Worthy causes

Open Rights Group

While copyright getting extended still doesn't bother most of us (though it ought to), 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.

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 the content of every phone call, fax, and email made in the UK.

So the 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 digital rights issues. 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 just two 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've achieved in their first two years.

Sandbag.Org.UK

Carbon offset is a fashionable thing right now, and it's not entirely clear that common carbon-offset schemes are any good for the environment. While they get people thinking about their personal impact on the environment, planting more trees, or funding sugar-cane bio-fuel production in Brazil doesn't reduce current carbon production, just creates a slight potential that fewer bad things are needed in future. Sandbag's approach is radically different.

The UN and European governments have introduced a system of permits for polluters 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.

Sandbag aims to accelerate this process through two methods. Firstly, membership fees are used to buy permits and take them out of the system. This absolutely reduces the maximum pollution output in Europe. 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.