Six top environmental charities to consider
We all are pretty familiar with the range of environmental problems our world faces. Lucky for us, there are a number of quality organizations working to combat everything from pollution and species extinction to deforestation and climate change. They could use our support. So this Earth Day, make a contribution by checking out our top six environmental charities making a difference and find the one that takes the kind of action you are looking for.
Oceana’s mission is to restore our oceans to their previous levels of abundance. Using science to identify problems and their solutions, Oceana brings together economists, lawyers and advocates with scientists across the globe to ensure the world’s oceans thrive once more. Founded in 2001, Oceana works through strategic, directed campaigns on both the regional and international level.
They envision a world in which dolphin sightings are common along the coast; in which marlins, sharks and tuna swarm through the seas; in which whales and sea turtles flourish; in which local fishing cultures are growing rather than declining and in which fish are a safe and bountiful source of food around the world. Their work is especially crucial as a study discovered that less than ½ of one percent of all resources consumed by environmental nonprofit groups in the United States went to advocating for our oceans.
The oceans are key to our health as a planet as they control our climate, provide protein for half of people the world over, and drive part of our economy. Yet like all ecosystems, our oceans are fragile. In a short amount of time, we have destroyed many marine ecosystems, overexploited more than 75 percent of seafood species, polluted our waters and caused the near extinction of million-year-old species.
In spite of all this, Oceana has hope. Hope that the world’s oceans can return to their former glory, through enforcing protective laws and creating a baseline of commonsense principles. Join them in their work by visiting them online.
The Wild Foundation is the only global organization dedicated 100 percent explicitly to wilderness protection across the planet. Believing that natural areas provide crucial social, spiritual, biological and economic, they aim to save at least half of the planet, both land and water, through a program called Nature Needs Half™. They envision a world with plentiful clean water and clean air and enough resources to support the life on our planet.
Through their collaboration approach on the grassroots level, they leverage resources to maximize donor dollar support. They prioritize working in the space of the human heart and mind, working toward conservation through developing active relations among people and nature around the globe.
As a pioneer in wilderness conservation, through their efforts they have created and increased protected areas, brought together leaders and communities, generated and backed policy initiatives, conducted field projects and provided wilderness resources and tools.
Bringing together a wide-range of partners and collaborators, they uphold that recent data and the increasing environmental crisis demand a new global conservation vision. Our efforts so far have not been enough. They set the bar at conserving a minimum of half of the planet’s land and water, which they believe, due to a number of assessments, is required if we are to maintain the health, function and diversity of all life.
Join The Wild Foundation in their global initiatives today.
NRDC bills itself as the nation’s most effective environmental action organization. The charity combines law, science and the assistance of 1.3 million members and online activists with the goal of protecting our world’s wildlife and plants to create a healthy environment for all living things.
Since its inception in 1970, NRDC has helped to fashion some of our core environmental laws. Their staff of more than 300 lawyers, scientists and policy experts, in collaboration with NRDC supporters, works to solve our urgent environmental issues, from controlling global warming and moving our nation away from its dependence on oil to aiding China in moving toward sustainable practices.
NRDC avows the integral position of human beings in the environment, believing that all people should have a voice in the important decisions that impact their environment. They look toward a future where humankind can be sustained for perpetuity without depleting the key resources all life depends on.
To take action and learn more, visit their website.
The heart of Ecotrust centers around the idea of reliable prosperity. The term “reliable prosperity” is coined by Jane Jacobs, who wrote, “Working along with natural principles of development, expansion, sustainability and correction, people can create economies that are more reliably prosperous than those we have now, and that are more harmonious with the rest of nature.”
Ecotrust believes in this credo: The world’s cultural, political and economic systems are ultimately constructed on the basis the natural order, and the destruction of that order would threaten everything else. The solution to our issues can be found in redesigning our economies so that they restore our world, rather than deplete it. By tackling the needs of people and our ecosystems, we can create a different kind of economic prosperity.
Their mission is therefore to encourage innovative thinking to generate economic opportunity, social equity and environmental well-being. Their successes include co-founding the world’s first environmental bank, starting the world’s first ecosystem investment fund and creating a range of programs in fisheries, forestry and children’s health. They have been a key force in developing new information tools to improve social, economic and environmental decision-making.
In its around 20 years of work, Ecotrust has translated $60 million in grants into more than $300 million in capital for local people, businesses and organizations throughout the United States. Simultaneously a “think tank” and a “do tank” designed to identify and prove profound innovation, Ecotrust believes its role is to innovate, invest and inspire.
Visit Ecotrust and check out the programs they offer.
Resources for the Future enhances environmental and natural resource policymaking around the globe through high-quality objective social science research. Rooted in economics and the social sciences, RFF carries out international independent research on environmental, energy, natural resource and environmental health issues. Started in 1952, RFF turned into the first think tank exclusively advocating for natural resource and environmental issues.
RFF has led the way in using economics as a way to develop more effective policy on the use and protection of our natural resources. Their team of experts analyzes the pressing issues of our day, from energy and transportation policy to biodiversity and the environmental challenges of developing countries.
The results of the research are wholeheartedly shared with all kinds of stakeholders, from different levels of government to environmental organizations, companies, the media, the public and academia. The nonprofit sees itself as more a research organization than a lobbying organization.
To find out more, visit RFF now and take action.
Earth Rights International brings together legal power and the power of the people to defend earth rights. They take legal action against those who commit earth rights abuses, train the next generation of grassroots leaders, and conduct various advocacy campaigns. ERI’s goal is to end these abuses, to create real solutions for real people, and to advocate for human rights and our natural world.
Leading the forefront of holding businesses responsible for fair and just human rights, labor and environmental practices, ERI collaborates with human rights and environmental activists, key communities and interested individuals to build lasting networks, raise public awareness around earth rights issues, and confront corporate abusers wherever they may be.
Composed of a team of activists, organizers and lawyers, they scour the globe to find and document human rights and environmental abuses. These abuses are then publicized by means of campaigns, reports and articles, as they rally communities to take action.
Particularly targeting people living under repressive regimes, the nonprofit informs people of their rights and possible solutions. They are there at every level, from the village to the international, advocating for the abused and battling for greater protection of earth rights.
Take action and join Earth Rights in their fight to defend.
Tagged in: oceana, nonprofit, environment, charities, top, list, 6, six, ecotrust, resources for the future, earth rights international, nrdc, wildlife foundation,
LadyLUX
