Why Are NGOs So Bad at Saving the Planet? | Novara Media
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Britain's four largest environmental NGOs rake in hundreds of millions of pounds each year, but critics say they are near useless despite their enormous outgoings. Ben Smoke asks why the movement is failing to take the kind of radical action necessary to fighting climate breakdown.
  • BubbleCrust [none/use name]
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    4 years ago

    Many NGOs (especially the most known ones) are just “performative” lib shit. Plus a lot of NGO s serve imperialism by supporting coups and regime change operations (see Hong Kong)

  • SSJBlueStalin [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Normally I don't go in for ultra shit but they make some real strong points with this one.

    I had forgotten green peace exists.

  • Lord_ofThe_FLIES [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Lol of course criticizing NGOs for doing fuck-all with tons of cash makes XR "distance themselves"

  • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
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    4 years ago

    IDK how it works in other places, but in my home country, to do anything NGOs rely on some kind of funding, which inlcudes applies to getting these from ... well the official governments, institutions and the like. You can imagine how that works, and how you can get funding for something more revolutionary. Then it seems that most GMOs tend to be founded and populated by the lib types, both people that run them and average members that get involved. Its IMO purely economical as these are the people that can afford to do NGO stuff that is not focused on specific topic like providing direct psychological help for example. So a lot of these believe in bringing change to the system by ... raising awareness, doing flashmobs, and the like. And its understandable, because a lot of them tend to be young, and come from an education system that does nothing to make them aware of the possiblity and existence of better ideas out there. Not to mention how the entirety of the education system pretty much everywhere is focused on teaching a model of "changing the system" that simply doesnt work, that any attempt at change in anything is just too risky and harmful (and while this applies to big problems in general, it tends to percolate all the way down to the everyday life of middle class, bougie people and everyday issues. People are taught to be afraid of change) and that things like strikes and blockades are too radical, aggressive and divisive.

    It is absolutely no wonder that these dont lead to any change, even if their members might sincerely believe they are helping. NGOs are part of the system, and so are the people that make them up.

    • Veganhydride [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      True, but the article mentions the 4 NGOs are largely funded by individual donors (as high as 90% in Greenpeace UK's case) - so the issue is even bigger than that.