Some excellent work is currently being done on NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). But that work isn’t appearing in traditional newspapers and magazines. Rather, it’s happening in the blogosphere.

For example:

• The Boy on a Bike blog had a great post last week titled Untangling the ownership of EarthHour. Did you know that this WWF event is actually one-third owned by the Fairfax Media conglomerate? I guess that’s one way to ensure that Earth Hour receives only positive press. h/t Andrew Bolt

• Richard Telofski has been doing some brilliant sleuthing regarding the way Greenpeace USA compensates its senior executives. Read Part 7 of his 7-part series here. (The box at the top links you to earlier installments.)

• Ben Pile has written a new analysis piece that discusses NGOs at the Durban climate summit. He points out that although activists attended the summit in large numbers they nevertheless spent much of their time “complaining that the process doesn’t represent them.” Pile’s piece contains further cutting insights such as:

…The climate issue long ago ceased to be a purely technical matter and has instead become an encompassing story that explains global inequality, poverty, natural disasters, war, migration, and even the problems with capitalism. In other words, climate change has become the issue on to which any other issue or agenda can be pegged.

…An agreement for the sake of an agreement was found: an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, and a ‘roadmap’ to an agreement. What were allegedly the most important decisions to be made about the future of the world ended up being made on the hoof, at the last minute, by sleep-deprived representatives of governments, harangued by an army of environmental activists, in a debating chamber that represents nobody except bureaucrats and NGOs.

Bracing stuff. And absolutely necessary, crucially important work.

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