I agree with evelynciara that animal welfare in agriculture is highly relevant to EA and that most progress toward animal welfare laws are being made at the state and local level. I would add that progress towards national and global goals often starts at the local level—more states adopt a particular law (e.g. increased welfare standards in agriculture), and that sets an example for others to start a more national conversation.
Other things that come to mind are scalable improvements in institutional and governmental decision making such as adopting approval voting. These are important for similar reasons to animal welfare laws—they set an example and set the stage for a national conversation.
Local governments also fund universities and other research programs that might be high impact and in principal they could fund much more and much more effectively. They have jurisdiction over housing, zoning, and transport which have enormous environmental and economic impact. They have at least partial jurisdiction on mental health programs, policing, criminal justice, vehicle and pedestrian safety, lead abatement, and charitable grants.
With that said, no one can make much of dent in nuclear weapons policies by showing up to their local city council meeting, so there is plenty of work to be done on the federal level as well and where any individual should focus probably depends on their personal situation, skills, interests, etc.
I agree with evelynciara that animal welfare in agriculture is highly relevant to EA and that most progress toward animal welfare laws are being made at the state and local level. I would add that progress towards national and global goals often starts at the local level—more states adopt a particular law (e.g. increased welfare standards in agriculture), and that sets an example for others to start a more national conversation.
Other things that come to mind are scalable improvements in institutional and governmental decision making such as adopting approval voting. These are important for similar reasons to animal welfare laws—they set an example and set the stage for a national conversation.
Local governments also fund universities and other research programs that might be high impact and in principal they could fund much more and much more effectively. They have jurisdiction over housing, zoning, and transport which have enormous environmental and economic impact. They have at least partial jurisdiction on mental health programs, policing, criminal justice, vehicle and pedestrian safety, lead abatement, and charitable grants.
With that said, no one can make much of dent in nuclear weapons policies by showing up to their local city council meeting, so there is plenty of work to be done on the federal level as well and where any individual should focus probably depends on their personal situation, skills, interests, etc.