This article talks about one of the oldest environmental organizations, The Sierra Club.
Many
of us have heard the name once or twice, but very few of us are
actually aware of what exactly it is, or what exactly The Sierra Club
does. But in fact, The Sierra Club is the United States' oldest and
largest grassroots environmental campaign. Founded by John Muir in San
Francisco, California all the way back in 1892, and has continued to
promote a safer and healthier community, work on developing
environmentally friendly technology, and help to preserve our nation's
forests and wildlife.
Since 1892, The Sierra Club has actively
continued to expand on it services, its locations, its goals, and of
course, its employees. Currently with offices in every state, as well
as an office in Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, The Sierra Club is
doing its best to help out not only our own nation's global warming
issues, but those of our neighbors as well; but as you might expect,
the group really has their work cut out for them.
When the group
originated, neither global warming nor climate change was even on the
minds of the founders. In fact, the founding fathers of The Sierra Club
had three very specific goals in mind when putting the group together:
-
To establish Glacier and Mount Rainier National Parks - To convince the
California legislature to give up Yosemite Valley to the United States
Federal government - To try and save California's beloved redwood trees
Once
these goals were fully met, The Sierra Club later acted in support of
the National Park Service and started improving on forest trails and
expanding on parks. They believed the Forest Service was doing an
inadequate job; and in 1916 the National Park Service was indeed
founded.
But what really put this organization on the map was a
mid 1950's effort to exclude the Echo Park Dam from the Colorado River
Project. Thanks to this victory, The Sierra Club was all but a
household name; and boasted a group membership of 15,000 strong.
Since
this highly prolific victory, they have spearheaded a number of
campaigns both in opposition and in support for a variety of topics.
This includes such things as:
- The ongoing protection of
National Forests, parks, and rivers - Opposition against the creation
of new nuclear power facilities - Opposition to coal power plants -
Explaining the urgency for an increased use of renewable energy
Recently
The Sierra Club has announced their support for Dot Eco. Dot Eco LLC is
pushing for the establishment of the .eco top level domain. This new
initiative will donate over 50% of domain registration proceeds back to
fund scientific initiatives and research in climate change, ocean
analysis, economic policy, and other environmentally-related areas.
Dot Eco
LLC is dedicated to securing and utilizing the .eco top level domain to
increase environmental awareness and to effect positive environmental
change. Follow Dot Eco on Facebook to learn more.
