Social Change Agent Manifesto by Francesca Watts

            Every living being on this planet is a social change agent in one way or another. Every word I speak, every person I encounter, and every action I take makes an impact on at least one thing—we’re all connected, eh? I am a social change agent through my influence on others when they find out why, for environmental, social justice, and ethical reasons, I don’t eat or use any being who has a mother. I am a social change agent by living zero waste even if that action does not clean up all plastic pollution. I am an agent of change as the vehicle I use to glide around this world is a white able-bodied American—where I am in an ever-evolving state of unearthing and deconstructing personal power, privileges, and identities (i.e. white, American, vegan, environmentalist, zero waste) to create waves. Lastly, I am a social change agent by way of being a leader in laborious trail maintenance work as a female-identified body in a predominantly male workplace.

            To me this means I am activated with a duty to use my influence in an impressionable way, wherein every being I have an interaction with (direct or indirect), walks away with a hope for something in this world no matter how minuscule. Now being a social change agent does not mean, to me, that I have to be a well-known entrepreneurial activist who quite literally builds villages, diminishes poverty, nor solves the water crisis with a magic wand. Rather, what makes a difference are fractal changes- planting seeds- even if I never see them sprout. Howard Zinn made a point to such ripples of change in stating that, “small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” Spreading compassion and conscious efforts to not cause harm to others is infectious and inspires others to look inward at their actions.

            The Environmental Studies lens has molded itself into my vision of social change in ways I never thought would exist. Before entering this major my idea of environmentalism admittedly included ideas of overpopulation, conservation, "wildness", and humans as disrupters in the “natural” world. See now I can't help but put quotations around the words "natural" and "wildness" ;-). My privileges and power as a social change agent checked these visions of environmentalism. I now recognize the inherent necessity of interweaving human culture and justice into my vision for a less polluted world. To be clear, I define ‘polluted’ in this context as pollution by not just extraction of earth materials, but also the pollution of greed, capitalism, and oppression.

The “ENST lens” formulated my vision for social change into an interdisciplinary approach that for example looks like this: taking power out of the hands of corporate Confined Animal Feeding Operation hog farms in North Carolina and distributing that power into the hands of the residents living next door (who are mostly people of color) who are experiencing bodily infections and asthma, and who can’t leave their house when pig feces and urine are continuously sprayed into the fields, waterways, and air because farmers don’t know what to do with all excrement from the thousands of confined hogs raised solely for bacon and pork chops.  

OK, now that I’ve descended from the soapbox, to sum up, before ENST I would not have thought to research how hog farms are effecting nearby human residents, I would be focused on the animal welfare, water and land pollution. Now, I do not see how any human or animal activists could not be concerned to speak up for all living beings--including humans. Yes, that may mean getting my feet wet in the political sphere, but that is a risk I am willing to take for all people, land, air, water, hogs, piglets, cows, chickens, foxes, fishes, tardigrades (if you're reading this and you know what a tardigrade is--you rock. If not, Google it!), and so on. 
I believe that activism starts as a whisper in our souls, a voice way down deep inside, that presents itself as an unmistakable knowing that nudges us to look our consciousness dead in the eye and ask ourselves the tough questions such as : Can I sleep at night knowing what I know now? Is this moral? Am I living my truth?