Disrupting the Disruptors: Restructuring in the Activist World

Posted by riskmonger on January 13, 2017 February 4, 2017
     
This is Part Two of a trilogy on the state of NGO activism. Part One looked at how public funding is not being properly scrutinised with many large NGOs redistributing taxpayer monies in a non-transparent, unaccountable manner. Part Three will examine why nobody seems to care about such bad behaviour.

 See the French translation.

The voice of civil society on environmental issues has evolved recently:

• The only news covered by the mainstream media during the COP-22 Climate Summit in Marrakesh was whether Donald Trump would reverse the climate “solutions”.
• The activists leading the anti-GMO, anti-agri-tech food fight are unpredictable gurus and lone wolves like Vandana Shiva and Ronnie Cummins.
• The anti-pesticide “Save the Bees” campaigns are now being led by social media upstarts: SumOfUs and Avaaz.
• In front of a classroom of about 95 university students, I asked who could name the head of Greenpeace. About ten thought Kumi still was, the rest had no idea.

In today’s debates on climate change, food safety or chemicals, we have to ask one simple question:

Where are the big global NGOs like Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth?.....To Read More......