About
The NRDC was co-founded in 1970 by John Adams, Richard Ayres, John Bryson, Edward Strohbehn, and Gus Speth, together with a board of scientists and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement. The organization has a broad agenda of activities and seeks sustainable policies from federal, state and local government and industrial corporations. It works with federal and state environmental and other agencies, the Congress and state legislatures, and the courts to reduce global warming, limit pollution, protect the stratosphere, promote energy efficiency, conserve natural resources and the natural and built environment, and increase the sustainability of the manufacture of consumer goods. NRDC participates in litigation in federal and state courts to assure the faithful implementation and enforcement of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and many other federal and state laws protecting the environment. The Council also supports an environmental science program that involves dozens of staff and associated scientists; this includes a major program which seeks transformation of manufacturing industries to more sustainable production. In addition, the organization devotes substantial resources to public education .
In 2001, NRDC launched the BioGems Initiative to mobilize concerned individuals in defense of exceptional and imperiled ecosystems. The initiative matches NRDC's legal and institutional expertise with the work of citizen activists.
It has issued a report on the health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks.
NRDC was also one of the only major national environmental organisations to become and stay involved with community activists on the ground in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
NRDC has also published a number of studies on nuclear weapon stockpiles around the world, both as monographs and as individual studies in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In December 2006, Green Day and NRDC jointly launched a website to raise awareness on the U.S.'s petroleum dependence. The NRDC takes the position that new nuclear power plants are not a solution for America's energy needs, or for addressing global warming.
Read more about this topic: Natural Resources Defense Council