By choosing to green your lifestyle, you are already participating in activism. You are going against the grain and making choices that have an impact on the world. In addition to choosing eco-friendly products and reducing, reusing, and recycling, you can help make a difference in many other ways as well.

Eco-activism is a great way to really get involved with what matters. You can make your voice heard and really make a difference in the world. When you think of activism, you may have visions of hippies with peace symbols, or picket signs and sit-down strikes. While those are all powerful ways of making a point, no one is asking you to chain yourself to a tree or set up a picket line. No tie-dyed clothes or peace symbols need be involved, either.

When you decide to become actively involved in a cause, the first thing you want to do is some homework. Research everything you can on the topic, from all points of view, and get the facts. The biggest downfall in activism is not knowing the facts. That can knock the wind right out of a petition or campaign in no time.

Next, you need to decide how active you want to become. Are there already organizations working hard and making a difference that you can join, or should you start your own organization? Do you want to work alone or get others involved?

If you choose to work alone or with your significant other, you can start by letter writing. Send letters to your elected representatives and write to any companies or businesses that are part of the problem. If there is a business selling unsafe children's products, write to them and request that they change their products and adopt stricter safety standards. You can also start boycotts of products and companies and create petitions.

The web can be a powerful tool in activism. You can create websites and public personas on sites such as MySpace and Facebook. You can even start your own online petition at www.thepetitionsite.com.

If you simply want to contribute as much as you can without going too far out of your way, try e-mail activism, also known as armchair activism. There are sites that offer prewritten letters and already have all the information you need to send the letters to local political figures; all you have to do is personalize it with your name, address, and e-mail address. This is the easiest way to make your voice heard, although it is not necessarily the most effective. Many legislators receive so much e-mail correspondence that they do not read it themselves. Some do not accept e-mail correspondence from their constituents or employ spam filters that may make it difficult for your e-mail to get through.

Many sites offer armchair activism: www.greenpeace.org, http://action.sierraclub.org, www.nwf.org(National Wildlife Federation), www.worldwildlife.org, www.centerforfoodsafety.org, www.foe.org (Friends of the Earth), www.wilderness.org, www.forests.org, www.thecampaign.org, and www.aspca.org offer ways to get involved online. You can sign petitions, send e-mails, and even get help writing letters to your local newspaper editor and political figures. However little or much you get involved, just one voice or one signature can make a difference.