I was born and raised in northern Virginia and after graduating from the University of Virginia I knew I wanted to return to be a “young professional” in Washington, DC. It’s hard to resist the lure of the city when you’re so close to the political hubbub, walk past the White House on your daily commute home from work, and can still easily access lakes, rivers, and mountains within an hour. When I was younger, I took for granted my proximity to DC, often pinning to live in a forest or on a lake. As children, my brother and I planted corn and strawberries in our front yard and my family would often travel out West to the national parks to escape the DC summer humidity. It was on these trips that I discovered the natural beauty of our public lands.
At NRDC I split my time between the Lands & Wildlife program and the Communications department. I hope to use this blog as a mode of communication to excite and inform the millennial generation about environmental issues that will directly affect our lives and to which we can absolutely play a role in shaping. Prior to NRDC, I worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) as well as an organic farm in northern California, where I blissfully embraced my inner flower child and learned a ton about sustainable agriculture.
Posted December 23, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, U.S. Law and Policy
Believe it or not, it was a horse race that solidified my understanding of the inner workings of the United States government. As my American Politics professor once explained, horse race coverage refers to our penchant for covering politics as...continued→
Posted October 20, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, Solving Global Warming
If I am not for myself, who will be? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when? Perhaps you are familiar with these words because you’re a fan of the multi-platinum rock band, Incubus,...continued→
Posted October 6, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
A few months ago my roommate brought home a poster-sized map of the world. She found it lying on the street curb, up for grabs, and naturally thought it would make a nice addition to our apartment. We unrolled the...continued→
Posted September 28, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
What does one hundred look like? 100 years old? 100 pennies? 100 books? 100 people? Every year, kindergarteners at my elementary school were asked this exact question and their homework was to create a visual display with 100 items of...continued→
Posted September 26, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
A 22- year-old engineering student with horn-rimmed glasses welcomed me into his home. Sean’s sports jersey indicated that he was a decathlete- but perhaps not in the traditional ‘sport athlete’ sense of the word. And this particular house looked very...continued→
Posted September 22, 2011 by Rachel Fried in Health and the Environment, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
I was six when my parents took my brother and me to the Grand Canyon. I remember it was scorching hot and I remember getting sick over a guard rail on the South Rim of the canyon after suffering from...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
