http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6898
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY
10011
Phone :212-727-2700 212-727-2700
URL: Website
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- One of America's most influential
environmentalist groups
- Responsible for the 1989 Alar hoax
Founded in 1970 on a $400,000 seed grant from the
Ford Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) is today one of the most influential
environmentalist lobbying groups in the United
States. It claims a membership of one million
people, including some 400,000 Internet activists.
The organization's President is Frances Beinecke, a
co-founder of the New York
League of Conservation Voters, a Board member of
the
World Resources Institute, and a former Board
Chair of the
Wilderness Society.
NRDC identifies ten program areas as its priorities:
(a)
Clean
Air and Energy: "[E]lectric power plants
and motor vehicles are by far the biggest sources of
air pollution and its myriad effects, from lung
damage to acid rain to global warming."
(b)
Global Warming: "Higher temperatures
threaten dangerous consequences: drought, disease,
floods, lost ecosystems. And from sweltering heat to
rising seas, global warming's effects have already
begun."
(c)
Clean Water and Oceans: "NRDC fights to
safeguard drinking water, to protect, preserve and
restore our oceans, rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands
and coastal waters, and to promote conservation and
better water management in the arid western states."
(d)
Wildlife and Fish: "The threats vary, from
pollution to logging to harmful development, but the
effect on wildlife is the same: shrinking habitat
and the inability to survive and reproduce."
(e)
Parks, Forests, and Wildlands: "[P]ollution,
neglect and skyrocketing attendance have taken a
toll on national parks … while the livestock,
logging, mining and oil and gas industries keep up
the pressure to use our last remaining public
wildlands for their profit. NRDC works to secure
permanent protection for millions of acres of
wildlands … and reduce wood consumption and damaging
forestry practices."
(f)
Health and Environment: "When toxic
contaminants -- such as pesticides, mercury
pollution and diesel exhaust -- are released into
the environment, their effect on human health can be
profound. … We educate the public about the health
threats …"
(g)
Nuclear Weapons, Waste, and Energy: "Our
overarching goal is the reduction, and ultimate
elimination, of unacceptable risks to people and the
environment from the exploitation of nuclear energy
for both military and peaceful purposes." (NRDC is a
leading member of the Nuclear Weapons Complex
Consolidation Policy Group, a coalition of nuclear
"watchdog" organizations that
have called on the United States to reduce the
number of nuclear weapons in its stockpile by 95
percent.)
(h)
Cities and Green Living: "City dwellers
face a wide range of environmental challenges: dirty
air and water, … traffic, the impacts of industry. …
We work to preserve open space and help create plans
for new urban parks and incentives that revitalize
central cities."
(i)
U.S. Law and Policy: "NRDC's legislative
team … press[es] for vital new programs to meet such
difficult challenges as global warming, urban
sprawl, air and water pollution, depletion of our
fisheries, pesticide threats to children's health,
and … disappearing wilderness and wildlife."
(j)
International Issues: "Global warming pollution
from power plants and cars in the United States
increases the risk of floods in Europe and droughts
in Asia. …."
To help communicate its message on these matters to
the public, NRDC publishes a quarterly environmental
magazine called On Earth and an online
bulletin titled Nature's Voice.
In a joint effort in 1989 with Fenton
Communications, a Washington-based public relations
firm headed by
David Fenton, NRDC claimed that growers who
treated apples with the pesticide Alar were creating
a serious health threat to consumers. For five
months, NRDC flooded media outlets with accusations
that Alar was a dangerous carcinogen. Eventually the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that
the fear campaign was unfounded, explaining that a
person would have to eat 50,000 pounds of Alar-treated
apples per day over the course of a lifetime in
order to ingest enough of the substance to develop
cancer.
Apple growers lost some $250 million as a result of
the campaign, with many smaller growers being forced
out of business. NRDC fared much better. According
to an internal memo written by David Fenton and
later published in the Wall Street Journal:
"We designed [the anti-Alar campaign] so that
revenue would flow back to the Natural Resources
Defense Council from the public, and we sold a book
about pesticides through a 900 number and the
Donahue Show. And to date there has been
$700,000 in net revenue from it."
In the late 1990s, NRDC was an outspoken booster of
Enron Corporation, which has since become synonymous
with corporate malfeasance. For its support of
environmentalist legislation like the Kyoto Protocol
(a tactical move by the company aimed at eliminating
its competition in the energy industry), Enron
earned the praise of NRDC and other environmentalist
groups. NRDC's Ralph Cavanagh said in 1997, "On
environmental stewardship, our experience is that
you can trust Enron. When Enron later declared
bankruptcy, NRDC lawyer
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in a December 2003
Rolling Stone article titled "Crimes Against
Nature," assailed the Bush administration's energy
plan as a sop to corporate interests and as proof,
cited the administration's alleged ties to Enron CEO
Kenneth Lay.
As a tax-free corporation under section 501(c)(3) of
the tax code, NRDC is subject to limits on the
amount of money it can disburse for the purposes of
lobbying Congress. But it has found a way around
such restrictions by establishing a separate
lobbying arm, the NRDC Action Fund. Operating under
a different section of the tax code, section
501(c)(4), the Action Fund is exempt from similar
restrictions. Under the banner of "environmental
action", NRDC lodges lawsuits to impede the
construction of everything from highways and
hydroelectric dams to nuclear power plants. The NRDC
Action Fund complements this work, launching
advertising campaigns to arouse grassroots support.
Philanthropic support for NRDC has risen
dramatically in recent years, from just over $36
million in 1999 to more than $55 million in 2004. As
of 2004, the organization had assets of
$93,525,812. NRDC receives financial backing from
Pew Charitable Trusts, the
Tides Foundation, the
Bauman Family Foundation, the
Beldon Fund, the
Blue Moon Fund, the
Bullitt Foundation, the
Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the
Columbia Foundation, the
Compton Foundation, the
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the
Educational Foundation of America, the
Energy Foundation, the
Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the
Heinz Family Foundation, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the
Joyce Foundation, the
J.M. Kaplan Fund, the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the
New York Times Company Foundation,
George Soros's
Open Society Institute,
the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the
Prospect Hill Foundation, the
Public Welfare Foundation, the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the
Scherman Foundation, the
Surdna Foundation, the
Turner Foundation, and many others.
Moreover, it is estimated that NRDC received $2.6
million from the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) during the first three years of the Bush
administration. NRDC, which accused President Bush
of attempting the "rollback of almost every major
environmental law on the books," subsequently used
the EPA money to finance anti-Bush radio spots in
battleground states prior to the 2004 presidential
election.
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