An article on Salon reported that scientists have recently shown that everyone hates environmentalists and feminists, that they do so because stereotypical activists are abrasive extremists, and that this stereotyping has prevented environmentalists and feminists from achieving their goals. These conclusions are simultaneously obvious and shocking. The reader is presumably aware of negative stereotypes of environmentalists, feminists, and activists in general, but do activists really hamper their own causes as the article claims? If so, the implications would be disturbing. … Read more
GiveWell on Industrial Agriculture
We are excited to see GiveWell’s recent brief analysis of the treatment of animals in industrial agriculture. We admire and respect the work they’ve done on evaluating human charities and encouraging thoughtful giving practices, and this is their first major step towards considering the cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent animal suffering on factory farms. In fact, it is almost the first thing they have written about animal causes since a blog post almost three years ago that explained why they hadn’t yet given serious consideration to animal charities. … Read more
Speciesism and Human Rights
Each year, Blog Action Day organizes bloggers across the world to write on a single topic to raise awareness of an important issue that impacts us all. Last year, the topic was on The Power of We, for which I wrote a short post on how effective altruism magnifies our power to accomplish good. … Read more
Change at EAA
(NOTE: This post was made under Animal Charity Evaluators’ previous name, Effective Animal Activism.) EAA is far from perfect, but I’m happy to report that we’re continually changing to fit the needs of animal advocates. To that end, we have some exciting developments taking place in the coming months: … Read more
Breaking Down the Leafleting Study
Effective Animal Activism’s [now Animal Charity Evaluators] current candidates for top interventions in reducing animal suffering all share a focus on public outreach to spread awareness and concern for the conditions and lives of farmed animals. We believe that there is a good chance that funding some form of this outreach is the most cost-effective way for individual donors to reduce suffering today — but these interventions have not been thoroughly studied, and so their effectiveness cannot yet be accurately estimated. EAA hopes to improve the situation with two studies launching this fall. This post is about one of those studies, the Leafleting Study. … Read more
New Director of Research
After a long search and considering dozens of candidates, EAA [now ACE] proudly welcomes Allison Smith to our team as Director of Research. She has volunteered with EAA in the past, has a strong background in mathematics, and significantly strengthens our team. Please join me in welcoming Allison! … Read more