Friends of the Earth is fighting to defend the environment and create a more healthy and just world. We're progressive environmental advocates who pull no punches and speak sometimes uncomfortable truths to power. It's an approach that for four decades has yielded victories protecting our planet and its people. We’re part of Friends of the Earth International, a federation of grassroots groups working in 76 countries on today’s most urgent environmental and social issues.
Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, keeping toxic and risky technologies out of the food we eat and products we use, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.
Please check us out and join our team.
Friends of the Earth is led by Erich Pica, a leading expert on how federal tax dollars subsidize pollution. Our dedicated staff fight to protect the rights of all people to live in a safe and healthy environment, both at home or in countries around the world. Our campaigns demonstrate our belief that the fight for justice and the movement to protect the health of the planet are part of the same struggle. Our members and activists support this work and act as a grassroots base of support that mobilizes to promote public policies that are good for people and the planet.
Click here to join our action network and be a part of our advocacy for people and the planet.
Over the last 40 years, Friends of the Earth members, activists and staff have:
To learn about some of our more recent accomplishments, check out our list of victories from 2009.
Friends of the Earth, as an outspoken leader in the environmental and progressive communities, seeks to change the perception of the public, media and policy makers--and effect policy change--with hard-hitting, well-reasoned policy analysis and advocacy campaigns that describe what needs to be done, rather than what is seen as politically feasible or politically correct. This hard-hitting advocacy has been the key to our successful campaigns over our 40-year history.
One way that Friends of the Earth works to achieve a just and healthy world, is by focusing on the economic drivers that are encouraging environmental degradation. Depending on the issue, these drivers may include public investment, granting corporations the right to pollute, or other factors. With key policy expertise at the federal and state levels, Friends of the Earth works to eliminate these drivers and thus bring environmental degradation to a halt.
Friends of the Earth U.S. is a part of Friends of the Earth International, the world's largest grassroots environmental federation. Friends of the Earth International unites 76 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. Friends of the Earth's Health and Environment Campaigner, Ian Illuminato, is currently serving on the Executive Committee, which is the governing body of the network. Click here to learn more about the network.
Friends of the Earth is working towards ensuring that in our struggle for a healthy and just world our words and actions uphold the rights and dignity of all peoples. We believe that freedom from oppression is the foundation of justice and peace in the world and that oppression, in all its forms, will continue to divide our movements and weaken our power to create the change we seek unless we openly acknowledge and address it in all its forms. Read our anti-oppression statement.
For a more detailed look at Friends of the Earth’s work over the years, please take a moment to read our Annual Reports.
To support Friends of the Earth, donate here.
To join our network of activists, sign up here.
You can also stay connected with Friends of the Earth on Facebook at www.facebook.com/foe.us, on Twitter @foe_us, and on flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/foeaction/.