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THE ART of protest has many exponents, and environmental and aid activists are among its masters. Most of the pressure groups in this arena were born to protest, and they have done a grand job of alerting the world to environmental degradation and injustices in development. However, the world is changing, and protest is no longer the only path to progress. In many cases it may even be its undoing. If the activists are not to become irrelevant, they are going to have to change their approach.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year showed how things…

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