception of me and who I want to be both to myself and in their eyes, I need to not just do climate work from nine to five and then tune out.

(Male, age 27)

I mean, I think I’ve surrounded—even outside of [CMA], I’ve surrounded myself with like-minded individuals in my social groups… just speaking about climate change is really beneficial generally and it’s a topic that I do get to talk about with people in my life all the time, because we see eye to eye on it.

(Male, age 31)

But it’s also helpful to feel recognized. So I have a lot of friends who will give me props or like say kind things to me about my activism and even though I don’t see them taking the same actions that I do, the fact that, oh, people see this and appreciate this and agree with what I’m doing and agree that it is a good and important thing. It’s helpful. I know it’s kind of small and maybe petty, but it definitely can help you sometimes when you’re feeling in the thick of it and somebody sends you a really sweet message saying that they appreciate all you do. They’re proud of you, whatever.

(Female, age 31)

However, others lacked this support and felt more alone in their concern about climate change.

3.3.5. Geographic Location

Participants’ geographic locations—such as whether they lived in urban versus rural areas or different states—affected their access to community groups, the political climate, and their exposure to climate change. These factors in turn influenced their involvement in climate change activism, both positively and negatively. For instance, one participant shared how the political climate in their state shaped their engagement in activism.

If I felt as though the people, if the governor were pro-environment, I would feel less inclined to send him a letter or to send him an email, any kind of communication, because I would feel he’s already on my team. But because he’s not on my team, I do feel more obligated to complain to him.

(Male, age 32)

Another participant explained how being in a city with many climate change organizations afforded opportunities to engage in person, which was motivating, whereas participants in other locations did not have these same opportunities.

I do also think just living in a city like New York City really helps with this. I mean, one, you have groups like [CMA] around that you can have local meetups because there’s enough of a population that’s interested.

(Male, age 31)

4. Discussion

The study findings validate and extend the body of literature on climate change activism. Through a focus on sustained climate change activism, these findings illuminate potential strategies to promote long-term engagement in climate change activism, an understudied yet critical component to ensuring that climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are passed and implemented. By studying both facilitators and barriers, we were able to triangulate psychosocial factors linked to sustained participation in climate change activism. The demographic profiles of participants reflected other research on climate change activists in the US that has identified this population of activists as predominantly young, white, and highly educated [25,26,27].

Time was identified as a salient barrier to sustained climate change activism. Two concepts may help explain time as a barrier. Individuals may hold several roles, such as being a parent/caregiver or occupying multiple jobs, which could conflict with their ability to engage in climate change activism. While time was identified as a barrier to sustained climate change activism, habit formation was identified as a facilitator. To overcome the time barrier, encouraging climate change activism as a daily or weekly habit may promote sustained engagement. Participants reported that CMA helped foster habit formation through weekly meetings, which lasted only an hour and focused on engaging in action together. This approach champions the idea that activism does not have to require a significant time commitment. Future research should further explore the factors that promote climate change activism habit formation.

Aligning with Garfin and colleagues’ quantitative findings on climate change activism behaviors [11], self-efficacy and response efficacy factors were found to impact sustained climate action. In this study, self-efficacy was captured through the theme of “Not knowing what action to take.” Respondents reported that CMA was largely able to help them overcome this barrier through clearly identified activism items with specific instructions on how to complete the action, including talking points and templates when contacting elected officials. Other environmental organizations may benefit from integrating similar practices into their work, which may help bridge the gap between the large portion of United States residents concerned about climate change and the small percentage who are actually engaging in climate change activism. Self-efficacy was also captured through the theme of technical capacity. Participants were concerned that they would not be able to respond in an expert manner to questions and felt that they lacked specific skills in advocacy-related actions such as writing op-eds or letters to the editor. While CMA provided briefs about issues and templates to reduce this barrier, other strategies may include setting the expectation that an individual does not have to be a climate change expert when contacting elected officials: rather, officials want to hear from the lay public and that expressing concern about climate change and its impact on the community is sufficient.

Perception of the impact of activism efforts was identified as both a facilitator and barrier to sustained climate change activism. This theme aligns with Garfin and colleague’s research on response efficacy [11]. These findings offer further nuance to the construct of response efficacy and highlight that participants had varied perspectives of what actions they felt were impactful. A study theme identified as a facilitator of climate change activism was engaging in actions that were personal and local, as participants were better able to see the impact of their actions, and participants reported receiving personalized feedback from local officials. These findings suggest that climate change organizations may benefit from documenting and communicating the impact of climate change activism behaviors. Additionally, organizations may want to focus on both actions that are national in scope with the potential to have large-scale impacts, which may not be felt for a long time, as well as more local initiatives, where activists can more clearly see a response from their actions.

A key finding was the importance of community in sustaining climate change activism. Many participants felt that the community within CMA provided a sense of belonging and accountability, which propelled and sustained their activism. This aligns with findings from social movement scholars such as Tindall and colleagues, who argue for the importance of social network analysis to understand the dynamics of collective action [8]. Notably, CMA was able to foster this sense of community through largely virtual interactions. A virtual community provides opportunities for engaging a wider audience and eliminates barriers to involvement, such as transportation and geography. However, for some individuals, there are limitations to virtual communities, and in-person events may lead to stronger bonds among individuals and the group. Future research should examine the role of virtual versus non-virtual ties in promoting sustained climate change activism and how virtual ties might be strengthened. Ice-breaking exercises and greater self-disclosure may strengthen ties.

Self-identity, personal norms, and social networks also played key roles in sustained climate change activism. Prior research has documented the importance of social networks, social norms, and personal norms in environmental and climate change activism [28]. For some, social network members encouraged their climate change activism and helped reinforce their self-identity as a climate change activist. For others, climate change activism not being the norm within their network hindered engagement, and participants reported discouragement when they could not engage their network members in climate change activism. These findings highlight the importance of considering social norms in a more nuanced way. Some individuals who engage in activism will be outliers in their networks and perceive that their networks are not optimally supportive. There is likely to be support from advocacy organizations, but this support may not be extensive among mobilizer and hybrid organizations. Consequently, it may be beneficial to train activists on how to talk to their network members about activism and also lower their expectations that network members will join them in their activism. Some participants reported being perplexed about why their network members did not exhibit greater concern about climate change or involvement in climate change activism. Such participants may benefit from materials to share with their network members that match their network members’ climate change attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, as self-identification as a climate change activist was found to be a facilitator of climate change activism for some participants, it may be worthwhile for environmental activism organizations to engage in strategies to enhance this social identity for members through the provision of appropriate roles and rewards.

In concordance with previous studies, the findings show that mental health was associated with sustained climate change activism. Emotional capacity due to conflicting life priorities and burnout from engaging in climate change activism were identified as barriers to sustained climate change activism. Climate change distress was both a barrier to and facilitator of climate change activism, as it served as a motivator to engage in action, yet also contributed to burnout and feelings of hopelessness. For some, CMA helped overcome these barriers by encouraging action that could counter feelings of hopelessness and offering a positive perspective of climate change activism, emphasizing that meaningful action can be taken to reduce climate change. Organizations that promote a fatalistic perspective of climate change may contribute to feelings of hopelessness and lead to burnout. Providing social support may also mitigate burnout [29,30].

There are a few limitations to this study. First, it should be noted that the identification in this study of barriers and facilitators is not necessarily exhaustive. This may be due to the relatively short duration of interviews (60 min each) and the fact that the participants who opted to participate in the study may not fully reflect the lived experiences of climate change activists among the study population. Furthermore, since the study population was limited to one environmental organization, findings may not be relevant to all organizations engaging in climate change activism. The barriers and facilitators identified may also vary across countries based on social, economic, and political factors.

Future longitudinal qualitative and quantitative studies of climate change activism are needed to understand how engagement in climate change activism changes over time and how to increase activism. For example, life events such as having children may motivate engagement in activism, or these responsibilities may take the time previously dedicated to activism. Future research should also examine network characteristics (e.g., strong ties versus weak ties) that best explain sustained engagement in climate change activism. Network analysis can also provide insight into the role of social networks versus other factors for sustained climate change activism. To assess the generalizability of the study findings, future research can use qualitative and quantitative methods to assess if the themes that arose in this study are relevant to other populations of climate change activists. Climate change organizations should also work to ensure diversity among their members. For example, partnerships with local organizations may help diversify the membership of national-level climate change organizations. Social media data analysis may also help identify factors that attract and retain members.

5. Conclusions

Sustained change activism is critical to create pressure-sensitive policies and prioritizing efforts to address climate change, yet there is limited literature on factors impacting this behavior. Taken together, these findings illuminate that involvement in sustained climate change activism is dynamic over time, and many factors influence sustained engagement. The study findings identified several strategies to encourage sustained climate change activism, including building a supportive community of activists, providing clear guidance on how to engage in activism across various technical levels, supporting mental health, and integrating climate change activism into one’s routine and identity. These findings can assist climate change organizations to mobilize and train individuals to continuously advocate for policies aimed at mitigating climate change.