I’m heading back out into the streets to survey protesters this weekend at the 2023 Earth Day Actions planned in Washington, DC. In contrast to previous Earth Day celebrations, that focused exclusively on nondisruptive events and concerts, a number of groups have announced their intentions to include disruption/civil disobedience in the actions this year.
My research team and I will attend the rally and the march and will aim to survey a random sample of activists participating throughout (following the same methodology that I have used in my previous research and written about here). Given the plans for civil disobedience, I have updated the survey to include more questions about the people participating, their motivations, the tactics that they use, their personal environmental behaviors, and how many of them have been arrested for their activism in the last two years.
These data will add to the dataset of climate activists that I discuss in Saving Ourselves. In particular, it will update trends in social movement tactics being employed by climate activists.
Stay tuned for findings, which I’ll share shortly after Earth Day!
Dana R Fisher 