NRDC honors Senator Barbara Boxer as a Force for Nature
SAN FRANCISCO (May 15, 2015) – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) will honor Senator Barbara Boxer tomorrow for her lifetime of trailblazing environmental achievements at the 15th “Forces for Nature” benefit. Her work will be celebrated at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco.
“Senator Barbara Boxer is one of the greatest environmental champions of our generation,” said Rhea Suh, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “For more than thirty years, she has stood up to big polluters and stood up for a clean environment, safe communities and healthy families. She believes we need to treat our natural systems like our lives depend on them – because they do. And that why’s throughout her career she has been a force to be reckoned with; a force for progress; a force for a better future; a Force for Nature.”
Senator Boxer has made the environment a priority throughout her career. More than three decades before the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Senator Boxer was fighting Big Oil, spearheading efforts to protect the Pacific coast from the dangers of drilling. When the massive BP spill occurred in 2010, Senator Boxer led the effort in Congress to make sure that billions of dollars were collected in fines to be used to help restore the waters, wetlands, and wildlife of the Gulf.
Senator Boxer also served as the first woman chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, where she led efforts to protect more than one million acres of California land. Senator Boxer is now working to protect 350,000 acres of the Berryessa Snow Mountain, expand the John Muir National Historic Site, prevent reckless mining of the Soledad Canyon, and ensure access to water as California grapples with a historic drought.
NRDC’s Force for Nature Award celebrates those who have championed environmental action. In years past, NRDC has honored such notables as Wendy and Eric Schmidt, of the 11th Hour Project and Google, Inc., respectively; Bob Fisher, Gap, Inc. and Pisces Foundation; Lisa Jackson, former EPA Administrator and VP of Environmental Initiatives at Apple, Inc.; Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post Media Group; fashion designer Stella McCartney; Mayor Michael Bloomberg; actor Robert Redford; chef Alice Waters; producer Laurie David; and former NRDC President John Adams.