Environmental Defence (formerly known as the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund) is a Canadian environmental organization, founded in 1984. Its areas of education and research include toxic chemicals, urban sprawl, oil sands, global warming, water quality, and

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

History

The organization was founded in 1984. Environmental Defence was part of the founding of the Green Energy Act Alliance. The Green Energy and Economy Act, a first for

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, went into law in Ontario in 2009, and outlined a strategy to improve conservation, increase

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

generation, and create

green job Green jobs (green-collar jobs, sustainability jobs, eco jobs or environmental jobs) are, according to the United Nations Environment Program, "work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and serv ...

s. The Act formed part of the Ontario government's plan to put the province on a path towards reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, while becoming a leader in the emerging global renewable energy sector. In its 2018 annual report, Environmental Defence stated that, during the year prior, it had raised over C$3.8 million.

Areas of focus

Environmental Defence has a number of different areas of focus, including the following: * Combating climate change, and creating jobs in the clean economy. * Growing Ontario's Greenbelt, and developing functional, livable cities. * Ensuring safe products are on Canadians' shelves. *Informing the public about the dangerous chemicals in consumer products. * Protecting safe, clean water. * Creating a future free from plastic waste. * Engaging young people in the future of environmental journalism.

Studies

In 2008, Environmental Defence and The Workgroup for Safe Markets in the US commissioned a report, researched by a lab at the University of Missouri, which stated that plastic baby bottles from a number of manufacturers, including Avent, Evenflo, Dr. Brown's and Disney/First Years, were leaching unsafe levels of

bisphenol A Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound primarily used in the manufacturing of various plastics. It is a colourless solid which is soluble in most common organic solvents, but has very poor solubility in water. BPA is produced on an industrial s ...

(BPA) when heated. This led to dozens of state and national environmental health organizations in Canada and the United States calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of BPA in baby bottles, and other food and beverage containers. In 2017, Environmental Defence and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report showing how tar sands mining operations in Alberta generated over 250 billion gallons of toxic tailings – a poisonous mixture of water, sand, silt, heavy metals, and other petrochemical waste products – have been stored in toxic lakes that cover an area greater than Manhattan and Boston combined. The NRDC noted that research by the Canadian federal government has determined that toxic tailings are seeping into groundwater and the Athabasca River. Environmental Defence and Daniel T’seleie of the K’ahsho Got’ine Dene First Nation requested the

Commission for Environmental Cooperation The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC; es, Comisión para la Cooperación Ambiental; french: Commission de coopération environnementale) was established by Canada, Mexico, and the United States to implement the North American Agree ...

(CEC) – the

NAFTA The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...

environmental tribunal – to investigate whether the Canadian government was failing to enforce its Fisheries Act by allowing tar sands tailings to leak into Alberta water bodies.

References

Environmental organizations based in Ontario Organizations based in Toronto {{Nonprofit-org-stub