中美环境法治交流项目

塞拉俱乐部 塞拉俱乐部是由著名保护主义者约翰?米尔于1982年5月28日创立于加利福尼亚州旧金山的一个美国环保组织。约翰·米尔本人任首位会长。执行主任是领薪水的会员，主要负责打理组织的日常事务，现任执行主任是卡尔·波普。 塞拉俱乐部拥有一百三十万会员和支持者。该组织是美国成立时间最长，规模最大也最具影响力的草根环保组织。 任务陈述: 1、探索、享用并保护地球的野生地区。 2、执行并倡导负责任地使用地球的生态系统和资源。 3、教育并号召人们保护并重建自然环境和人类环境的质量。 4、运用所有法律手段实现这些目标。 为了重点关注特定问题，塞拉俱乐部在全国和地方的组织选择工作重点并组织活动。2006年塞拉俱乐部制定的全国工作重点包括：聪明使用能源办法/全球变暖、安全和健康的社区（清洁水和清洁空气）以及美国野生遗产（荒地）。完成上述及其他重要工作的活动主要是由不同的俱乐部机构的志愿者们在俱乐部员工的帮助下计划和实施的。俱乐部还和其他的一些环境运动组织一样，运用公益研究基金雇佣人们参与活动。 塞拉俱乐部的一项长远目标是反对建设其认为不合理的水坝。在20世纪初期，该组织反对在优胜美地国家公园(Yosemite National Park)的赫奇·赫奇峡谷(Hetch Hetchy Valley)修建水坝并将该峡谷淹没。尽管经历了多方游说，国会还是授权在泰伦恩河（Tuolumne River）上修建了奥肖纳西水坝（O’Shaughnessy Dam）。塞拉俱乐部继续游说撤销水坝，强烈要求换以重新修建下游的唐佩德罗水库（Don Pedro Reservoir）以为旧金山市提供水资源。 塞拉俱乐部是美国草根环保诉讼的领头羊。俱乐部的环保法律项目为该组织在全国范围内发起的草根活动创造并运用了法律策略。环保法律项目的诉讼案件表涵盖了环境问题的所有领域，包括地区的反对计划不周的城市扩张以及对国家意义重大的关于清洁空气、清洁水和荒野的问题等。 塞拉俱乐部自成立之初起就是全美国环保诉讼方面的领军组织。1971年，塞拉俱乐部状告Morton案赋予了公民起诉以实施环保法律的权利。这一案件质疑在加利福尼亚州的矿物国王山谷（Mineral King valley）修建滑雪场的提案。自那之后，塞拉俱乐部就运用法庭手段在国家、地区和地方层面上致力于环境保护，使得公民能够以法律知识为武器实施来之不易的环保法律并与破坏环境的项目作斗争。法律书籍中有关塞拉俱乐部多年来赢得的具有转折意义的裁定有很多描写。 塞拉俱乐部的诉讼记录使得它成为了一支同时受到政府官员和业界认可的重要力量。新千年伊始，塞拉俱乐部秉承这一信用与名誉启动了一项范围扩大了的法律项目，吸收了一批成就斐然的律师队伍在全国范围内给与俱乐部法律策略方面的指导。这一扩大的环保法律项目支持并依赖于与俱乐部遍及全国的草根活动家的合作，其中包括超过155个塞拉俱乐部分支和团体。国家法律小组将国家力量和塞拉俱乐部的愿景在地方层面结合起来，为拥有自然资源的社区争取资源，并使它们获得了美国历史最为悠久、规模最大的环保组织的支持。 THE SIERRA CLUB The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization founded on May 28, 1982 in San Francisco, California by the well-known preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. The executive Director runs the day-to-day operations of the group and is a paid staff member. The current Executive Director is Carl Pope. The Sierra Club has more than 1.3 members and supporters. The Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Mission Statement: 1. Explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth. 2. Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources. 3. Educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment. 4. Use all lawful means to carry out these objectives. In order to focus attention on particular issues the Sierra Club's national and local entities select priorities and organize campaigns. The current national priorities (as of 2006) are: Smart Energy Solutions/Global Warming, Safe and Healthy Communities (clean water and clean air), and America's Wild Legacy (wildlands). Campaigns to achieve those and other priorities are planned and conducted chiefly by volunteers in the various club entities, with the help of support staff. The club also hires people for campaigns through the Fund for Public Interest Research, as do some other organizations in the environmental movement. One long-standing goal of the Sierra Club has been opposition to dams it considers inappropriate. In the early 20th centur, the organization fought against the damming and flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Despite this lobbying, Congress authorized the construction of O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River. The Sierra Club continues to lobby for removal of the dam, urging that San Francisco’s water needs be accommodated instead by the re-engineering of the Don Pedro Reservoir downstream. The Sierra Club is the nation's leader in grassroots environmental litigation. The Club's Environmental Law Program creates and prosecutes the legal strategies for the Sierra Club's nationwide grassroots campaigns. The Environmental Law Program's docket covers the entire range of environmental issues, from local fights over ill-planned sprawl to cases of national significance on clean air, clean water and wilderness. The Sierra Club has been the nation's leader in environmental litigation since the beginning. In 1971, the pioneering Sierra Club v. Morton lawsuit - the case that challenged a proposed ski area in the Mineral King valley of California - gave citizens the right to sue to enforce environmental laws. Since then, the Sierra Club has used the courts to fight for environmental protection at the national, regional, and local levels, giving citizens the means and legal expertise to enforce our hard-won environmental laws and battle destructive projects. The law books are literally filled with watershed decisions won by the Club over the years. The Sierra Club's litigation record has made it a major force to be reckoned with by government officials and industry alike. Building on that credibility and reputation, the Sierra Club launched an expansion of its legal program at the turn of the millennium, bringing on board a highly accomplished team of lawyers to direct the Club's nationwide, strategic legal efforts. The expanded Environmental Law Program supports and relies upon a partnership with the Club's nationwide grassroots activists, including over 155 Sierra Club chapters and groups. The national legal team brings the national might and vision of the Sierra Club to the local level, and fights for the rights of local communities with the resources and reach of the nation's oldest and largest environmental organization.