Sierra Club
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. The Sierra Club primarily operates in the United States; an affiliated organization, Sierra Club Canada, operates in Canada and deals exclusively with Canadian issues.
Traditionally associated with the progressive movement, the club was one of the first large-scale environmental preservation organizations in the world, and currently engages in lobbying politicians to promote environmentalist policies. Recent focuses of the club include promoting sustainable energy, mitigating global warming, and opposing the use of coal. The club is known for its political endorsements, which are often sought after by candidates in local elections; it generally supports liberal and progressive candidates in elections.
The Sierra Club is organized on both a national and local level. The club is divided into large chapters representing large geographic areas, some of which have tens of thousands of members. These chapters are divided into regional groups, and special interest sections, committees, and task forces. While much activity is coordinated at a local level, the Club is a unified organization; decisions made at the national level take precedence.
In addition to political advocacy, the Sierra Club organizes outdoor recreation activities, and has historically been a notable organization for mountaineering and rock climbing in the United States. Members of the Sierra Club pioneered the Yosemite Decimal System of climbing, and were responsible for a substantial amount of the early development of climbing. Much of this activity occurred in the group's namesake Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Club does not set standards for or regulate alpinism, but it organizes wilderness courses, hikes, and occasional alpine expeditions for members. In California, the club, through its outdoor recreation groups, is usually considered the state's analogue to other state mountaineering clubs such as Mazamas or the Colorado Mountain Club.
See also
- Biodiversity
- Conservation Movement
- Conservation ethic
- Earth Science
- Ecology
- Ecosystem
- Environmental education
- Environmental movement
- Global warming
- Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.
- Habitat conservation
- List of environmental organizations
- List of recreational organizations
- Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency
- Nature
- Recycling
- Sierra Club v. Morton
- Sustainability
- Timeline of environmental events
