Hacking Activist Burnout

In September 2019, an estimated 6 million concerned citizens worldwide assembled in the streets to strike for the climate. Inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, demonstrators in the Global Week for Future sent a bellowing message to world leaders: we will not stand idly by while you trade our futures away to big oil and industry. And while the September 2019 climate strikes made headlines as the largest environmental protest ever, it’s certainly not the only example of mass activism in recent history. Consider the 2017 Women’s March—sparked by the 2016 US election results—which attracted upwards of 5.2 million marchers in the US alone. Or the exploding Zero Waste movement in which (primarily) women are making massive shifts toward reducing their consumption of single-use plastics and inspiring others to do the same.

As threats of environmental devastation and fascism become harder to ignore, activist-minded citizens are putting their health on the line—both physically at demonstrations that sometimes result in violence, as well as psychologically in the form of activist burnout.