Freebies For Us

The next president’s first 100 days will set the stage for America’s new environmental policy. Take action and send the presidential candidates an Environmental To-Do List for those first 100 days.

For taking your first acton, we’ll thank you by sending you one of the following three free gifts: a reusable shopping bag, a travel mug, or an umbrella.

What the Environmental Defense Fund does:

Strong Science Guides Our Work

Scientists founded Environmental Defense 40 years ago. Ever since, our biologists, chemists, engineers and physicists have used science to cut through logjams.

In 1998, for instance, atmospheric physicist Dr. Michael Oppenheimer — then our climate director and now science adviser — published a paper in Nature warning that human-caused global warming might so accelerate polar melting that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could begin to collapse. Such an event ultimately would raise sea levels 20 feet.

Oppenheimer’s focus on “tipping points” that could destabilize the climate fundamentally altered the thinking of scientists and policymakers.

“Oppenheimer got the whole scientific community focused on critical thresholds like melting ice sheets,” says our science adviser Dr. William Chameides. “What we needed to do became clear: Develop emissions targets that can prevent the globe from reaching these points of no return.”

A long record of results based on science
For decades, our science-geared efforts have influenced national policy, for example:

Scientific evidence we provided helped get DDT banned in the U.S.. In 1967, a small group of scientists provided scientific evidence that the pesticide DDT was harming wildlife. Later they found that DDT was tainting mother’s milk. They formed Environmental Defense and won a nationwide ban on the pesticide, allowing bald eagles, ospreys and other magnificent birds to rebound.

Our study led to safe drinking water standards. In 1974, an Environmental Defense study suggested that chemical contamination in Mississippi water was linked to high cancer rates in some Louisiana parishes. Our findings prompted a federal study of contaminants in drinking water nationwide. This led to the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Data we compiled helped safeguard 75,000 square miles of ocean. Our experts assembled the science showing that protected areas dramatically boost fish populations. We then gained support from fishermen, industry and communities to preserve some of the planet’s richest ocean habitat, including in Hawai`i, the Caribbean, the Channel Islands off California, and the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys.