ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND (EDF)

A national, non-profit environmental and conservation organization active in legal, economic, and scientific aspects of environmental issues. The EDF employs scientists, attorneys, economists, computer modelers, and other environmental professionals whose purpose is to propose practical and economically feasible solutions to major environmental problems. The EDF has been responsible for a number of important environmental law cases coming to the attention of the courts in the United States. The EDF is headquartered in New York City and has six other offices across the United States. The EDF was founded in the early 1970s when scientists documented the effects of the pesticide DDT on humans, wildlife, and the environment. The EDF subsequently joined with scientists and attorneys and successfully campaigned to have DDT banned nationwide in 1972. Currently, major EDF projects include: (1) limiting the greenhouse effect and climate change; (2) improving air quality; (3) tracing and blocking the sources of ocean pollution; (4) enforcing and extending the Endangered Species Act (ESA); (5) limiting chemical pollution and its effects on human health and the environment; (6) promoting water and energy conservation; (7) encouraging recycling and the reduction of solid waste; and (8) protecting endangered land areas such as Antarctica and the rain forests in Brazil, West Africa, and Indonesia.