Environmentalists of the day, with little credibility and no clout, found themselves frustrated. Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, had powerfully signaled the dangers of pesticides such as DDT, a long-lasting poison that moves up the food chain from plankton to fish to birds. Her book was a best seller, but the government did nothing to prevent DDT and a myriad of other chemicals from contaminating the environment.
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The osprey, like the bald eagle and other birds of prey, has enjoyed a strong recovery thanks to the nationwide ban on DDT. (Photo by Michael L. Smith.)Science and Law
That was the situation, a quarter century ago, when the founders of Environmental Defense went to court to stop the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission from spraying DDT on the marshes of Long Island. They brought their scientific data to the witness stand to prove that DDT was causing the eggshells of ospreys and other birds to thin and crack, hatching far fewer offspring. Although the judge had to look up the word "ecology," he soon granted an injunction to stop the spraying. Never before had scientists used the courts to redress an environmental wrong, and they recognized that this approach was a powerful one. They incorporated the Environmental Defense Fund (now Environmental Defense) on October 6, 1967, and began a series of legal actions across the country that culminated in a permanent, nationwide ban on DDT in 1972.
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Founding members (left to right) Arthur Cooley, Charles Wurster and Dennis Puleston revisit the Federal courthouse at Riverhead, NY in which Environmental Defense first presented the scientific arguments which led to the banning of DDT. (Photo by T. Charles Erickson.)In the process, the founders of Environmental Defense learned that DDT levels in human mothers' milk had risen to seven times the level permitted for milk sold in stores, turning part of our attention toward issues of human health. In 1970, Environmental Defense began its ultimately sucessful campaign to phase lead out of gasoline. The airborne lead pollution emitted from tailpipes was at that time a major cause of childhood lead poisoning.
The DDT victory was also the springboard to our continuing fight for wildlife. Environmental Defense began efforts to preserve critical habitat, protect endangered species, and provide better alternatives to such destructive practices as large-scale dam building and the use of commercial fishing gear that ensnares marine mammals.
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When high levels of DDT were found in breast milk, this photo ran in a New York Times advertisement placed by Environmental Defense under the headline: "Is Mother's Milk Fit For Human Consumption?" (Photo by Amyas Ames.)Ecology and Economics
The early Environmental Defense welcomed economists and computer experts to its teams of scientists and attorneys to help develop workable solutions to environmental problems. In a precedent-setting case, Environmental Defense convinced the California Public Utilities Commission that it would be more profitable for the state's electric companies to help customers become more energy-efficient than to build new coal and nuclear power plants. Although the utilities balked at first, they later embraced our ideas, sponsoring energy-efficiency programs that became a model for utilities nationwide.
Since the founding of Environmental Defense, the environmental movement in the U.S. has made great strides. Yet our founders could scarcely have imagined the enormity of the problems we now face: deterioration of the ozone layer, worldwide crashes in fisheries, the risk of global climate change. But fortunately, their original idea of bringing rigorous science to bear on public policy has proven powerful and durable.
Today Environmental Defense takes a results-oriented, pragmatic approach to environmental problems. Aware that any lasting solution must integrate economic and environmental goals, special care is taken to offer constructive alternatives. Instead of just saying "No!" to a problem, we aim to develop a new option and say, "Why not try this?"