After years of being a lone voice in the battle to save the planet, environmental NGOs now find themselves being joined by politicians and businesses, says Friends of the Earth's Andy Atkins. However, he argues, green groups are just as relevant as they were 30 years ago.
After years of being a lone voice in the battle to save the planet, environmental NGOs now find themselves being joined by politicians and businesses, says Friends of the Earth's Andy Atkins. However, he argues, green groups are just as relevant as they were 30 years ago.
NGOs have been in the vanguard of advocating practical solutions to environmental problems, and implementing them through political action These days it can feel as though the environment is holding us to ransom.
NGOs have been in the vanguard of advocating practical solutions to environmental problems, and implementing them through political action These days it can feel as though the environment is holding us to ransom.
Floods, storms and droughts across the world are attributed to the global rise in temperatures, and as we run short of fossil fuels, price rises are affecting our transport, heating and even food bills.
Floods, storms and droughts across the world are attributed to the global rise in temperatures, and as we run short of fossil fuels, price rises are affecting our transport, heating and even food bills.
Small wonder, then, that the environment has moved from a minority passion to a hot topic in today's world, with politicians and businesses competing to be seen to be green.
Small wonder, then, that the environment has moved from a minority passion to a hot topic in today's world, with politicians and businesses competing to be seen to be green.
So what role can non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Friends of the Earth play in driving forward today's environmental debate?
So what role can non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Friends of the Earth play in driving forward today's environmental debate?
Over the last 30 years, environmental NGOs have played a lead role in speaking up for the environment when few others were doing so.
Over the last 30 years, environmental NGOs have played a lead role in speaking up for the environment when few others were doing so.
A key role has been to raise the alarm about damaging activities - including deforestation, GM crops, futile road schemes and spiralling waste - that most threaten our planet's life support systems and the resources we all depend upon.
A key role has been to raise the alarm about damaging activities - including deforestation, GM crops, futile road schemes and spiralling waste - that most threaten our planet's life support systems and the resources we all depend upon.
Back in 1971, Friends of the Earth marked its UK launch by dumping 1,500 non-returnable bottles on the doorstep of Schweppes HQ to raise awareness of the extra waste destined for landfill because of the switch from reusable to throwaway products.
Back in 1971, Friends of the Earth marked its UK launch by dumping 1,500 non-returnable bottles on the doorstep of Schweppes HQ to raise awareness of the extra waste destined for landfill because of the switch from reusable to throwaway products.
Today, the UK has a major landfill problem - but we had the foresight to predict this, and in 2003 Friends of the Earth led the campaign to bring doorstep recycling to most homes in Britain.
Today, the UK has a major landfill problem - but we had the foresight to predict this, and in 2003 Friends of the Earth led the campaign to bring doorstep recycling to most homes in Britain.
Leading the way
Leading the way
So NGOs have also been in the vanguard of advocating practical solutions to specific environmental problems, and implementing them through political action.Politicians wanting to be seen to be green are on message and on wheels
So NGOs have also been in the vanguard of advocating practical solutions to specific environmental problems, and implementing them through political action.Politicians wanting to be seen to be green are on message and on wheels
Many environmental NGOs have funded practical projects to conserve the environment in this country and abroad.
Many environmental NGOs have funded practical projects to conserve the environment in this country and abroad.
Without this, there's no doubt that more species would already have entered the history books.
Without this, there's no doubt that more species would already have entered the history books.
During the decades when most people and politicians did not rank environmental concerns high on their priority list, green NGOs fought a long and hard battle protesting, protecting and proposing ways forward.
During the decades when most people and politicians did not rank environmental concerns high on their priority list, green NGOs fought a long and hard battle protesting, protecting and proposing ways forward.
In 2008, the emerging reality of climate change has forced environmental issues to unprecedented prominence in public awareness. Now, environmental NGOs have to share the airwaves with businesses and political parties.
In 2008, the emerging reality of climate change has forced environmental issues to unprecedented prominence in public awareness. Now, environmental NGOs have to share the airwaves with businesses and political parties.
So what roles can NGOs best play now? The need for protest and protection remain, but vital roles for the future are:
So what roles can NGOs best play now? The need for protest and protection remain, but vital roles for the future are:
Communicating solutions: while the public and politicians are much more aware of environmental problems, there remains an urgent need for clarity on the best practical solutions, and innovation on the policies which will drive these.
Communicating solutions: while the public and politicians are much more aware of environmental problems, there remains an urgent need for clarity on the best practical solutions, and innovation on the policies which will drive these.
This is a challenge for those whose view of the political landscape has been shaped by years of protest, but we can do it.
This is a challenge for those whose view of the political landscape has been shaped by years of protest, but we can do it.
The UK's Climate Change Bill, which is set to become law in the coming days, is one example.
The UK's Climate Change Bill, which is set to become law in the coming days, is one example.
It will make the UK the first country to introduce legislation to commit the government to legally binding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
It will make the UK the first country to introduce legislation to commit the government to legally binding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
This was a policy solution initially conceived and proposed by Friends of the Earth.
This was a policy solution initially conceived and proposed by Friends of the Earth.
Encouraging public support: understandably, busy politicians with competing demands tend not to adopt far-reaching policy solutions on complex subjects just because they're a good idea.
Encouraging public support: understandably, busy politicians with competing demands tend not to adopt far-reaching policy solutions on complex subjects just because they're a good idea.
Public backing, indeed a groundswell of public pressure, is vital.Green groups played a leading role in the UK's climate change bill
Public backing, indeed a groundswell of public pressure, is vital.Green groups played a leading role in the UK's climate change bill
And as climate change and other stresses on the environment intensify, we will increasingly need ambitious, far-reaching proposals to prevent catastrophe.
And as climate change and other stresses on the environment intensify, we will increasingly need ambitious, far-reaching proposals to prevent catastrophe.
Individual NGOs can mobilise significant numbers of grassroots campaigners.
Individual NGOs can mobilise significant numbers of grassroots campaigners.
They can further multiply public support for a proposal by forming alliances, or backing each other's campaigns, in a way that is simply not possible for business.
They can further multiply public support for a proposal by forming alliances, or backing each other's campaigns, in a way that is simply not possible for business.
We've already seen potent examples. Friends of the Earth's own local groups and activists were at the vanguard of The Big Ask campaign for a strong climate change law.
We've already seen potent examples. Friends of the Earth's own local groups and activists were at the vanguard of The Big Ask campaign for a strong climate change law.
Crucially, the idea was taken up by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition which counts other major environmental organisations and development NGOs amongst its active membership. More than 200,000 people took action to persuade the government to deliver the world's first national climate change law.
Crucially, the idea was taken up by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition which counts other major environmental organisations and development NGOs amongst its active membership. More than 200,000 people took action to persuade the government to deliver the world's first national climate change law.
Building international agreement: as a species, we are bringing upon ourselves two tightly linked global catastrophes - climate change and the rapid loss of biodiversity.
Building international agreement: as a species, we are bringing upon ourselves two tightly linked global catastrophes - climate change and the rapid loss of biodiversity.
Solutions are out there, but it will require international, as well as national, action to apply them fast enough.
Solutions are out there, but it will require international, as well as national, action to apply them fast enough.
Critically, agreement is needed between rich and poor countries where issues of fairness will be central.
Critically, agreement is needed between rich and poor countries where issues of fairness will be central.
NGOs can help here too; environmental and development organisations have easy access to the experiences and perspectives of people in developing countries, as a result of projects they fund and the international networks they belong to.
NGOs can help here too; environmental and development organisations have easy access to the experiences and perspectives of people in developing countries, as a result of projects they fund and the international networks they belong to.
They also have a critical role to play in forging international civil society agreements and putting co-ordinated public pressure on governments.
They also have a critical role to play in forging international civil society agreements and putting co-ordinated public pressure on governments.
This will be vital if we are to achieve workable global political agreements, especially when it comes to hammering out the future shape of the international agreement to tackle climate change in Copenhagen in 2009.
This will be vital if we are to achieve workable global political agreements, especially when it comes to hammering out the future shape of the international agreement to tackle climate change in Copenhagen in 2009.
Critical times
Critical times
The seachange in public, political and business awareness of environmental issues is a dream come true for many environmentalists.
The seachange in public, political and business awareness of environmental issues is a dream come true for many environmentalists.
But it has not reversed the dire environmental trends that have led to the extreme weather and economic problems we are now seeing.
But it has not reversed the dire environmental trends that have led to the extreme weather and economic problems we are now seeing.
It simply provides a critical opportunity for NGOs now to drive much more urgent and substantive change.
It simply provides a critical opportunity for NGOs now to drive much more urgent and substantive change.
Communicating real solutions, mobilising public support and forging international agreements will be critical to achieving this.
Communicating real solutions, mobilising public support and forging international agreements will be critical to achieving this.
Andy Atkins recently took up the post of executive director with Friends of the Earth UK
Andy Atkins recently took up the post of executive director with Friends of the Earth UK
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Do you agree with Andy Atkins? Are green campaign groups just as important today as they were 30 years ago? What role should they play in an era when many politicians and business leaders say they are convinced of the importance of environmental issues? Can they still mobilise public pressure to bring about change?
Do you agree with Andy Atkins? Are green campaign groups just as important today as they were 30 years ago? What role should they play in an era when many politicians and business leaders say they are convinced of the importance of environmental issues? Can they still mobilise public pressure to bring about change?
Regrettably, the green agenda was hijacked by the communists. This resulted in awful policies(see Brighton) where car owners were forced to pollute more as journey times were lengthened and speeds reduced just to 'encourage' (read coerce) more people onto public transport. If we can get every car travelling at 55mph how more environmentally fiendly will that be? If we turn bus lanes into express car lanes will it add to or reduce the arm to the environment. Green pressure groups need to think their policies through an not let those with a social engineering agenda sway them. Think green + freedom for citizens. Then their point might be more widely adopted.Keith Jordan, West Sussex
I don't agree with the statement that green groups offer solutions, or that in 2008 Global warming is 'proved'! A day does not pass without a green group damming a new technological breakthrough. The reality is these groups are just anti technology and use the environment as an excuse. They want the world to return to some rose tinted view of the past where we all live simple lives farming the land. They forget that in this past the average life expectancy was 30. This would not suit me as I would be dead!Kev H, Poole
For the sake of balance maybe Andy Atkins could read some of the 84,000 words which have already appeared in the comments section of this yesterday's article in the Telegraph "The world has never seen such freezing heat" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/16/do1610.xml IMO the obsession with promulgating the theory of CO2-induced global warming has put environmentalism back by 20 years. I also care for our environment, but as a scientist, I cannot support the theory of CO2-induced global warming. Most comments now agree with this viewpoint. For their on sake, environmental campaigners should move on. And I actually detect a slight shift away from it in the article above, which is good to see. In a few more years maybe it will be forgotten, just like the Global Cooling scare in the 1970s. Amusingly, the cooling scare was also fuelled by the same James Hansen who started this scare: Investor's Business Daily reports that a 1971 Washington Post scare piece entitled "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming" fretted that burning fossil fuels discharges particles into the atmosphere that reflect the sun's rays back into space. Emissions over 5-10 years supposedly "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age." The NASA research behind this hysteria was supported by a "computer program developed by Dr. James Hansen. You couldn't make it up!
Robert, London
Green groups are not relevant - they are not elected and they are not accountable. They attract people of a militant nature and have done untold damage. They like to claim they are the experts but when they get it wrong they say they only taken on board what the scientists tell them. They have charitable status but they don't have charitable aims. Many of them fly around the world at someone else's expense to tell eveyone elsee what to do, then tell us not to have holidays abroad. They cannot live according to their own rules and do not have educated people who genuinely care. They hate the rich more than they love the Earth, all of their policies will simply give money to those who don't work, and those who do will have to pay for it. They ca break the lasw and get away with it. If i tried to break into a power station, I'd be arrested under the Terrorism Act. Yet these guys can do anything and get sympathy from juries and the police. Same old story. I'll be glad to see the back of them.Tom, Cardiff
I remember a time when recycling was done by 'tree-huggers', when vegetarians were 'pale weirdos' and when cycling to work made you the kook of the office. Those who stood by and laughed while people with 'dogmatic policies' and 'isolationist mentalities' patiently and diligently fought on are now taking heed of their advice in a fight to save what little green we have left. We don't only need these organisations, we should thank them for being right all along and putting up with the laughter. They got the last laugh and they deserve it. Wouldn't it be nice if we continued to pay attention to what they are saying and save the dolphins and end wars?Liz, Stockport
The valuable work undertaken by environmental lobby groups is often obscured by their insistence on 'hair shirt' policies (i.e. focussing only on reduction in consumption and emissions). Narrow-minded opposition to technological solutions (carbon capture and storage, even nuclear) and refusal to differentiate between good and bad policy - e.g. blanket rejection of biofuels without differentiating between some forms of ethanol (+ve) versus most forms of biodiesel (-ve) are not helpful to the overall causeIan Thomas, London
Green groups are a busted flush - delays to nuclear have landed us with ugly bird decimating wind turbines, potentially ecologically disasterous barrages rising food grain prices for dubious benefits biofuels, mercury laden light bulbs to name but a few - the leading envo fascists just hide behind the 'green' agenda and the brainwashed automatons that they manipulate to create personal wealth and status and enforce their own hairshirt view of the world - local and central government use this mob hysteria to cynically reduce services and increase penalty revenues. We are finally waking up to this and rather than going back to year zero as the Monbigots of this movement espouse let's invest in technology such as carbon capture for Dax and coal in the short term - Hydrogen and fusion technology for the long distance and fission for the mid term. Invest in energy efficiency but as a way of reducing bills and reliance on imported resources. Mark , London
Green groups have become powerful ego-driven multinational marketing experts, existing on fear, drama and the conscience-easing direct debit from the middle classes. They nurture more fear than fact, spread more ideology than pragmatism and in their frantic efforts to out-terrify their rivals, are progressively marginalising and fracturing what could be a powerful, practical global environmental consensus that could be positive for the future of the plant.Beth Davies, Chesterfield
They are not dogmatic policies and isolationist. The NGO's have given healthy warning over decades relating to the environmental problems the world is facing. World government has caught up. GO's and NGO's are now pushing the 3 X Win. Essentially cut your energy/material usage, you will then save or make more money and you are enhancing the social aspects of your community. Re. the militancy of Greenpeace: It was the French military that sank Rainbow Warrior, with loss of life and resulted with the incarceration of French military, by lawful process based on English law.Robin Corbett, Bexley, Kent
Our time calls for all hands on deck. So NGO are just as relevant even if everyone else is starting to see the light. Translating a view that something needs to be done to actually doing something is also critical right now. Many who start to see something is important do not immediately translate that view into action, so NGOs are important in that way too.Susan Roothaan, Austin Texas USA
Is this article meant to solicit donations for FotE? Or is it just a we-told-you-so designed to remind us who we have to thank for the 'awareness' we now have? Either way, environmental acitivism has been so politicised for years, steeped in rancid PR doublespeak and factual wantonness that I cannot, even today, accept claims made on behalf of 'the planet' without interrogating them thoroughly first. I strongly hope that an environmental organisation will emerge that presents a coherent, realistic message about bettering our role within this planet's natural systems, and repudiates the selfish, conscience-salving activism that is often the focus of environmental groups. Also, can we please stop talking about 'saving the planet', the planet has survived much vaster catastrophes than humanity, and should we disappear it will go on without us just fine.Jeremiah Mahadevan, London, UK
Environmental groups are as relevant and necessary as ever, politicians like to talk about preventing damage to the environment but they don't like taking the action that is necessary. For instance in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro the UK government committed to reverse the decline in biodiversity by 2010 - has the decline in biodiversity been halted? No! Why? Because the Government views the economy as more important, but they have entirely missed the fact that our economy, as well as human health and wellbeing, depends heavily on biodiversity and the health of the environment!Leyton Williams-Davies, Wales, UK
Green campaign groups are more relevant than ever. It's true that people are suffering from climate-fatigue in that they are bombarded with environmental messages, in such a volume that people's eyes often glaze over. Grassroots organisations such as ours offer people practical ways in which to make a different to their local environment. Sometimes climate change and global warming is just too big a concept to grasp and you can certainly be intimidated by it and so do nothing. That's where local grassroots organisations come in. They offer practical ways in which people can improve their local area for global benefit. The results are visible on their doorstep and they can be proud of the improvements they themselves have instigated. The 21st century offers new communication tools which makes such efforts easier. For example, our campaign has been helped greatly by our facebook group page, which has helped us spread the word and get people involved.Adam Gretton, More Trees for Bath and North East Somerset
Green campaign groups are more relevant than ever. It's true that people are suffering from climate-fatigue in that they are bombarded with environmental messages, in such a volume that people's eyes often glaze over. Grassroots organisations such as ours offer people practical ways in which to make a different to their local environment. Sometimes climate change and global warming is just too big a concept to grasp and you can certainly be intimidated by it and so do nothing. That's where local grassroots organisations come in. They offer practical ways in which people can improve their local area for global benefit. The results are visible on their doorstep and they can be proud of the improvements they themselves have instigated. The 21st century offers new communication tools which makes such efforts easier. For example, our campaign has been helped greatly by our facebook group page, which has helped us spread the word and get people involved.Adam Gretton, More Trees for Bath and North East Somerset
The dogmatic policies and isolationist mentality of many of the environmental organisations causes them to alienate themselves from the public. In particular the left wing nature and tax policies of the Green Party, the militance of Greenpeace and the environmentally erroneous anti nuclear stance of FoTE are examples of this. A real world environmental organisation is sorely needed. Rufus Herring, Exeter
The dogmatic policies and isolationist mentality of many of the environmental organisations causes them to alienate themselves from the public. In particular the left wing nature and tax policies of the Green Party, the militance of Greenpeace and the environmentally erroneous anti nuclear stance of FoTE are examples of this. A real world environmental organisation is sorely needed. Rufus Herring, Exeter
