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Environmentalism, Then and Now

Frances Beinecke
President
Year joined NRDC: 1978

Then: "I was in college when the first Earth Day happened. I'd always been interested in issues of social change, and I realized the environmental movement provided an opportunity to address important issues in a positive way. It was optimistic and forward-looking, not just protesting. I decided to study environmental policy in graduate school, and during that time I got an internship with NRDC, where I worked on land use issues in the Catskills. After grad school I officially joined NRDC and continued to work on land use, helping states to develop coastal management plans. That work evolved into a successful effort to stop offshore oil and gas leasing in the Mid-Atlantic states."

Now: "Our early work on advocating a system of protections for the coastal zone has now evolved into a full-fledged oceans program. And we're still fighting to protect the Catskills from overdevelopment -- the projects, huge casinos and hotels, are much bigger now than they were in 1973. In general, the challenges we face today are larger in nature. In the early days we would identify a specific place facing a specific threat. Now, in addition to focusing on specific threatened places, as we do in our BioGems campaign, we're looking at entire ecosystems -- and getting people involved at a whole new level. Today's global issues are urgent and pressing. Global warming, the health of the oceans, the loss of our wildlands and biodiversity, the growing use of toxic chemicals are all global concerns. We have to address them from all angles, from the grassroots to the corporations to all levels of government. We're also more solutions-oriented than ever before, and committed to a long-term vision. In the 1970s, I don't think we thought about the 1990s. Now, we think 20 years ahead, even about immediate, urgent problems. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and commitment to make sure the planet works and can provide for people. It's a job that will never be finished."

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