Natural Resources Defense Council

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an environmental action group with more than 1.2 million members and e-activists nationwide. Founded in 1970, NRDC’s mission is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. For nearly four decades, NRDC has defended our county’s bedrock environmental laws. With an eye toward the future, we are augmenting our traditional strengths and advancing solutions that match the enormity of crises now unfolding at a global level.

We find ourselves today faced with environmental problems on a scale that threatens our planet’s life support systems; its fragile atmosphere, its vast oceans, its great boreal forests. Those problems require NRDC to augment our traditional strengths and chart a real-world course from current global environmental crises to tomorrow’s more livable planet. With our Partnership for the Earth campaign, NRDC is sharply focusing our work on six objectives with the greatest potential to protect the environment and human health for generations to come. We will work to: curb global warming, move America beyond oil, revive the world’s oceans, save endangered wild places, stem the tide of toxic chemicals and accelerate the greening of China.

We have the skills to accomplish this bold effort: we wield a potent combination of courtroom prowess, scientific expertise, policy influence, media outreach, and the grassroots energy of 1.2 million concerned citizens.

NRDC has waged successful campaigns in defense of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Great Bear Rainforest, the Gray Whales’ last unspoiled breeding ground, and dozens of other endangered wild places. Most recently in California, NRDC’s worked with progressive leaders in the legislature to pass the state’s Global Warming Act, AB 32. Other states, the nation, and even other countries continue to draw inspiration from California’s leadership. Tangible success stories like this drive the determination of NRDC to continue speaking with one powerful, effective voice on behalf of the people of the state and around the world — ensuring a more livable future for humanity.