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Reading the hundreds of Climate Confessions sent in by EDF members & activists across the country, one simple phrase instantly caught my attention:
“Doing nothing is not a prescription for change.” —Nita K., Carol Stream, IL.
There’s no denying the fact that we’re up against some extremely well-funded, well-organized opposition. But all their money can’t buy our best weapon: you.
Beating them isn’t impossible—we’ve done it before.
In 1990, as bipartisan support rose for a cap-and-trade plan to harness markets and solve the acid rain disaster, the Koch Brothers poured their money into a front group—the “Concerned Citizens for the Environment”—with the goal of derailing this much-needed solution.
The group—without any citizen membership—produced studies insisting that acid rain was a myth (sound familiar?). They lobbied for deregulation of corporations, insisting that was the true way to protect the environment.
They lost. Our plan to reduce acid rain was put into action, affecting even the Kochs’ heavy-emitting refineries and factories. And it was a massive success.
We cut sulfur dioxide emissions in half, at a fraction of the expected costs. By 2000, scientists were documenting decreased sulfates in Adirondack lakes, improved visibility in national parks and widespread benefits to human health. The Economist called it “the greatest green success story of the past decade.”
Beating back their endless attacks may seem impossible—but we’ve done it before. Help do it again.
Be a Seed for Change 
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