NRDC is the nation's most effective environmental action
organization. We use law, science and the support of more than
1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's
wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy
environment for all living things. Worth Magazine has
named NRDC one of America's 100 best charities, and Charity
Navigator has given NRDC four stars (out of a possible
four). Click
here to read more expert opinions about NRDC.
In addition to our New York headquarters, we have three
regional offices. See our contact
page for office addresses. And for information on the NRDC
Action Fund, click
here.
A Message from NRDC's President and
Executive Director
From NRDC's annual report
for 2003, published March 2004
When NRDC's staff members entered a federal courtroom last
June to block the U.S. Navy from endangering whales with its
low frequency active sonar system, they encountered a phalanx
of Bush administration lawyers and a parade of the
government's top scientific experts. But that formidable array
of government talent-all paid for by your tax dollars-could
not withstand NRDC's legal firepower. The judge ruled in favor
of NRDC, finding that the Bush administration had violated
multiple environmental laws when it rubber-stamped the Navy's
use of this hazardous system.
We won the sonar case, and we are fighting to win other
cases in which the Bush administration has overridden critical
laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the
forest conservation roadless rule. But we wouldn't have to
fight any of these battles if the government were doing its
job. Instead we are facing the single largest assault on
bedrock environmental laws since these protections were
written 30 years ago. With the administration dismantling or
failing to enforce the laws that keep our air, water, and
wildlands safe and clean, NRDC has gone to court to preserve
them.
Litigation has always been a cornerstone of NRDC's success
in protecting the environment. But now more than ever we must
rely on the courts, for there we meet the administration and
the big corporations it favors on a level playing field. When
the logging industry persuaded the administration not to
defend the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule from legal
attack, NRDC went to court to ensure that the rule would be
upheld. When oil and gas interests prompted the administration
to fast-track drilling in Utah's fragile redrock canyonlands,
NRDC won a stay in court.
But the courtroom is not the only place where environmental
battles were waged this year. NRDC's gifted staff has been
fighting on many fronts. Our policy experts have bypassed
gridlock in Washington and turned to the states to hammer out
innovative legislation ranging from clean water protections to
global warming emissions caps. Our scientists have generated
new research on drinking water quality, mercury poisoning, and
coastal sprawl. Meanwhile, our 1 million members and online
activists sent more than 2 million messages to protect human
health and our last wild places.
In the end, our most important case is tried in the court
of public opinion, and there too we have seen great success:
our strongest weapon is overwhelming public support for
environmental protection. Our confidence in Americans'
collective wish that their children inherit a healthier planet
strengthens us in these trying times. The strides we made this
year and the victories we will secure in the future rest on
that solid foundation.
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|
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John H. Adams
President |
Frances G. Beinecke
Executive Director
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Mission
Statement
The Natural Resources Defense
Council's purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its
plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life
depends.
We work to restore the integrity of the
elements that sustain life -- air, land and water -- and to
defend endangered natural places.
We seek to establish
sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth as central
ethical imperatives of human society. NRDC affirms the
integral place of human beings in the environment.
We
strive to protect nature in ways that advance the long-term
welfare of present and future generations.
We work to
foster the fundamental right of all people to have a voice in
decisions that affect their environment. We seek to break down
the pattern of disproportionate environmental burdens borne by
people of color and others who face social or economic
inequities. Ultimately, NRDC strives to help create a new way
of life for humankind, one that can be sustained indefinitely
without fouling or depleting the resources that support all
life on Earth.
About the NRDC Action Fund
NRDC
operates under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, which
imposes limits on the amount of money we can spend lobbying
Congress. NRDC is also the parent organization of the NRDC
Action Fund. Because the NRDC Action Fund operates under a
different section of the tax code, section 501(c)(4), it is
not subject to these same limitations. The NRDC Action Fund
works to support pro-environment legislation and defeat
anti-environment legislation through paid advertising and
phonebanking and by mobilizing grassroots pressure.
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