We All Live Downstream

By Kerry Doyle, NJ Environmental Federation Community Organizer

Kerry organizes communities Monday through Friday year-round (in every type of weather) doing door-to-door environmental education and fundraising campaigns. She has been with the organization for seven years – her unrelenting dedication to helping protect the environment and public health is remarkable and has touched the lives of many.

It’s December, and I just saw lightning. At first, I thought it was the strobing LED peppermint candy Christmas lights, but then I got a text message from a trainee: “Kerry, what do we do when there’s lightning?” Darn.

As a seven year field organizing veteran, this is not the worst weather I have ever seen, but it will definitely crack the Top 20. My umbrella has been shredded, and my clipboard is almost too wet to sign. The last stop of my night is a house with a seemingly endless driveway where a young mother has *not* promised to write a letter and leave it on her door. She didn’t say “no” either, though, but she promised to think about the issue after I left and write the letter if she decided she agreed, so here I am climbing her driveway in driving rain because canvassers are inherently optimists. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jennifer Peters, National Water Campaigns Coordinator

For the past decade, Clean Water Action has led the fight to restore pollution protections for small streams, wetlands and other water bodies that risk being poisoned or destroyed by developers, Big Coal or other polluters because of weak Clean Water Act policies adopted by the last Bush Administration.  These weak policies were adopted in response to two misguided Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006, which effectively reversed nearly three decades of regulatory history.  Prior to these two court decisions, federal agencies asserted broad authority over most rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. Read the rest of this entry »