My feed is filled with bad news, which is my fault for using the fediverse as a news feed, but it made me wonder: Which organisations, groups or individual people in the world are doing the most good for our world? I’m particularly interested in those who manage to do good on a larger impact scale (quantity or quality), but if the unknown person on your street who fosters kittens is a great example, I’d love to hear about them too.
Mr. Rogers told me to look for the helpers in times of trouble. Tell me about your favorite helpers!
Yao Ming (an NBA basketball player) has, nearly single-handedly, saved the lives of tens of millions of sharks by simply asking citizens of China to stop eating shark fin soup. Since he started doing this, the price of shark fins has tanked, and 90+ percent of people surveyed in China support a ban on selling shark fins.
The Great Green Wall initiative. They’re teaching farming methods that restore water tables and greening arid areas across middle Africa, stopping the advance of the Sahara desert. They supply the expertise and the materials, and locals do the work. In the process they’re also reversing the exodus of young people to the cities, because increased/improved agriculture provides jobs for them in their home villages.
Stunning initiative! Some real-life Dune ecology going on.
As you said, it’s not just the greening angle, they’re providing jobs and generational stability to the region, which is far more important than what would otherwise be a quick and short win.
Frank Hebert was an actual ecological consultant on top of being a writer. But yes, the scale of such a project is closer to sci-fi.
Herorats who are rats, that are trained to sniff out and locate landmines and tuberculosis.
Apparently there are only 200 of them, could use a whole lot more around the world.
Elon Musk, of course!
“I’ve done more for the environment than any single human on earth. What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it - and what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil,” - Elon Musk
/s
It’s actually hilarious that he mentions “people who care about looking good while doing evil” because that’s basically his entire existence.
This but unironically. Tesla put electric vehicles on the map. Starship will change humanity forever, and Neuralink is already helping patients.
He’s not perfect (but hey, Von Braun was worse), but at least he’s actually doing stuff that matters.
He’s not going to give you a free car, no matter how much you defend him online.
Sorry mate, you drunk the Koolaid. I hope you will see the much sadder reality of who he is and what he does, because you will learn to spot some well crafted propaganda.
James Christopher Harrison, a blood donor from Australia, who has saved over two million babies with his blood because it has properties which can treat rhesus disease.
Yep, 2.4 million estimated lives saved across 60 years of weekly donations. He’s the kind of human you write songs about. Retired from donating at doctors behest in 2018. I hope he inspired new donors.
I’m amazed they let him do weekly donations. Isn’t it typically every 6 for typical whole-blood donations? I get he’s got special blood, but I’m surprised it would be that frequent compared to “normal” people
I’m sure the doctors know what they are doing since they have been doing it for 60 years.
Habitat for Humanity. People seem to shy away, thinking it’s a free house program for the utterly destitute. Nope!
They put people in affordable homes, with a legit mortgage, who otherwise might be shut out of the market.
Ex-wife started us on the program. We worked it, and I’m typing this from my forever home, $600/mo. and paid off in a total of 19-years. No property tax, no mortgage interest, cost of the home is what you sign for. And it’s brand new or totally gutted and redone. Most are new, appliances and all.
My credit was shit from medical debt, they don’t even look. BUT, you have to make a payment plan with every creditor, and pay on time. They don’t officially favor families, but I’m sure it helps. OTOH, old girl across the street got hers with her 85-yo momma.
We did 300-hours of classroom work and volunteering in the field. The Habitat Restore was our favorite Saturday afternoon. But we nailed and painted and laid sod as well. No, you don’t build your own home, you build your neighbor’s homes. Sodded and mounted my neighbor’s lawn and mailbox! Neat!
I’ll answer all I can, but programs vary from region to region. If you’re truly interested, email me: blade runner blues @ gmail. (My DMs are all jacked up on Lemmy, and I won’t see replies unless I remember to dig.)
Worst anyone can do is volunteer. I’ve never done such satisfying charity work. Call your local chapter!
And praise be to Jimmy Carter, blessing be unto him.
Holy shit, they’re even in new Zealand, too!
Where’s that? Ain’t on my map.
It’s an eastern state of Australia
Large scale wise, Doctors without Borders, World Health Organization, and the organizations that help fight for/track sex trafficked people to liberate them.
And within the US (I’m sure there’s others, I’m a yank so my understanding of how things in Germany/Canada/China/South Africa go is often poor) there’s the Electric Frontier Foundation, Meals on Wheels, Planned Parenthood, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a lot more that help most citizens and biological beings get the right to, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that isn’t actually given by any government.
Also Child’s Play and Make a Wish Foundation are pretty good for sick children to get some levity in a harsh childhood. I usually chip in some online donations/sale credits to Child’s Play and EFF so that they have entertainment when stuck in a hospital, and more digital rights for when they get out of it.
I would stop fixating on who is doing the most good, like some kinda top 6 listicle of Humanity’s Most Positively Impactful Helpers, and just reach out to anyone who is helping.
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because help is multidimensional and we don’t know what metrics you personally consider more important (there is no objectivity here), 2) maybe I’m getting hung up on a word and have misunderstood you
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I appreciate your sentiment and hope you find a worthy cause to throw in with! :)
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Maybe before, but not these days. They take donations claiming to help abortion rights, but also quietly admit they can’t defend them. https://www.jezebel.com/satanic-temple-abortion-rights-religious-exemption-real-1849073332 https://queersatanic.com/the-satanic-temple-cannot-help-you-get-an-abortion-and-it-does-not-deserve-your-support/
Plus the Temple was sued for harassment of it’s members/advocates. The people were linking publicly accessible info about the Temple’s internal issues and then sued for libel and defamation. https://www.newsweek.com/orgies-harassment-fraud-satanic-temple-rocked-accusations-lawsuit-1644042
Then when Newsweek covered the lawsuit, they themselves were sued for libel, when they literally showed that a lawsuit for telling the truth was being made in courts. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2022cv01343/575138/27/ https://casetext.com/case/the-satanic-temple-inc-v-newsweek-magazine-llc-12
TL;DR: The Satanic Temple sues you for telling publicly known truths about itself, and then takes money that could go to actual help for abortion rights.
The effective altruists try to do the most good with each dollar by focusing on the cause where the most lives per $ can be saved. Believe malaria seems to be a favorite cause there.
Somebody will know more than me on this and I’m sure there’s some controversy too.
Rich people: I wanna help the world Experts: That's fantastic! Here are some issues where we could really- Rich people: Nah. I want to help the world my own way. Experts: Okay, well I hope it uplifts people out of pov- Rich people: Yep. But specifically people Z. Experts: Huh. But what about A,B,C- Rich people: Nah. Just Z. People Z already work for me. Experts: …well, I guess it's better than nothing. Rich people: I'm a good person Experts: …
I like to watch these rewilding, nature restoration or cleaning channels on YouTube. Like ocean cleanup, mossy earth etc.
