I grew up in two areas that have a lot in common but couldn’t be more different: Whitefish, Montana, and Yucca Valley, California. Whitefish is a small town, nestled in the northwest corner of Montana, next to Glacier National Park. It sits on a beautiful lake at the base of Big Mountain Ski Resort. I spent my teenage years in another small town, Yucca Valley, at the southern border of the Mojave Desert, next to Joshua Tree National Park. While both towns are small and rural, next to beautiful national parks, their environments are stark contrasts – forested mountains with rivers and streams in Montana and cactus-filled valleys and arroyos in southern California.
College (UC Berkeley – Go Bears!), grad school (Johns Hopkins), and law school (UCLA) brought me to urban environments, where I explored history, international economics, and environmental law. Along the way, I found my way to NRDC and enjoy working on issues that make a difference, from saving endangered wildlife and wild places, keeping all of our footprints (not only carbon) as small as possible, and being smart about our limited resources. I do my part by working to protect whales and dolphins from dangerous noise pollution (including sonar) and polar bears from extinction.
Posted March 12, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As I wrote last week, the international community rejected a US proposal to ban the global commercial trade in polar bear parts (skins, teeth, claws, skulls) at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in...continued→
Posted March 6, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The vote on a US proposal to end the international commercial trade in polar bear parts will take place tomorrow in Bangkok, Thailand. The US proposal is before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and is opposed by...continued→
Posted March 6, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The voting just ended on a US proposal to ban the international trade in polar bear parts (skins, teeth, claws, skulls) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Unfortunately, the trade ban failed. The proposal failed to...continued→
Posted February 27, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Three years ago, the international community rejected a ban on the international commercial trade in polar bear parts (skins, teeth, claws, skulls, etc.) in Doha, Qatar. Next week, at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species...continued→
Posted February 6, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Twelve of the world’s preeminent polar bear researchers are calling on the five nations with polar bear populations (the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, and Greenland) to develop crisis management plans for polar bears. Otherwise, countries won’t have time...continued→
Posted February 5, 2013 by Zak Smith
There is a Spanish translation of this post, below. A few weeks ago, I highlighted the role one person, UK Environment Minister Richard Benyon, could have in helping protect polar bears. Now it’s time for an entire country, Spain,...continued→
Posted January 29, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
On Thursday, the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) – the federal agency charged with protecting whales and dolphins – will announce its intent to authorize the Navy to take marine mammals more than 31 million times over the next...continued→
Posted January 18, 2013 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
It’s rare that one person can have an impact on the future of an entire species, but that’s where things stand with the US proposal to ban the international commercial trade in polar bear parts (skins, teeth, claws, skulls,...continued→
Posted December 3, 2012 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today, Poland is hosting a workshop for Central and Eastern European Countries on the US proposal to ban the international commercial trade in polar bears. The meeting highlights the key role Europe will play in determining the fate of...continued→
Posted October 26, 2012 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
News in the world of whales this week (or close to it). Morgan in captivity at Loro Parque, Tenerife, Spain - © Ingrid Visser/Free Morgan Foundation Lawyers and activists are preparing for next week’s (November 1) hearing in Amsterdam over...continued→
Posted October 18, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today, NRDC sued the U.S. Navy and the government agency charged with protecting marine mammals from the Navy’s harmful use of sonar. Both the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) have a responsibility to manage, conserve, and...continued→
Posted October 5, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Yesterday, the National Marine Fisheries Service – the federal agency charged with protecting whales and dolphins – announced that it received requests from the Navy for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to training and testing activities off Southern...continued→
Posted October 1, 2012 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
This Summer Was Horrible for Polar Bears; Will They Finally Get Some Good News? It was a bad summer for polar bears; the Arctic sea ice, upon which they depend to survive, melted to an unprecedented level. But as...continued→
Posted July 17, 2012 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The New York Times ran an interesting article yesterday about a preliminary study showing that certain dolphins and toothed whales may be able to “decrease the sensitivity of their hearing to protect their ears from loud noise.” It all...continued→
Posted July 9, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
There’s only one piece of news in the world of whales this week that I’m focusing on – the comment deadline (tomorrow, July 10) on the Navy’s plans for training and testing activities in Southern California and Hawaii and along the...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.
