Natural Resources Defense Council

NRDC, great one-stop shopping for a variety of conservation and environmental issues detailed with dozens of current links. Pick from the major topics: atmosphere, energy, land, life, politics, sustainability, waste, water and weapons.

What's an NRDC? The Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nongovernmental organization with enough staff, money and clout to cover a lot of major issues in detail. The web site is just the tip of the organization.

By e-mail you can get a periodic summary called LEGISLATIVE WATCH, which, one hopes, is a joint effort of several NRDC experts who prove that two heads (or more) are better than one. As individuals, those of us in the outside world just don't have time to do this kind of research so NRDC provides a good way to stay up to date.

An early January issue of Legislative Watch, for example, speculated that the 106th would continue its "recent pattern of environmental assaults in areas ranging from air and water pollution, to protection of our public lands, to global warming." Not a good forecast if you're an environmentalist. If you want to see what's behind this prophecy, check out NRDC's Damage Report.

NRDC observes that the "105th Congress was most remarkable not for the legislation it enacted, but for its willingness to routinely abandon the usual open and public legislative process on controversial environmental issues." Should we be singing the old ballad (was it by Charlie Rich?) "When you get behind closed doors. . .." Well, we elected these guys!

NRDC says it plans to press the issue of open debate and lawmaking on environmental issues with this 106th Congress. Given the preoccupation with Clinton, maybe environmentalists can hope that nothing will get done and that nothing in the open is better than something behind closed doors. In fact, this is just about what NRDC concluded, saying "it is actually good news that the 106th Congress will, for a while at least, not be able to pursue efforts to weaken our environmental protection laws."

One of NRDC's interesting sections contains "Briefings" on air, electricity, fish, global warming, mining, parks, whales. This is where to get NRDC's definition of the problem and recommended solutions. Take fish, for example. NRDC warns that "almost half of marine fish populations in U.S. waters are overfished - that is, depleted faster than they can replenish themselves. Globally, the situation is just as bad, with 70 percent of marine fish fully fished or overfished. Americans currently import more than 40 percent of the fish they eat, meaning that the U.S. depends on a global seafood population which is in peril. If Americans don't start protecting domestic fish stocks now, they soon will have nowhere to turn for what nutritionists consider a crucial source of protein and a healthy alternative to red meat and poultry."

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