Since nothing makes sense anymore, let's start with numbers 3 & 3.5.
I'll try to give a brief summary of the chemistry, including links and visual aids before moving onto how I think it could relate to being an activist.
Spoiler: My main takeaways are positive & encouraging.
"#3. activation energy for a chemical reaction
#3.5 enzymes as catalysts
Activation energy is the amount of energy you have to add to a system to cause a reaction to occur. (The positive change that you are trying to bring about in the world.)
Spontaneous reactions don't require this activation energy, but you usually won't observe this reaction unless you add new chemicals because everything that can react (at the present temperature) has already done so & the system is at an equilibrium.
Graph added with explanation in the alt text.