Letter From Our Executives

Global Warming Raises the Stakes

Fred Krupp has been at the helm of Environmental Defense since 1984.

Since Environmental Defense began in 1967, we’ve witnessed a greening of America. Thanks to the efforts of so many, our air and water are cleaner, hazardous wastes are handled with greater care and some endangered species have been brought back from the brink of extinction.

At the same time, the scope of the world’s environmental problems has grown. Many problems now affect the Earth in its entirety and the lives of all its inhabitants.

Global warming: today's most serious environmental threat

Chief among these is global warming, which touches every area of our work. Atmospheric physicist Dr. Michael Oppenheimer was one of the first to understand the seriousness of climate change when he started our global warming program in the 1980s, and this year our staff parlayed unexpected opportunities into big successes.

Scientists tell us we must reduce U.S. global warming pollution 80 percent by mid-century — and that we must begin immediately. To do so, Environmental Defense has pioneered the use of the cap-and-trade mechanism to unleash the most powerful economic force in the world: entrepreneurial capitalism.

This year, when we were invited to help draft the terms of the largest buyout in corporate history, the purchase of Texas electric utility TXU, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman praised our role as a leader of global change: “Every college activist should study this story,” he wrote, “because it is the future.”

Thank you for making our work possible.

Fred Krupp, President

N.J. Nickolas, Jr., Chairman of the Board

David Yarnold, Executive Vice President

Posted: 06-Apr-2006; Updated: 06-Apr-2006