NRDC: Not for whites only — but almost

Keying off our post yesterday about Native American enviro Tom Goldtooth’s criticism that U.S. environmental groups practiced exclusionary racism, we decided to check to see if the accusation was true. Here’s what we found for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Below are the NRDC board members. We’ll do the math for you at the end.

Daniel R. Tishman; Chair
Vice Chairman, AECOM Technology Corporation; Chairman and CEO of Tishman Construction Corp. of New York

Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr.; Chair Emeritus
Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP

Adam Albright; Vice Chair
Private investor; Environmentalist

Patricia Bauman; Vice Chair
Co-director, Bauman Foundation

Robert J. Fisher; Vice Chair
Director, GAP Inc.

Alan Horn; Vice Chair
President and COO, Warner Brothers

Joy Covey; Treasurer
President, Beagle Foundation

John H. Adams; Founding Director
Chair, Open Space Institute

Richard E. Ayres, Esq.
The Ayres Law Group

Anna Scott Carter
Consultant, NRDC; Environmentalist

Susan Crown
Principal, Henry Crown and Company; Executive, Foundation Chairman, Community Activist

Laurie P. David
Producer; Activist

Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor; Environmentalist

John E. Echohawk
Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund

Bob Epstein
Co-Founder, Sybase, Inc., and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2); Organizer and Director, New Resource Bank

Michel Gelobter, Ph.D.
Founder, CEO, Cooler Inc.

Arjun Gupta
Founder and Managing Partner, Telesoft Partners

Van Jones
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Founder and Advisor, Green for All

Philip B. Korsant
Managing Member, Korsant Partners, LLC

Nicole Lederer
Co-Founder, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)

Michael Lynton
Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Shelly B. Malkin
Landscape painter; Conservationist

Josephine A. Merck
Artist; Founder, Ocean View Foundation

Mary Moran
NRDC Global Council Member

Peter A. Morton
Chairman/Founder, 510 Development Corp.

Wendy Neu
Senior Vice President, Hugo Neu Corp; Grassroots community organizer and activist

Frederica Perera, Ph.D.
Professor, Columbia University; Director, Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health

Robert Redford
Actor; Director; Conservationist

Laurance Rockefeller
Conservationist

Jonathan F.P. Rose
President, Jonathan Rose Cos., LLC

Thomas W. Roush, M.D.
Private investor; Environmental activist

Philip (Pete) Ruegger III
Chairman, Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP; Chairman of the Board of Henry Street Settlement House

Christine H. Russell, Ph.D.
Environmentalist; Foundation director

William H. Schlesinger
President, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Wendy Schmidt
President, The Schmidt Family Foundation; Founder, The 11th Hour Project

James Gustave Speth
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School; Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos

Max Stone [Photo Not Available]
Managing Director, D.E. Shaw & Company, L.P.

James Taylor
Singer/Songwriter

Gerald Torres
Bryant Smith Chair, University of Texas Law School

Elizabeth Wiatt
Environmentalist; Founder, Leadership Council

George M. Woodwell, Ph.D.
Founder, Woods Hole Research Center

Of the 41 board members, we count one Native American (Echohawk) and two African-Americans (Gelobter & Jones).

Only about 0.8% of Americans are Native American, so NRDC has this box more than checked (1 of 41 is about 2%). But African-Americans make up about 12.4% of the population and Gelobter and Jones only comprise 4.8% of the NRDC trustees.

Finally, while white people make up only about 66% of the U.S. population, but they make up about 90% of NRDC trustees.

11 thoughts on “NRDC: Not for whites only — but almost”

  1. Instead of fussing about who is on NRDC’s board, why don’t you all go out and do something to care for the environment like these individuals already have — whatever the color of their skin. Those of you who write this kind of article are the racists, not the people on the board. Do something positive rather than spreading hate! I’ll stop here and get back to work because I have a job to do — one that drives positive change rather than just complaining. Spare me next time from this type of distraction, please.

  2. I love the term “activist.” I was watching an interview with some Hollywood type a week ago. The interviewed gushed, as they often do, “Well, you have been an activist for years.” The interviewee smiled self satisfactorily and said, “yes, that’s true.” It did not seem to be important what the person was an activist for nor what being an activist really entails. Does it mean the activist works tirelessly, like Mother Teresa, serving others and cleaning up slop? Or does it mean attending wine and cheese soirees to rub elbows with the elite and feel good about oneself? Oh, yes, and, and of course, donate money.

  3. Mother Nature is doing just fine, thank you very much.
    She certainly doesn’t need “protection” from these clowns.
    As Lord Monckton said:
    They’re GREEN, because they’re too YELLOW, to admit that they’re RED!
    What needs protection most these days is our Constitution, and the idea of freedom and liberty in America.

    fs

  4. What I notice most is we have pretty well every rich left wing wacko in America on this board. With so many on the board how do they get anything done?

  5. These are the uber rich elitists. They do not want the rest of us to have food, transportation, shelter, medical care or clothes that only THEY are entitled to.

  6. What percent of the population is in the entertainment industry. If you count the movies and music that I recognize I think there are 6 or 15%.

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