Like any environmental advocacy group, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) works to protect the environment against misuse and abuse. It closely monitors current environmental situations and developments. A non-profit environmental agency based in the United States, EDF uses market-based solutions for most of its advocacies which include global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health.
Aside from environmental protection and monitoring, the more than 500,000-member organization also works to educate the American public regarding the most challenging environmental threats. It considers global warming as the most dangerous environmental challenge because of its disguised dangers which can destroy not only the environment, but mankind as well.
EDF was founded in 1967 by a group of scientists who joined forces to win a ban on DDT (Dicloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), a synthetic pesticide which can harm wildlife and mother’s milk. The campaign was led by Art Cooley, Charles Wurster, Victor Yannacone, Robert Smolker, and Dennis Puleston. These scientists found out that DDT was the leading cause of the osprey (colloquially called bayhawk, seahawk, fish hawk or fish eagle) and large raptors’ continuous disappearance. The use of DDT spray in mosquito killing weakened the egg shells of large birds.
The DDT ban took effect in Long Island, New York, but EDF would later on campaign for its nationwide implementation.
