The Economist credited Environmental Defense with, "the greatest green success story of the past decade," when we helped to create the emissions trading amendment to the Clean Air Act. "At the time, this was hugely controversial: American's power industry insisted the cuts were prohibitively costly....Environmental Defense has been vindicated....and at far lower cost than expected," our efforts have kept the air cleaner, according to a July 6, 2002 article.

Some key milestones in our over 30-year history:

• 1967 - Environmental Defense helped launch the modern environmental movement by winning a ban on the dangerous pesticide DDT, showing how a handful of individuals can bring about national reform.
  
• 1970 - Our work helped bring all hunted whales onto the U.S. endangered species list.
  
• 1985 - We helped convince federal regulators to phase out leaded gasoline, producing a dramatic drop in childhood lead poisoning.
  
• 1991 - McDonald's accepted every recommendation of our joint task force, replacing Styrofoam boxes with recycled packaging and eventually eliminating more than 150,000 tons of packaging waste.
  
• 1996 - We helped Brazil's Panará Indians win protection for their Amazon rainforest homeland, safeguarding more than one million acres of rainforest.
  
• 2000 - We persuaded seven of the world's largest corporations to join us in a partnership to reduce global warming by cutting their emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
• 2001 - We teamed up with Federal Express to develop a delivery truck that will improve fuel efficiency while cutting smog-forming pollution 75% and particulate emissions by 90%, proving that existing technologies that make good business sense can improve air quality which, in turn, reduces the associated health.
• 2002 - With the support of Environmental Defense's Action Network, legislation was passed that will reduce global warming by mandating stricter greenhouse gas emissions controls for automobiles.
• 2003 - We consulted with McDonald's to produce a new policy on antibiotic use in food animal production, as part of our effort to ensure that medically important antibiotics maintain their effectiveness in treating human diseases.

The work of more than 250 scientists, economists, attorneys and other professionals at Environmental Defense is made possible thanks to 300,000 people like you. Find out how you can help.

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