Analysis: Online Activism for an Offline World
#SaveTheBoundaryWaters:
Online Activism for the Offline World
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (“BWCAW”), located in northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest near the Canadian border and consisting of 1.1 million acres, is the most visited wilderness area in the United States (O’Keefe). Campers, canoeists, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts have worked to protect the natural sanctity of the BWCAW for decades. Today, the BWCAW is being threatened with pollution from a proposed sulfide-ore mining project located on the BWCAW’s watershed. In an effort to fight the sulfide-ore mining project, a group of Minnesotans started a non-profit organization called Save the Boundary Waters (“STBW”), and launched online and social media campaigns to spread awareness about the proposed project and its potential pollution and harm to the BWCAW. To date, STBW’s online and social media campaigns have engaged hundreds of thousands of people and temporarily halted the progression of the sulfide-ore mining project. Although STBW’s ultimate goal of acquiring permanent protection of the BWCAW has not yet been realized, the efforts and incremental achievements of their campaign thus far have made it largely successful.
Largely untouched by anything manmade, including cell towers, the BWCAW has developed a strong reputation as a remote, digitally-disconnected, and peaceful outdoor destination that exemplifies nature in all its glory. “Generations of Americans have developed a lifelong love of nature through the superb fishing, canoeing, hiking and portaging experiences that can be found in the Boundary Waters’ tranquil lakes, trails and more than 1,200 miles of canoe routes” (O’Keefe). While people throughout the U.S. have enjoyed their time away from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives and being immersed in the peaceful calm of the BWCAW, Minnesotans are particularly protective of the BWCAW with many residents considering it nothing short of sacred land. For this reason, when a few people in Ely, MN (a town located next to the BWCAW) heard about the proposed sulfide-ore mining project that has the potential to pollute and destroy portions of the BWCAW, they quickly formed the STBW non-profit and began lobbying against the mining project.
The sulfide-ore mining project includes the “extraction of heavy metals – gold, copper, palladium, nickel and others – from sulfide bearing ore [and] has the potential to contaminate waters flowing into the” BWCAW (“Sulfide”). This damage to the BWCAW from pollution would likely lead to decreased BWCAW visitors, which would have an immediate and long-lasting effect on many retailers and small businesses near the BWCAW, as well as irreparable environmental harm, which “would be lethal to fish, plant life and other species” (“Sulfide”).
Although the sulfide-ore mining project in the BWCAW watershed holds the potential to pollute and destroy portions of the BWCAW, those fears are unproven, and many people argue that the sulfide-ore mining project “offers the tantalizing prospect of hundreds of good-paying jobs in a region of the state hard hit by a downturn in the iron mining industry recently” (Kraker). Opponents argue that the long-term environmental damage is not worth the employment and other economic benefits that will come with the mining project. The Trump administration initially signed a 20-year ban on mining projects around the BWCAW, but after receiving letters from Minnesota Democratic congressional representatives asking for the decision to be overturned, President Trump agreed to cancel the BWCAW environmental protections. At that time, STBW accelerated their campaign to gain permanent protection for the BWCAW.
STBW created a campaign that included both online and offline elements aimed at “ensur[ing] permanent protection for the Boundary Waters Wilderness, America's most visited Wilderness and Minnesota's crown jewel, from proposed sulfide-ore copper mining” (“Save”). STBW’s online activism can be seen in the form of social media campaigns on channels ranging from YouTube and Facebook, to Instagram and Twitter, and even Vimeo. Between their social media channels, STWB has amassed more than 100,000 followers and reached hundreds of thousands of people through their hashtag campaign using #SaveTheBoundaryWaters and #SaveTheBWCA. STBW’s website also includes ample information about the sulfide-ore mining project and its potential repercussions on the BWCAW. The STBW website authors use words and phrases, such as “threaten,” “toxic,” “imminent threat,” “contaminants,” “guaranteed to pollute,” “giant waste piles,” “risk,” and “environmental catastrophe” to “explicitly express the writers’ judgment, which also has the invoked attitude potential to influence the readers’ evaluation of the crisis” (Chiluwa, 275). These carefully chosen words and phrases work to motivate and inspire website visitors to act, either by further spreading awareness of the issue or by engaging in a number of offline actions.
STBW created a website that was an online entry point into a smorgasbord of offline opportunities for people to lobby against the proposed sulfide-ore mining project near the BWCAW beyond the digital world. STBW executives appeared to understand that “unless social media campaigns…are followed up with the implementation of strategic action plans, the whole process will turn out to be mere slacktivism” as they created a website that focused on not only spreading awareness about the sulfide-ore mining threat to the BWCAW, but also encouraging people to sign a petition against the mining project, send letters to their congressional representatives (which only required the website visitor to complete a form with personal contact information and then a pre-populated letter condemning the sulfide-ore mining project was sent to all Minnesota congressional members), donate money to help fund the efforts to save the BWCAW, volunteer at STBW or hold their own events to support STWB’s efforts, and even write and share their own stories about their experiences in the BWCAW on STBW’s blog (Chiluwa, 286).
STBW has also partnered with several other outdoor- and environmental-focused non-profit organizations and outdoor apparel and gear retailers to spread awareness about the sulfide-ore mining threat facing the BWCAW. Patagonia and Storm Creek stores in Minnesota, among numerous other outdoor retailers, have held a series of events to further spread awareness of the issue, as well as encourage supporters to write letters to Minnesota’s congressional members, sign the petition against the mining project, and donate money to help fund STWB’s efforts to permanently protect the BWCAW.
Although STBW’s goal of permanent protection for the BWCAW has not yet been achieved, the movement to lobby government officials to enact legislation for permanent protection is still in process. STWB successfully obtained a two-year pause on sulfide-ore mining in the BWCAW, as well as funding for an official environmental review of the BWCAW to determine the long-term effects of instituting sulfide-ore mining in the watershed area of the BWCAW. STWB also successfully sued the U.S. government and the Trump administration regarding the removal of the BWCAW’s environmental protections, which temporarily halted all possible mining activity in the area. These incremental successes, while not achieving the ultimate goal of permanent BWCAW protection, are certainly considered successes of the #SaveTheBoundaryWaters campaign.
To further advance their online and social media activism, STBW should consider focusing their efforts on their YouTube channel. The visual impact of the BWCAW could have a powerful effect on convincing people to support and advocate for STBW’s efforts for permanent protection of the BWCAW. Currently, STWB’s YouTube channel has only four posted videos and a total of less than 200 views for the four videos. STWB should expand their video content strategy to include supporters’ videos and additional videos that highlight the natural beauty and unique outdoor experiences only found in the BWCAW. This type of content would help garner support for STBW’s cause by building a connection with website visitors through allowing “viewers to [watch] material against their own backgrounds and experiences,” which would then work to motivate visitors to spread awareness and action encouragement to other people (“Designing,” 201). Once the content strategy is expanded, STBW would then need to create a content marketing strategy that uses their website and established social media channels to promote the new content.
STBW’s efforts to save the BWCAW from potential irreparable pollution from sulfide-ore mining have been largely successful to date. With a website and social media campaigns designed to spread awareness about the proposed project through the hashtag #SaveTheBoundaryWaters, as well as motivate supporters to act in numerous offline efforts, STBW understands that online activism only brings about change when coupled with offline activism that puts activists in front of congressional representatives. Although STBW’s campaign efforts and achievements thus far have made it largely successful, to achieve their ultimate goal of permanent protection of the BWCAW, STWB should consider expanding their YouTube video content strategy and focus efforts on creating a content marketing strategy that promotes and spreads the new video content to further garner support for their cause.
Works Cited
Chiluwa, Innocent, and Presley Ifukor. “‘War against Our Children’: Stance and Evaluation in #BringBackOurGirls Campaign Discourse on Twitter and Facebook.” Discourse & Society, vol. 26, no. 3, 2015, pp. 267–296., doi:10.1177/0957926514564735.
“Designing for Spreadability.” Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture with a New Afterword, by Henry Jenkins et al., New York University Press, 2018, pp. 195–228.
Kraker, Dan. “Debate Over Copper Mining Near Boundary Waters Heats up Again.” Minnesota Public Radio News, Minnesota Public Radio, 2 Feb. 2017, www.mprnews.org/story/2017/02/02/debate-over-copper-mining-near-boundary-waters-heats-up-again.
O'Keefe, Brian. “Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.” Too Wild To Drill, The Wilderness Society, Sept. 2017, twtd.wilderness.org/locations/boundary-waters/.
“Save the Boundary Waters.” Save the Boundary Waters, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, www.savetheboundarywaters.org/.
“Sulfide Mining in Northeastern Minnesota.” Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, 22 Feb. 2017, www.nmworg.org/sulfide-mining/.