Worthy causes
Open Rights Group
You know on TV and in movies where there's a scene with a computer and something really, really laughable happens (Hey, a Unix system. I know this! whoosh), and you sneer or burst out laughing at how absurd it is? That's what many ministers and law-makers think computers are like! Seriously! That's not so funny when they're lobbied by someone who sells e-voting machines, or who wants greater powers to catch terrorists, even if that means recording every phone call, fax, and email made in the UK.
So while copyright getting extended still doesn't bother most of us, when the same government that lost 25 million people's personal information decides we should all carry ID cards backed by a huge centralised database… well, it's good that the Open Rights Group exists to explain to journalists and MPs that this might be a bad thing.
ORG campaigns and explains, and when a story breaks, they put journalists in touch with experts and interest groups who can speak with authority on the issues, rather than just lobbyists and businessmen who stand to profit. It's a pretty worthy cause, and one that I think just about everyone in the UK can feel grateful for.
The Open Rights Group runs entirely on donations, and keeps only a handful of full-time staff. They're looking to double their support from the 750 donors they have right now to 1500 so that they can do an even better job, so please consider becoming a member. They're good enough to publish their accounts and show how they spend the money you give them, and they've produced a report of what they achieved in their first two years.
Sandbag
Carbon offset is a fashionable thing right now, but it's pretty clear to me that common offset schemes aren't actually any good for the environment. While they get people thinking about their personal impact on the environment, planting more trees and funding sugar-cane bio-fuel production in Brazil doesn't reduce current carbon production, just shifts it elsewhere.
The UN and European Union have introduced a cap and trade system with the aim of creating a financial market of "carbon credits". All polluters have a fixed number of permits, and they can sell unused permits to companies that want them. The idea is that creating a fixed "carbon economy" will provide a financial incentive to industry to become cleaner and greener: as the price of permits increases, reducing pollution output will become a comparatively attractive option.
Now, I'm not totally sold on cap and trade. There are two major problems with these schemes: first, participating countries massively over-apply for permits, which creates a glut that makes trading virtually worthless (which is what happened in the first phase of this scheme), and secondly there's a potential for companies to buy unused permits from developing nations which can mean that rather than reducing pollution, it allows even more, while at the same time limiting development in countries that really need it. But right now it's what we've got, and I'd like to see it work properly, which is where Sandbag comes in.
Sandbag aims to reduce pollution through two methods. Firstly, membership fees are used to buy permits and take them out of the system. This reduces the maximum pollution output in Europe in a very concrete way. Secondly, they campaign to industry to hand over their unused permits (which are then destroyed too). It's a relatively cheap way of making a real difference. By putting a price on pollution, you're changing attitudes in industry, and making cleaner alternatives financially attractive to stakeholders.