Sustainable Activism?

Recently, I volunteered at the Animal Rights Coalition booth at the Pride Festival in Loring Park. It was both a great experience -- gay pride! animal rights! -- and a disappointing experience, due to the amount of paper waste I noticed.

I was amazed when I was at the Pride Festival at all the stickers, bracelets, necklaces, papers, temporary tattoos, brochures, magazines, and other advertising trinkets that were being given away. And I was surprised that I got caught up in it. I was told to hand out very liberally brochures and information packets. I was supposed to get as many people as possible to take the literature, even if they didn't know what it was or were likely to throw it away. At first I thought, "what a waste of paper!" But I was a volunteer, and so I did as I was told. Maybe it's what activists have found to be effective.

And the Pride Festival was full of activists. All of them, giving away stickers, marketing trinkets, magnets, book-marks, brochures, etc. Is this really the way change in society is made? By giving stuff away that is likely to be tossed within 24 hours?

I believe in many of the causes represented at the Pride Festival. I believe in animal rights and the Animal Rights Coalition. But I was disturbed that by "doing good" promoting humane treatment of animals and vegan/vegetarian diets, I also was contributing to deforestation, pollution, habitat destruction, and waste.

It seems to me that there needs to be more "integration" between all of these causes. The Animal Rights Coalition believes in helping animals... but using lots of paper indirectly hurts animals because it destroys habitat (forests) and increases pollution.

When will "green" activists, human rights activists, animal rights activists, and other political activists get on the same page in terms of sustainable methods of social change? What would "sustainable activism" look like?

I know there are benefits to handing out info packets, rainbow bracelets, rainbow stickers, and other "pride" paraphernalia. But does there always have to be a trade-off between promoting a good cause and promoting sustainability?