Frances Beinecke President
Jamie Rappaport C lark President and C EO
Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC
Defenders of Wi ldlife Fearless, Powerful Woman Leading the Fight for Nature
Interview: Andrew Currie. Eco Editor.
New York Times: “One of the nation’s most powerful environmental groups.”
Andrew Currie: Why are you passionate about your work?
Throughout my life, I have felt a strong moral obligation to conserve wildlife, so I followed my conviction and pursued a career in wildlife biology. In college, I got my dream job: caring for and releasing endangered peregrine falcon chicks back into the wild. What an incredible experience! Twenty years later, as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I had the honor of announcing the recovery and removal of the peregrine falcon from the endangered species list. It was a thrill to announce the spectacular recovery of this species, and to know that I played a small role in it.
We are the voice for wildlife: on the ground, in the courts, and in the halls of Congress.
droughts, damaging and deadly storms, and rising sea levels are impacting us already. An increasingly urbanized society is destroying and fragmenting habitat, making it harder for wildlife to survive, move, and adapt. It’s past time we addressed these issues with long term solutions that will benefit not only wildlife but ourselves as well.
on this planet. Some species’ roles are not yet known, but there is an interdependence amongst us that is critical to our survival.
Today, I am privileged to be the president of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation organization dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. The core of Defenders is a deep-seated belief in the inherent value of wildlife and the natural world, regardless of whether individual species are recognized as having utilitarian or aesthetic value to mankind. It is my goal to protect not just the charismatic creatures like the peregrine falcon, the gray wolf, and the grizzly bear, but all species, great and small. It’s important to remember that every species has a role to play
As I experienced firsthand with the peregrine falcon, conservation takes time, patience, and a commitment to the long haul. But these days, it seems like people expect quick fixes to everything, from the environment to the economy to unemployment. Most things worth doing take time. I believe that conserving our wildlife, treasured landscapes, and natural resources is definitely worth the time.
As a mother, I look to the future and my responsibilities to my son Carson, named after the awe inspiring environmentalist Rachel Carson. He once gave me a drawing of a polar bear. He wrote at the top, “Please save the polar bears mom!” He meant it.
The clock is ticking on some huge challenges. Climate change is wreaking havoc on us, our wildlife, and natural resources. Extreme
Photo: Charles Kogod forDefenders of Wildlife 46 ORIGINMAGAZINE.COM
Defenders of Wildlife means it, too. With your help, we will save the polar bear and all of the others species that are struggling to survive. We are the voice for wildlife: on the ground, in the courts, and in the halls of Congress. Our goal is to identify transformational solutions to solve the conservation challenges of our time. I hope you will join me. Together we can make great things happen so that children, like my son Carson, inherit a planet as good or better as the one that we enjoy. They deserve nothing less! defenders.org
Frances Beinecke: I love my job. Every day I work with incredibly talented people who are making our air cleaner, our water safer, and our wild places better protected. It’s challenging, but I do it for my three daughters. I think a lot about what the world is going to be like for their generation. Will we confront climate change in time or will we let fossil fuel companies determine our fate? This is a fight we can’t afford to lose, and that’s what keeps me moving forward. AC: What is the biggest threat facing our country today?
FB: Climate change has the potential to affect everything we care about—whether it is the health of our families, the stability of our communities, or the fate of the wild animals. It’s already pounding America with extreme weather events, and I am not just talking about Hurricane Sandy or the Midwestern drought. At least 3,527 U.S. monthly records for heat, rain, and snow were broken in 2012. We can’t let this continue unchecked, and we don’t have to. Wind and solar power, energy efficient buildings, cars that go farther on a tank of gas, and other solutions can fight climate change. I know America can get on a more sustainable path—we just have to raise our voices and demand it. AC: Climate change seems to be such a vast and systemic problem. What can our readers and I do to help today?
FB: Ordinary people have an extremely important role to play in fighting climate change. Not only can you make your home more energy efficient, drive less, and eat more local food—you can also tell your leaders to take climate action. Political leaders will only undertake bold climate initiatives if they know the American Photo: Anders Hansson
people want it. Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to set limits on carbon pollution from power plants. The agency appears poised to do it, and President Obama is eager to act. But they need to hear from Americans who support them. Remember, we are going up against the toughest industry in the country: the fossil fuel sector. We need your voices to help drown out the dirty energy crowd. Write to your newspaper. Call your member of Congress. Email President Obama. Speak out for a cleaner, more stable future for all of us. AC: What have you seen that makes you think a new, more powerful environmental movement is forming?
FB: I think every single American believes they have a right to clean air and clean water. When dirty polluters threaten the health of their families, people fight back. I see it in homeowners from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania. I see it in the tens of thousands of people who went to the White House last year to protest the Keystone XL pipeline for dirty tar sands oil and the thousands more planning to come this February. I see it among young people who know their generation will pay the price if we fail to act on climate change. Across the country, people are demanding stronger public protections, and political leaders are listening. House Republican leaders voted more than 300 times to undermine environmental safeguards since 2011, but almost none of these measures became law because Americans pushed back. In November, Americans elected clean energy and climate champions up and down the ticket, despite the fact that fossil fuel companies and their allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat them. Americans have made it clear we want to build a more sustainable future. I am excited to harness that energy and see what we can create together. nrdc.org ORIGINMAGAZINE.COM 47