One of the most recognisable images in environmentalism is the WWF panda icon. They are on of the more "conservative" environmental organisations, happy to forge partnerships with corporations and government. The money this brings ensures they are one of the largest and most effective environmental organisations on the planet. They do amazing things protecting habitat, there are species alive today that would be extinct without their intervention, these things echo down into infinity. They've also had misguided policies too, for instance I think they are too keen to commercialise wildlife, which leads to a commodity based approach to the natural world which is I think more part of the problem than the solution. Still the global problems we face with the environment require everyone's passion and action, which means we need to speak to a wider audience than (what are currently considered) radical organisations can alone.
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Friends of the Earth, or FOE as they are humorously often called are a great political environmental organisation. Whilst looking around at the environmental destruction of our planet it's easy to forget that organisations like FOE have been ensuring it isn't any worse than it currently is now. They've currently got a strong focus on climate change and are one of the only environmental organisations asking serious questions about the environmental effects of animal based agriculture. This no doubt partly again due to the fact they don't rely on corporations or governments for their funding, they are free to decide their own course on policy and actions, free from massive farm lobbies etc. Probably the organisation I'd most like to get involved with over the next few years, as I'm most definitely a friend of the earth...
I spent three and a half years volunteering for my local Greenpeace group, some of it as the treasurer. I got a little look inside one of the great environmental organisations, and as you'd expect I saw a lot I liked and a little I didn't. To like, so many things, passionate dedicated people, unwillingness to take money from corporations or governments which might effect their decisions, willingness to put themselves on the line in the fight for our environment, many victories and global reach. To not like, a little too personality/passion driven and not enough data driven, though I know this has been a focus for them in more recent times, and I felt they didn't really support the local group in an effective way. Every organisation has it's flaws though, and Greenpeace is pretty solid and let's face it, amongst many other positive effects they've had, we have more renewable energy, less toxic chemicals, more oversight of things like GMOs and more whales in the world because of them. Viva Greenpeace.
Billing itself as "The Journal of the Mental Environment", Adbusters is a magazine and website which challenges destructive orthodoxy. The subject matters they tackle range radically but I think the basis is rejecting the corporate control of our mental space. Much of this is done through "culture jamming", taking the carefully crafted images and messages of corporate control and subverting them. The magazine is also wonderfully designed, but hopefully one where the aim of the images and words is freeing, rather than controlling a part of your mind. Powerful and thought provoking, sometimes entertaining, sometimes annoying in a very cool way, if you haven't heard of it before, you should. They also co-ordinate buy nothing day which is often on my birthday :)
Gift giving is often the worst form of overconsumption. Buying things people don't need and probably don't want, just out of some attempt to affirm our affection for them. Even buying an organic or fairtrade product is wasteful if it won't really be used.
So next time the mood to buy something for someone out of obligation strikes you, why not combine it with doing some good in the world. Provide jobs to people in the developing world who are trying to protect nature, reduce the pressure on species, and provide trees which amongst many things help combat climate change, reduce soil erosion and improve air quality.
You can give to a number of different projects run by the World Land Trust, who have David Attenborough as a patron. I just gave some money for orangutan habitat, because I consider myself something of a man of the forest as well.
I lived in Tasmania for a few years when I was a child. During this time a dam was proposed to flood the Franklin Gordon river system to create hydro electric power. This had already been done to Lake Pedder, and amazingly beautiful lake in the heart of the country. My mother took me on a march in the centre of Hobart to protest the building of the dam, I still remember not being happy with the pun on the placard I carried "Damn the HEC, not the Franklin" (the HEC being the Hydro Electric Commission planning to damn the river). Over the next few years the campaign gained national attention, the left wing Labor party promised to halt the dam and were voted in. The area was subsequently given world heritage status and is an unspoilt wilderness to this day. With that success under it's belt The Wilderness Society then went on to broaden its mandate and now is involved in nature conservation throughout Australia. Many Australians have a romantic attachment to our land, there are far more people across the country in environmental organisations than in political parties, but they haven't yet drawn the link between this and their lifestyles. Until then, organisations like the Wilderness Society are crucially important to preserve the wide brown land some of us are lucky enough to call home.
Car culture goes unquestioned in so many societies today. Developed countries consider it a right, developing countries aspire to increase their car ownership. Given the widespread negative effects of private transport, and it's inefficiency, this has to be questioned.
Check out carbusters for some perspectives on what a world with less private automobile ownership might look like.