The Sierra Club as an Interest Group
The Sierra Club is a national organization dedicated to the preservation of the environment. Founded in 1892 in California by conservationist John Muir, the Club is made up of 750,000 people devoted to the exploration, enjoyment, and the protection of the natural environmental. Headquartered in San Francisco, it has numerous state and regional chapters taking part in the fight for protection.
According to Janda, an important part of pluralism was that new interest groups form as a matter of course when the need arises (Janda 176). Such is the case with the Sierra Club. With the establishment of Yosemite National Park by the US Congress in 1890, the Club formed two years later in 1892 to lead a campaign to defeat a proposed reduction in the boundaries of the Park. Moreover, the Sierra Club formed when there was a need and rising interest in environmental preservation.
Another important aspect of interest group formation is leadership. Founding the Sierra Club, John Muir was an explorer, naturalist and writer devoted to the environment. Campaigning for the conservation of land, water and forests in the United States, he helped influence congress to pass the Yosemite National Park Bill and persuaded President Teddy Roosevelt to protect 150 million acres of forest reserves. His devotion and effort helped many people begin to understand the importance of conservation. Not just confined to information in books, his commitment allowed people to experience nature for themselves.
Who is being organized is also an important factor. Regarding the Sierra Club, a range of people were organized. Whether rich, educated, businessmen, farmers, or women, environmental protection is important to...
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...rent perspectives, environmental protection will be a topic of debate and controversy.
In conclusion, the Sierra Club is a national interest group. Because of a disturbance, leadership and numerous like-minded individuals, the Sierra Club successfully organized in 1892. Taking on roles of representation, participation, education, agenda building and program monitoring, the it owes much of its success to its resources of members, money and lobbyists. As a group, the Club has accomplished much through direct lobbying, grassroots initiatives, high-tech lobbying and coalition building. With the environment being such a debated topic, the Sierra Club is an organization devoted to its preservation.
Works Cited:
Janda, Kenneth, Jeffrey M. Berry and Jerry Goldman. The Challenge of Democracy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
The Sierra Club. www.sierraclub.org
1. Janda, Kenneth. The Challenge of Democracy. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA. 1999. (Chapter 3 & 4).
This foundation is how David Suzuki leaved his legacy, how he marks his legacy now, and how others will help him continue on his legacy. The foundation’s goal is to “find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us.” In order to accomplish this, they must achieve other sub-goals too. Protecting our climate, creating livable communities, establishing environmental rights and justice, transforming the economy, connecting with nature, and building community are all sub-goals that once achieved, will carry out their main
Janda, K., Berry, J., Golman, J., & Hula, K. (2009). The Challenge of Democracy: American
Hudson, William E. American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America's Future. Washington, DC: CQ, 2010. Print.
For instance, in the case study of Emelle, Alabama, the Alabamians for a Clean Environment group formed, only through the disagreement of the approaches of how Sumter Countainians Organized for Protection of the Environment was addressing the issue. One important aspect of advocacy is unification. Thus, when environmental justice groups are combating these issue within their community, they need to unite as a collective unit to enact the change they envision. A great example of a group that unified together to achieve success is the Love Canal tragedy, where the community members unified to pressure the government to act on the waste left underneath the elementary school. If there were not unified, the constituents residing around the Love Canal may not have forced the government to listen. Hence, my recommendation is for advocacy groups to learn from one another, embody off the success of one group, and collectively set a mission and outcome plan to combat these injustices. After all, Martin Luther King, a proclaimed civil rights leader once said, “there is power in unity, and there is power in
The most well known of these organizations is the ELF or the Earth Liberation Front. They are a reincarnation of an earlier organization that also used the acronym ELF but the earlier version was the Environmental Life Force and did not advocate the use of unlawful methods. It was the later group that published the field guide for monkeywrenching. They were later plagued by the same problems that follow extremist groups across the spectrum. Savoie noted in ‘If a tree falls’ that because they were so critical of outside people ...
The Rainforest Action Network's motto has always been, “Environmentalism with teeth.” RAN gets the job done through grassroot organizing, media stunts, the use of non-violent civil disobedience, and inside-the-boardroom
Works Cited Hudson, William E. American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future – Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004. Landy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights.
The Greenpeace organization was formed in 1971 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was originally formed to stop nuclear testing in a small island called Amchika in Alaska. A small group of people sailed from Vancouver to Alaska in a small fishing boat determined to stop the testing.
In this day of globalization and social media, this has meant that these Native groups are reaching out to the world for support and to educate our political leaders and the populace about environmental concerns. This has resulted in a better understanding of Native spirituality. Groups such as the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (http://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/), Idle No More (http://www.idlenomore.ca/), The Nibi Walk project (nibiwalk.org), The First Peoples Worldwide (http://firstpeoples.org/wp/), and numerous other groups have been created to promote environmental projects, sway political processes, and share the beliefs about why these things are important to Native
The National Park Service assists with the creation of community parks. It also encourages outdoor recreation in open conservation spaces.
People are searching their interest group per their concerns and wish. Interest group must be nonprofit organization which is run their own policy. 1 There are various interest group in state of Texas. Interest group decentralized the power to the state to the local like the federalism. It makes the weaker in party system. In state of Texas legislature, there is high dominant of business oriented interest group. Lobbyist give service to legislative officials to provide information and making questions to executive action. All the activities of lobbyist are protected by the first amendment. There are many interest groups in state of Texas. Many people have different interest with different group. There are many restriction and more strict oversight on interest group. They must create and pass the bills. They listen the voice of each members of groups. Members of interest group are very big so they represent such a large group in society. They care each member in the group. Members are hoping from the group. They are nonprofit organization. To increase the members in the county and cities, they can contribute to the society and spend some amount on that works which increase the members of interest group that may leads the powerful of
Landy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
The Rainforest Alliance is an organisation that aims towards conserving the variety of plant and animal life in the world. It was founded in the year 1986, making it 28 years old; its current president is Tensie Whelan who has worked for the Alliance since 1990. She has published one of the first books on eco-friendly tourism, in 1991 by Island Press. She has been recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere for many years, was the recipient of the Wall Street Journal/Winning Workplaces “Top Small Workplace Award” for the Rainforest Alliance in 2008, and the James Beard Foundation leadership Award in 2012. They work throughout the world to make farming, forestry and travel socially friendly and better for the environment. They achieve this by aiding communities that obtain their living from the land using the proper land management methods. These ensure that the environment and wildlife are sustained, as well as treating workers and families with respect. They also help businesses sell their sustainability efforts, as well as working with tourism businesses to help introduce methods that leave little impact on the environment and help the local economies.
...cohesive as possible (Hey and Brendle, 1994; Webster, 1998). However, it happens that only some environmental groups have benefited from the opportunities available in the EU. This arguably I think it is an achievement for EU since it was created with the aim for promoting economic prosperity in Europe through environmental regulation.