Why I accept donations

This past year I have spent a lot of time giving talks around the country and speaking to the media, articulating the dire ecological predicament in which we find ourselves in and proposing truly deep green responses. This is almost always unpaid labour, and indeed often costs me money in filming and travel costs. (On top of this, I have also been an advocate of deep adaptation and green politics and economics through my writings in various newspapers and online platforms. As anyone who has written in this way knows, this is also labour that rarely pays and almost never pays well.) I sometimes don’t accept money for the time I put into these endeavours, when the cause is a good one, as it usually is!

However, what I am accepting donations for is to enable me to pay for a part-time personal assistant to help with research, organise my schedule and free up my time as much as possible to enable me to focus on effective climate advocacy and activism. Currently, I am spending an increasingly large proportion of my University salary on this type of assistance; while at the same time I am not working full-time at the University (and so not receiving a full-time salary), because of my time-commitment doing these other things. Any donations I receive will be going towards the payment of a part-time personal assistant and the payment of work that I sub-contract out, such as research, website maintenance and video editing.

There are of course many good organisations doing vital climate change advocacy that need donations, such as The Green Party and Extinction Rebellion to name just two (to both of which I myself am substantial donors). However, if you enjoy my work, find it educative, believe that my advocacy is an effective voice and want to sponsor it financially, then you can support my work through donations to my PayPal. Any donations will help free up more of my time to dedicate to effective advocacy and are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Rupert Read