Supporting
Environmental Groups and New Year’s Resolutions
From the hymn "Come, Lord and Tarry Not" is this verse: Come and make all things new, Come, save this longing earth; Transform all creatures in your love, Creation’s second birth.)
You consider yourself a responsible steward of the
environment. In your household you have
installed CFLs or LEDs, insulated, reduced your car trips, etc. Your church has done an energy efficiency
audit and implemented clean energy technologies as part of its “bottom line
ministry.”
The investments you have made are reducing your
energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Your consciousness and concern for climate stabilization
has increased, and you appreciate the Pope’s environmental encyclical and the
U.S. Clean Power Plan proposals.
As the U.N. Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21)
climate change talks take place near Paris, you are asking yourself : “What else might I do?” You realize that to change everything, it
takes everyone.
Consider supporting the following groups and their
endeavors, perhaps as part of your end-of-the-year charitable giving, or as New
Year resolutions for 2016.
Audubon
Society seeks to conserve and restore natural ecosystems,
focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of
humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.
Defenders
of Wildlife protects imperiled species from
extinction, such as sage grouse, bison, wolves, desert bighorns, polar bears, sea turtles, Florida
panthers, manatees, shorebirds, sea otters, etc. It also protects wildlife refuges and defends
wild plants in their native communities.
Environmental
Defense Fund encourages legal strategies for less
fertilizer pollution, higher standards in chemical safety laws, a reduction in
fugitive methane emissions, stricter regulations of CO2 emissions in the
aviation industry, and more ways for wild milkweed to be protected.
Food
and Water Watch raises concerns for water and other
dangers due to fracking, seeks legislation to ban fracking on public land,
strives to ensure that food is rigorously tested to keep contaminants off our
tables, and seeks to ban the misuse of antibiotics in livestock.
Friends
of the Earth acts to have integrity in our food
system by saving crucial pollinators
(bees and butterflies), calls for curtailing bee-toxic, neonicotinoid
pesticides (neonics), promotes awareness of genetic engineering (GMOs), has
published a Cruise Ship Report Card rating cruise lines on their environmental
practices, and examines the corporate polluters’ money trail in government.
Natural
Resources Defense Council helped raise questions about the “tar
sands invasion” (pipeline menace, explosive risk, dangerous cargo, mountains of
waste), and helps protect monarch butterflies and bees, wolves, grizzlies,
marine animals, and helps to ban the import and sale of ivory in the U.S.
Ocean
Conservancy wants to save habitat (sea ice) for
polar bears, arctic seals, bowhead whales, walruses; searches for measures to
protect sea turtles, dolphins, and the
ocean health by reducing carbon emissions and acidification; promotes sustainable
fishing policies and practices. It urges
its members to adhere to 15 ways of living responsibly in considering the
land-sea connection, remembering that everything flows downstream, and by not
recklessly engaging in shoreline recreation.
Union
of Concerned Scientists has a current project to urge the
reduction of heavy-duty truck global warming emissions by 40% by 2025. Currently tractor trailers go only about six
miles on a gallon of diesel.
The
Wilderness Society mission is to ensure that future
generations will enjoy the clean air and water, wildlife, beauty and
opportunities for recreation and renewal provided by pristine forest, rivers,
deserts and mountains.
Other efforts:
350.org, ASPCA, American Farmland Trust, American Rivers, Center for Biological Diversity,
Earth Island Institute, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics,
Energy Justice Network, Greenpeace, Humane Society, League of Conservation
Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, PETA, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, Student
Conservation Association, Waterkeeper Alliance, World Wildlife Fund, Xerces
Society, and your local bioregional watershed groups.
Educate yourself, do your
research. Be wary of the so-called "Big Green" groups about whom many questions have been raised. Do any groups receive
government, corporate, or private philanthropy money? How
are
they rated by non-profit charity scorecards on how their money is spent?
Of the foundations supporting an environmental group, have their
fortunes been derived from stock investments with fossil fuel
companies?
Does any group invest its endowment money with fossil fuel companies?
Might the financial ties of funders to environmental groups have any
unwise influence on the group's mission, for example, in the questions
asked, the kind of research done, the policies and solutions proposed,
etc.? Does their work include practical technology
and science-based solutions? Be wary of
efforts to suppress or distort science for political purposes. Be an advocate and inform, inspire and
empower others to speak and act for the earth.
