Like most of the large American environmental organizations, the Sierra Club is a joke when it comes to protecting the environment. They don’t engage in more meaningful campaigns because they want the cash from the very organizations responsible for environmental destruction. Real environmental organizations with a tiny fraction of the funding of the Sierra Club, Audobon Society, GreenPeace, etc. do far more good.
The Sierra Club was recently forced to admit that it took $26 million in donations from one of the nation’s largest natural gas companies. At the time its was promoting natural gas as an alternative to coal.
While natural gas does produce less carbon emissions than coal and can be extracted without a great deal of damage to the environment with proper techniques, gas companies who use fracing cause massive and long-term damage to the environment. Fracing is the hydraulic facturing of gas laden rock and results in long-term contamination of ground water and surface water. It has been linked to earth quakes as well. The gas industry destroys a substantial amount of habitat from well pads, road and pipeline construction. Well drilling uses a lot of water, which is often taken from environmentally sensitive streams to the point of drying them up and killing all that lived in them. The gas industry is contributing to the extinction of several species in western states.
Most non-profit organizations are in reality profit-driven. Instead of the money going to share-holders it goes to high priced executives and law firms. Truly effective environmental organizations have their own lawyers on staff who work for a reasonable fee.
Before you contribute to any non-profit organization please get a copy of their financial statement and know where your money will go.