3 Environmental Groups Merge to ‘Protect the Earth’
Citing mounting concern about global issues, three environmental groups on Wednesday announced their merger into a single organization to build what they called “an international citizens lobby to protect the Earth.”
The merger of Friends of the Earth, the Environmental Policy Institute and the Oceanic Society, announced in Washington, culminated months of negotiations. Negotiations that could bring a fourth group into the merger are continuing.
‘Environmental Problems’
“Our purpose is to address increasingly pressing environmental problems that are leaping beyond state and regional bounds and embracing the whole planet,” EPI Vice President Brent Blackwelder said.
He said the annual budget of the combined group would run $2.5 million, with a staff of 50 and a membership of 39,000 if the 30,000 subscribers to the Oceanic Society’s magazine are counted. By comparison, the Sierra Club has 500,000 members and an annual budget of $30 million.
For the time being, the new organization will retain the three separate names.
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