All Issues

Whether you love swimming at the beach, paddling down a river, or fishing in a creek clean water plays a crucial role in our enjoyment of nature.

When our nation passed the Clean Water Act nearly 50 years ago, we set a goal to ensure that all our waterways are safe for swimming. Yet decades later, too many of our waterways remain polluted. Sprawling roads, parking lots and overdevelopment now drastically hamper nature’s ability to absorb stormwater through the soil and filter out pollutants.

The 2020 edition of a report by Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group
Tony Dutzik and Jamie Friedman, Frontier Group; and Emma Searson, Environment America Research & Policy Center

To slow global warming, we need to ultimately eliminate carbon pollution from power plants. But we know that our leaders in Washington, D.C., are moving in the wrong direction. That’s why the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative might be the most important climate program you’ve never heard of.

To protect species and biodiversity, we must protect the world’s forests. Doing so will help stabilize our climate. We’re doing our part by engaging the American public and urging U.S. companies to choose sustainability. For instance, we’re urging Cargill and other U.S. agricultural companies operating in the tropics to adopt zero-deforestation plans, and we’re urging U.S. tissue companies to include recycled paper products in their paper towels, toilet paper and tissues.