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Noble Causes Everyone Should Support

Stefanie Spear
Dec. 01, 2011 08:01PM EST Insights + Opinion

Stefanie Penn Spear

This Thanksgiving, the grassroots environmental movement had many reasons to be thankful. November brought many victories including the delays on the Keystone XL pipeline and fracking the Delaware River Basin. But perhaps what’s most exciting to celebrate is the growing collaboration and current momentum of the environmental movement.

I’ve been working at the grassroots level for more than two decades, and have never seen this degree of unity among people and organizations protecting the Earth. From the leadership of Bill McKibben whose gift to mobilize people is unmatched, to Josh Fox’s unwavering dedication to stop fracking, to Annie Leonard’s ability to simplify complex issues through The Story of Stuff Project, to the leadership of executive directors like Greenpeace’s Phil Radford and Sierra Club’s Michael Brune, to the tireless work of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., it’s clear that the modern-day environmental movement is at an all-time high with the ability to create lasting change.

Of course there’s plenty of work to be done, including strengthening historic environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, passing new legislation like a federal energy bill, getting money out of politics through campaign finance reform, and educating people on ways they can protect human health and the environment.

Hopefully our political leaders will take heed of Australia’s recent passage of its landmark clean energy bill that will cap emissions and spur investment in renewable energy, and the International Energy Agency’s warning that we need to stop relying on insecure and environmentally unsustainable uses of energy, and adopt bold policies to prevent a world-wide energy crisis.

At EcoWatch, we are at the forefront of these issues by promoting the work of the grassroots environmental movement through this publication and our news service website EcoWatch.org. Visit this site to stay informed on the most important environmental news of the day and help us spread the word to gain even more momentum for this movement.

We all know that collaboration will be the key to our success in providing clean water, fresh air, healthy food and sustainable energy to future generations—noble causes everyone should support.

robert f. kennedy clean air act the story of stuff jr. josh fox greenpeace clean water act sierra club bill mckibben insights environmental movement clean water

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Speaking during a conference in Washington, DC in June, Derrick Morgan, senior vice president for federal and regulatory affairs at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), touted "model legislation" that states across the nation have passed in recent months.

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"We've seen a lot of success at the state level, particularly starting with Oklahoma in 2017," said Morgan, citing Dakota Access Pipeline protests as the motivation behind the aggressive lobbying effort. "We're up to nine states that have passed laws that are substantially close to the model policy that you have in your packet."


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