Help...should I join the Sierra Club or the NRDC?

I want to join an environmental organization. At this time I can only afford to join one of them. My top environmental issues are our dependence on oil and mercury containmenation.

Should I jointhe Sierra Club or the NRDC?

and why would you want to put question out to strangers?

don't you know what your beliefs are?

if not, maybe you ought to do some research.

I know that Robert F. Kennedy Jr is part of that group.

http://www.nrdc.org

I just want to hear what people who are members of one of the groups or both of the grops say.

more than Sierra Club, while Sierra Club focuses more on ecological issues

my decision. :hi:

of greater or lesser rigor (e.g., everything from extreme backpacking to stay-in-a-motel-at-a-national-park trips)

If that perq interests you, then join the Sierra Club

difference. I think both are just great in what they do and the results they get.

Check out their "Websites" Online and see what each has accomplished if you want to give only to one of them...and you want the most "bank for your buck." But I don't think you could go wrong with either. :shrug:

If you want to join to meet people and participate in activities and advocacy then the Sierra Club or the Isaac Walton League would better suit your needs.

If you want to contribute to an effective lobbying organization then NRDC fits the bill (although the Sierra Club are an effective lobby as well).

A third choice might be to donate to the Environmental Defense Fund -- a legal based organization that fights hard (and successfully) in the courts to force compliance with environmental laws.

Sierra Club has a political side, but they also focus on appreciation of the wild areas of our nation and the world. The NRDC seems to concentrate more on lobbying for environmental safeguards and litigating to see that existing environmental protection laws are enforced.
I've known about the Sierra Club for as long as I can remember, but was moved to donate to the NRDC after I listened to RFK Jr's speech at the National Press Club.

Here's the link if you want to listen to it:

http://www.npr.org/programs/npc/2003/031121rkennedy.html

See http://www.cleancarcampaign.org/ for links as this is a cut n paste from an email I get to give you an idea of what they work on.

CLEAN CAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE - November 2005

Consumer Incentives for Cleaner Cars, New Report on Automakers' Global Warming Pollution,
Weak Fuel Economy Standards Proposed, and More

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Arkansas, New Jersey and Rhode Island Help Fight Mercury Pollution from Cars
Scrapping old cars is a dangerous source of toxic mercury pollution. When cars are melted down, mercury from old switches ends up in rivers and streams. It contaminates fish and exposes people who eat fish to unsafe levels of mercury. Nationally, mercury puts more than 600,000 newborns at risk of brain damage and learning disabilities every year.
Luckily, New Jersey and Arkansas are joining Maine and North Carolina in a program that will hold car companies responsible for the cost of recycling vehicle mercury switches. The programs include financial incentives for car demolition shops - $2/switch in New Jersey and $5/switch in Arkansas - to encourage them remove the switches. Thank you to over 700 Clean Car activists who were instrumental in the New Jersey victory.
Rhode Island has also committed to reducing mercury pollution. Their program holds automakers responsible for a mercury switch collection program. If the program does not meet a 70% capture rate, then the automakers must implement a $3/switch bounty program.

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Ford Is Asked to Remove Mercury Switches from Recalled Vehicles
As Ford recalls 3.8 million vehicles for defective cruise control switches, the Partnership for Mercury Free Vehicles has asked Ford to also remove the estimated 2.5 million mercury switches in these vehicles. These switches combined contain up to 6,500 pounds of mercury, as much mercury as the top five coal-fired power plants emit in one year. Learn more about the recall request.

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Bush Administration Proposes Weak Fuel Economy Standard
Cars and trucks consume a whopping 40% of the oil America uses, and light trucks alone account for half of that. Unfortunately, the Bush administration's proposed fuel economy standards for light trucks do little to address the problem.
Under the plan, light truck fuel economy would increase by an estimated 1.8 mpg between 2008 and 2011. At this rate, it would take more than 15 years to save the nation a month’s worth of gasoline. Environmental Defense is challenging the Administration to vastly improve their proposal. Learn more about fuel economy.

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Connecticut Plans for Clean Car Incentives to Fight Global Warming
In June, Connecticut became the first state to pass legislation that uses consumer incentives to fight global warming pollution from cars. The legislation directs its Department of Environmental Protection to develop a clean car incentive proposal by the end of the year.
The plan is expected to adjust the state sales tax based on each vehicle's global warming emissions. Consumers of the cleanest vehicles could see a tax break of 1 to 3% while those that purchase vehicles with high emissions would be taxed an extra 1 to 3%. This puts Connecticut at the forefront of the fight against global warming.

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New Report: "Automakers' Corporate Carbon Burdens: Update for 1990-2003"
You would think that hybrid cars, better engineering and rising gas prices would combine to make new cars burn less gas than the year before. But it turns out that each year since 1988, new cars are spewing even more global warming pollution into the air.
In an updated report, Environmental Defense car experts analyzed the global warming impact of each automaker from 1990 to 2003. U.S. car and light truck emissions have increased 25% above the 1990 level despite advances in technology. Learn more about rising global warming pollution from cars.

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Congress Passes Tax Incentives for Cleaner Cars
Although Congress's recently passed Energy Bill will do little to reduce America's energy demand, the bill did include four new tax incentives for consumers buying advanced technology vehicles. For hybrid and diesel vehicles, the credit for qualifying vehicles could range from $650 to $3,400.
The current Toyota Prius would qualify for a credit of $3,150, the Honda Civic hybrid would receive a credit of up to $2,100 and the Ford Escape would provide a $2,600 credit. Fuel cell vehicles could earn as much as $12,000 and alternative fuel vehicles could qualify for $4,000 of credits.
The tax credits will be available from January 1, 2006 until December 31, 2010, but are limited to 60,000 hybrids per automaker. After an automaker reaches that mark, credits for its hybrids will be phased out over a 15-month period. The Clean Car Campaign believes that policies to limit overall carbon emissions or oil use from automakers are necessary to ensure that these incentives achieve their goals.


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EPA Rejects Petition to Ban Lead-Containing Wheel Weights
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected a petition to ban the use and sale of lead-containing weights. These weights are used to balance wheels on vehicles, and are the largest unregulated source of lead in the environment.
Despite action by the European Union five years ago to approve a similar ban, the EPA balked at using its regulatory authority. The Ecology Center is considering legal action to compel EPA to act and will increase their efforts to promote lead free wheel balancing. Learn more about this dangerous source of lead.


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Visit the Clean Car Campaign online for more information. http://www.cleancarcampaign.org

I've been a member of both for about the same number of years (5) so I can speak with some authority. The main benefit of Sierra over NRDC in terms of membership is that Sierra gives you just as many options for activism (especially at the local level) but adds grass roots networking and all those outings to keep you in touch with nature.

Sierra membership also includes a full-color magazine which is quite a bit larger and more comprehensive than NRDC's lovely but minimalist update flier.

with the plan on joining the NRDC when I get a job in the next year.

The Sierra Club's vacations and local outings interest me a lot.

wonderful people who are dedicated to saving our world.

but both have useful goals if you are concerned about environmental and conservation issues, growth issues, etc.
Plus Sierra has a lot of local activities that can be fun.

The Sierra Club has over 700,000 members and does organize around local environmental issues and candidates. The NRDC is an impressive organization that produces a lot of the research that the club depends upon.

You can get some idea of what the Iowa chapter is about at their website: http://iowa.sierraclub.org/

You can actually develop as a grassroots organizer in a local chapter or group. Our local group handles local problems that come up, but it also has this strain of strident and unapologetic anti-Bush, anti-war, and anti-republican organizing. In other words, chummy.