1

Kevin Jolivette






















Table of Contents
2

Mathew Grimm. N.D. Solar Panels at Vino Farms. Retrieved from http://www.edf.org/climate/california-climate-launch-pad
Introduction.3
History.3
About.3

Problems.4
Global Warming and Deforestation.4

Solutions.5
How EDF works.5
AB32.6

Limitations.6
Illegal logging.6

Recruitment Strategy Evaluation.7
Donator/Member.7
Job.7

Conclusion.8

Resources.9
Introduction:

This long report will be about the Environmental Defense Fund. The reason being is
because they work to preserve the environment from catastrophes like global warming
and protecting the oceans from over-fishing. EDF also works to save wild endangered
3
animals to help keep the ecosystems balanced and even works to save humans from
harm by doing things like protecting the air quality. Theyre all about solving real
problems with real science, hence the motto under their title, Finding the ways that
work.

History

Environmental Defense Fund was founded in
1967 along with a court victory for
banning DTT, a mosquito poison that was also
harmful to birds like the osprey and bald eagle.
From the very beginning, EDF had scientific
roots when a group a researchers went out to
survey why the birds populations were
decreasing. They found out the birds eggs were
not hatching because there was a significant
concentration of DTT within them. The
researchers took this problem to the courts after months of preparation and completely
dominated the DDT defense. Finally, in 1970, a ban was enforced to completely stop
the use of DTT across the nation. After that victory, EDF took off and now they strive to
solve various problems concerning the whole planet. Anything that concerns oceans,
ecosystems, climate and health. Environmental Defense Fund tries to make them safer
and more protected. (Environmental Defense Fund)

About:

Environmental Defense Fund is all about saving the world in a practical way. The best
investment a person can make in their future is a habitable planet that isn't well on its
way to the brink of destruction. To this end, Environmental Defense Fund does
everything it can to preserve our oceans, our air and our environment. Someone would
have to be hard pressed to find a better benefit than that. (Environmental Defense
Fund)

Problems
4

Anna Lubovedskaya. N.D. [Power plants]. Retrieved from http://www.edf.org/climate/polluters-continue-challenges-epa-rules-climate-pollution


Global Warming and Deforestation:

On planet Earth, we have a peculiar atmosphere where the temperature has an average
of about 57 degrees Fahrenheit. As we are all aware, there aren't any other kinds of
planets like that within
our solar system. Our
atmosphere acts as a
shield to protect us from
the harmful rays of the
sun. This is because we
have different elements
within our atmosphere
that act as a barrier,
things like carbon
dioxide, oxygen and
nitrogen. They reflect
some of the energy back
into outer space so the
Earth doesn't become too
hot. (How Global
Warming Works)

However, due to our actions this protection is harming us, humans are largely
responsible for global warming. (Most Global Warming Is Caused By Humans) Things
like power plants and factories are releasing too much carbon dioxide into the air. Its
not only that either, simple things like driving a car or even making paper has an effect
on global warming. The reason comes down to a term called greenhouse effect. Just
like a greenhouse that traps in heat, the energy that the atmosphere doesnt reflect hit
the Earth and is absorbed. Naturally, that heat the will escape Earths surface but
5
because there is too much carbon dioxide in
the air it becomes trapped, hence the name
greenhouse effect. (How Global Warming
Works)

One big contributor to the greenhouse effect is the deforestation of trees which
contributes roughly 15% of greenhouse gases. Trees are well known for their
photosynthesis, they convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. This doesnt happen overnight
however, in fact, trees usually have large stores of carbon dioxide within them, like a
giant container (Global Warming and Forestry). When people cut these trees down, all
of this carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. It used to be thought that
young trees do this the best but recent studies show that is untrue. Big and old trees are
far better at storing carbon dioxide because of their size. For example, the ones in
Northern California grow more than 350 feet and these store up to one ton of carbon
dioxide. (When It Comes to the Climate, Older Trees Do It Better.)

Solutions

How EDF works:

The way EDF works is normally in partnerships with anything from giant corporate
companies to private landowners in the United States. Recently, EDF worked with
several farmers to reduce the amount of fertilizer they use for their crops. The end result
ended up being that farmers were using 50% more fertilizer than needed at the behest
of fertilizer companies. In Ohio, this was particularly bad because that extra 50% wasn't
being taken in by crops but was instead running of into the streams that go into Lake
Erie which would pollute the waters and make the water undrinkable as well as
endanger the fish species living there.




AB32

Donated money would also go to things like the project called AB32, which was started
in 2006 in California. This bill, AB32, aims to reduce greenhouse gas to the same levels
as they were in 1990. The way it works is by implementing a cap and trade system
which is a market mechanism that sets an overall limit on the GHG emissions from
6
specified sources, then allows facilities subject to that cap to trade allowances to emit
GHGs (Katten). In other words, the government give permits to companies and these
permits limit the amount of greenhouse gases that they can emit. However, if the
company manages to use even less than the established limit, they can sell the
remainder to companies that go over that limit. This creates a good incentive to emit as
little greenhouse gases as possible. (EDF)

How is EDF related to AB32? Very simple, to help with AB32, EDF is helping to develop
an on-bill repayment program. What is an on-bill repayment program? Essentially, its
almost like a loan to buy GHG friendly utilities but works in an convenient way. For
example, a customer wants to invest in a cleaner way to generate electricity, the
customer would then buy a solar panel through the on-bill repayment program. With
this, they could pay for the solar panel over time within their utility bill. The thing is, since
theyre using less energy, their original utility bill fee would go down and would be
approximately balanced out by the recurring fee of the on-bill repayment program. With
this program, it makes the incentives for switching to cleaner energy that much greater.
Shifting the focus back to AB32, this essentially works the same way but on a grander
scale since it involves whole companies, rather than residential houses. (EDF)


Limitations

Illegal logging
Deforestation is a big deal concerning Global Warming but EDF claims that
Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing
will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades,
7
(Deforestation and Its Extreme Effect on Global Warming). The fact stands that EDF
cant be everywhere at once. In 2010, illegal logging was at an all time high and ended
up being the worst deforestation the world has
seen in the last 30 years (Worst deforestation in
three decades!). Even the worlds biggest and
oldest tree, a 800 year red cedar, located in British
Columbia, Canada was cut down due to poachers
illegally cutting the tree to sell its cedar.
(Deforestation and Global Warming). The hardest
part is that in these places, the Amazon for
example, it can be hard to convince the people to
help prevent deforestation when they make so
much money from it. EDF says its because,
Conservation costs money, while profits from
timber, charcoal, pasture and cropland drive
people to cut down forests,
(Deforestation and Its Extreme Effect on Global Warming)

Recruitment Strategy Evaluation

Donator/ Member
There are two main ways to get involved with the Environmental Defense Fund. The
first way has already been mentioned and that is just to go to their parent site and Sign
Up to be able to donate. Signing up also will allow members to also receive information
on recent problems that EDF deals with, what theyre keeping an eye on, what theyre
doing. Essentially, this feature is simply feed of information they offer via email. With
this information, they also ways to voice your opinions on these problems. For example,
within the How you can Help table, there is a sub tab called Take Action, from here
visitors will see a list of things they can do from their website like, Thank US, Mexican
officials working to save the Colorado River. Visitors will also see things like, Take
Action: Help End Dirty Energy, with these you can send an email to say support it. It
works like a petition but its more personalized. With these two features, they make it
relatively simple for anyone to help the cause. This is great, because not everyone can
put all their chips into the pot so this is a nice alternative for your everyday layman who
is also concerned about these problems. (EDF.org)

Job
To actually get past the donator/member status and becoming a bigger part of
Environmental Defense Fund. From their site, go to the About Us tab and select the
8
Jobs subtab. From here, its just a matter of browsing through the list of available jobs.
Click on the job to get a broader description like the qualifications, responsibilities and
location among other things. Its simplified and easy to use for anyone wanting a job,
they also offer internships and explain benefits and what to expect within the Jobs
subtab. (EDF.org)

Conclusion:

In the end, Environmental Defense Fund does its best to preserve the earth by facing
problems that could have a negative effect in the future. Although theyre situated in
America, they try to bring everyone together and recruit people from a variety of
different backgrounds. While global warming and deforestation aren't their only priority,
theyre doing whatever they can to make sure the Earth is safe and healthy for all
species for years to come.












Resources:

1 Jakuboski, S. (2012, May 19). Deforestation and Global Warming [Web log post].
Retrieved April 7, 2014, from http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/green-
science/deforestation_and_global_warming +

2 http://www.edf.org/ +

3 Strickland, J. and Grabianowski, E. (2005, April 21). How Global Warming Works
[Web log post]. Retrieved 21 April 2005 from
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming.html +

9
4 Global Warming and Forestry. (2009, May 20). Moj News Agency [Tehran, Iran].
Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA200215528&v=2.1&u=txshracd2531&it=r
&p=STND&sw=w&asid=1f754a5f1b49cc3bbb285a98b95c8ee7 +

5 Worst deforestation in three decades! (2010, September 27). Himalayan Times
[Kathmandu, Nepal]. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA238132604&v=2.1&u=txshracd253
1&it=r&p=STND&sw=w&asid=7e3b74ee33e941e3467ffe6d8e8dde32 +


6 Corlett, R. T. (2012). Climate change in the tropics: The end of the world as we know it?.
Biological Conservation, 151(1), 22-25. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.11.027

7 Richard HarrisDavid, G. (2013). U.N. Panel Report: Most Global Warming Is Caused
By Humans. Morning Edition (NPR),+

8 http://www.kattenlaw.com/first-compliance-period-underway-for-californias-ab32-cap-
and-trade-program

Picture
>Glenn Nevill. N.D. [peregrine falcons fly past]. Retrieved from http://www.edf.org/about/our-mission-and-history