Switchboard Features
NRDC Live Chats
NRDC Experts Discuss Important Environmental Issues
NRDC is home to top experts on everything from global warming legislation to enforcing the Endangered Species Act. NRDC Live Chats are an opportunity for you to engage with them on the hottest issues of the day. Check the schedule for upcoming chats and let us know if there's someone at NRDC that you'd like to hear from on an issue that matters to you. Check out our list of experts by topic.
Disaster in the Gulf
The oil spewing into the Gulf threatens to become an unprecedented environmental disaster. NRDC is on the ground in Louisiana, assisting in the efforts to protect one of the most ecologically complex regions of the country, its people and economy from the devastating consequences of offshore drilling.
Reporting from Copenhagen
Progress at the UN Climate Change Conference
NRDC staff attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and offer analysis of the Accord and necessary next steps to combat global warming.
Clean Energy and Climate
Legislation to Repower America, Tackle Climate Crisis
Congress and the White House have begun work on legislation that would fulfill President Obama's pledge to repower American with clean energy, creating millions of new jobs and a new engine for economic prosperity. Investing in clean energy is also the key to reducing global warming pollution and our dependence on dirty fuels. NRDC experts provide insight and expertise on the proposals.
Telling the Truth about Climate Legislation
Who does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce represent?
Opponents of energy and climate legislation are spreading misinformation using front groups for the coal industry and even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Companies that support strong climate legislation are objecting to its obstructionist tactics and resigning from the U.S. Chamber in droves. They know that strong climate and energy legislation will generate jobs and make the U.S. a world leader in green technologies.
Protecting Wolves
Fighting for the Gray Wolf's Recovery
Gray wolves once roamed the United States from Maine to Oregon and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains. But for decades, they were hunted and killed, erasing them from much of the country. Today, wolves are mounting a comeback, but their recovery is far from certain. The federal government has sought to remove wolves in the Rockies from the endangered species list, which would open the door for states to kill hundreds of them. NRDC fights to ensure the wolves' survival.
Grizzly Bears in Peril
The Grizzly's Greatest Foe is Global Warming
In the early 1800s, grizzly bears roamed the Western United States. But after hundreds of years of hunting and habitat destruction, the number of grizzlies in the American West has plummeted. Today, the biggest threat to the grizzly may be global warming. Whitebark pine, a crucial food source for Yellowstone's grizzly bears, is being rapidly decimated by global warming. NRDC petitioned to have the tree added to the federal Endangered Species List in December 2008.
No More Mountaintop Removal
MTR Mining Destroys Rivers, Forests and Communities
Across the Appalachians, companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin coal seams below. The communities of the region are paying the cost in their health, their culture and their natural heritage. Big coal companies should not be allowed to turn our nations' oldest mountains into molehills, and NRDC is working with local allies to halt this damaging practice.
Green Jobs
Green Jobs Can Build a Better Future
Creating green jobs is one of the best solutions we have to heal the U.S. economy, repower America and fight climate change -- all at once. The United States has the ability to create two million new jobs in just two years by investing in clean energy technologies that would help curb global warming and move America beyond oil. That's far more than the same investment in fossil fuels would produce.
Coal Ash
Tennessee Disaster Shows Need to Clean Up Coal Waste
It was the nightmare before Christmas: A massive spill at a power plant near Knoxville dumped more than a billion tons of toxic coal ash and buried more than 400 acres of homes and farmland in thick gray sludge. The incident ranks as the largest coal ash disaster in American history. But it wasn't the first, and it wouldn't be the last, as an early-January spill in Alabama made clear. As NRDC experts explain, the storage problems associated with coal waste represent just one more reason to dump this dirty fuel for the cleaner alternatives.
Clean Cars
Curbing Pollution, Increasing Fuel Efficiency, Saving Money
Americans need to drive smarter cars in order to save money, break our addiction to fossil fuels and help reduce global warming pollution. This means stricter limits on tailpipe emissions and retooling plants to manufacture the fuel-efficient cars that consumers are demanding, including hybrids and plug-in hybrids. High-mileage cars use less gas, helping keep American dollars at home and in our pockets.
Dirty Fuels
Looking for Energy in All the Wrong Places
With cheap oil becoming a luxury of the past, America and the world are working to build a clean energy future that will heal the economy and help fight global warming. But not everyone is willing to let go of the past: They're trying to develop even dirtier sources of transportation fuel -- derived from oil shale, tar sands and liquid coal -- at an even greater cost to our health and the environment.
California Energy
Golden State Must Maintain Leadership on Clean Air, Climate
"California has show bold and bipartisan leadership through its effort to forge 21st century standards" for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, President Obama said recently. Indeed, the Golden State has led the way on renewable energy development, clean air standards and greenhouse gas reduction. But now economic and budgetary concerns threat to erode that progress. NRDC experts explain why it's important for the nation and the world that California maintain its leadership role.
Water Issues
Water in a Changing World
Water will be one of the major environmental issues of the 21st century. It's a natural resource that’s already in short supply across parts of the United States and the world -- and will become even scarcer as our population grows and our climate changes. NRDC is focused on ensuring that the water we have stays clean, that we use it efficiently, and that we build the infrastructure to keep it that way.
Dirty Coal
Coal Fights Dirty, Reality Fights Back
Coal is America's dirtiest energy source -- and the country's leading source of global warming pollution. Coal mining destroys land, pollutes thousands of miles of streams and brings massive environmental damage to mountain communities.Yet coal companies are doing everything they can -- including buying millions of dollars in TV ads -- to push the myth of "clean coal" technology. But they can't hide the truth: "Clean coal" doesn't exist, and alternatives are ready to take the place of dirty power plants and repower America with clean energy. That's reality.
Bisphenol A
Unhealthy Chemicals in Our Food
Bisphenol A is used to make food and beverage containers that range from baby bottles to cans of tomato sauce. Growing scientific evidence shows that BPA, as it's called, is hazardous to our health. The hormone-disrupting chemical routinely contaminates what we eat -- and has been linked to cancer, infertility and obesity, among other problems. It's especially risky to infants and children. NRDC experts have called on the government to ban this unsafe chemical from food packaging.
NRDC v. Winter
Whales at the Supreme Court
NRDC argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8, 2008, seeking to protect whales from harmful military sonar. In early 2008, a federal court prohibited the U.S. Navy from conducting sonar exercises off the California coast without safety measures in place. The Navy sought to overturn this decision, despite evidence that thousands of whales would be harmed. The justices issued a ruling on Nov. 12.
Top Story
Disaster in the Gulf
The oil spewing into the Gulf threatens to become an unprecedented environmental disaster.
Citizen journalism from the OnEarth magazine website
- VIDEO: What's the Future of Energy in America?
- by Emily Gertz
- Gulf Oil Spill Bolsters Case Against Great Lakes Drilling
- by Jeff Kart
- Growing Danger of Oil Slick Reaching the Gulf Stream
- by Emily Gertz
