The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth - its people,
its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
The Paris Agreement charted a new course in the effort to combat global climate change, requiring countries to make commitments and progressively strengthen them. Here’s what the accord seeks to achieve, and why our future may depend on its success.
Recycling food and other organic waste into compost provides a range of environmental benefits, including improving soil health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, recycling nutrients, and mitigating the impact of droughts.
Litter, sewage, plastic, and other pollutants do more than just ruin the beauty of the beach. They are closing down coastal areas, destroying marine life, and making people seriously sick.
Although nuclear energy directly emits only small amounts of global warming pollution, nuclear power inflicts significant environmental and global security harms—and comes with increasingly indefensible costs.
Despite an international ban on commercial whaling since 1986, the animals are still being hunted and killed across the world’s oceans, with devastating impacts on global populations.
Giant farms—whether growing crops or animals—often rely heavily on chemicals and produce waste that pollutes the water and air. As a result, the system we’ve designed to feed the planet also takes a serious toll on its health.
From coastal tide pools and rolling prairies to African savanna and arctic terrain, the earth is home to myriad ecosystems, each one regulated by interlinking parts, including the creatures that call them home.