The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became the first president as well as the longest-serving president, at approximately 20 years in this leadership position. The Sierra Club operates only in the United States and holds the legal status of 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organization. Sierra Club Canada is a separate entity.

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 and mitigating global warming, as well as opposition to the use of coal, hydropower, and nuclear power. The organization takes strong positions on issues that sometimes creates controversy, criticism, or opposition either internally or externally or both. The club is known for its political endorsements generally supporting liberal and progressive candidates in elections.

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, the Sierra Nevada.

Overview
The Sierra Club's stated mission is "To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives."

The Sierra Club is governed by a 15-member Board of Directors. Each year, five directors are elected to three-year terms, and all club members are eligible to vote. A president is elected annually by the Board from among its members. The executive director runs the day-to-day operations of the group. Michael Brune, formerly of Rainforest Action Network, has served as the organization's executive director since 2010. Brune succeeded Carl Pope. Pope stepped down amid discontent that the group had strayed from its core principles.

The Sierra Club is organized on both a national and state level with chapters named for the 50 states and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.) California is the lone state to have numerous chapters named for California counties. The club chapters allow for regional groups and committees, some of which have many thousands of members. These chapters further allow for special interest sections (e.g. camera, outings), committees (conservation and political), and task forces on a single issue with some kind of geography involved. While much activity is coordinated at a local level, the club is a unified organization; decisions made at the national level take precedence, including the removal and creation of chapters, as well as recruiting and removing members.

The club is known for engaging in two main activities: promoting and guiding outdoor recreational activities, which is done throughout the United States but primarily in California (especially Southern California), and political activism to promote environmental causes. Described as one of the United States' "leading environmental organizations", the Sierra Club makes endorsements of individual candidates for elected office.

History

Founding
Journalist Robert Underwood Johnson had worked with John Muir on the successful campaign to create a large Yosemite National Park surrounding the much smaller state park which had been created in 1864. This campaign succeeded in 1890. As early as 1889, Johnson had encouraged Muir to form an "association" to help protect the Sierra Nevada, and preliminary meetings were held to plan the group. Others involved in the early planning included artist William Keith, Willis Linn Jepson, Warren Olney, Willard Drake Johnson, Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan.

In May 1892, the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson from the University of California, Berkeley helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney launched the new organization modeled after the eastern Appalachian Mountain Club. The charter members of the Sierra Club elected Muir president, an office he held until his death in 1914.

The first goals of the club included establishing Glacier and Mount Rainier national parks, convincing the California legislature to give Yosemite Valley to the U.S. federal government, and preserving coastal redwood forests of California.

Muir escorted President Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite in 1903, and two years later the California legislature ceded Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to the federal government. The Sierra Club won its first lobbying victory with the creation of the country's second national park, after Yellowstone in 1872.

In 2020, in wake of the George Floyd protests and subsequent public reconciliation of systematic racism in public history, the Sierra Club described their own early history as intermingled with racism. In particular, the early Sierra Club favored the needs of white members to the exclusion of people of color, and Muir and some of his associates, such as Joseph LeConte, David Starr Jordan, and Henry Fairfield Osborn were closely related to the early eugenics movement in the United States. Michael Brune, writing as the executive director of the Sierra Club, disavowed founder John Muir in the summer of 2020, but some board members said Brune's characterization of Muir was not representative of the organization.

Environmental action over the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

In the first decade of the 1900s, the Sierra Club became embroiled in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir battle that divided preservationists from "resource management" conservationists. In the late 19th century, the city of San Francisco was rapidly outgrowing its limited water supply, which depended on intermittent local springs and streams. In 1890, San Francisco mayor James D. Phelan proposed to build a dam and aqueduct on the Tuolumne River, one of the largest southern Sierra rivers, as a way to increase and stabilize the city's water supply.

Gifford Pinchot, a progressive supporter of public utilities and head of the US Forest Service, which then had jurisdiction over the national parks, supported the creation of the Hetch Hetchy dam. Muir appealed to his friend U.S. President Roosevelt, who would not commit himself against the dam, given its popularity with the people of San Francisco (a referendum in 1908 confirmed a seven-to-one majority in favor of the dam and municipal water). Muir and attorney William Edward Colby began a national campaign against the dam, attracting the support of many eastern conservationists. With the 1912 election of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who carried San Francisco, supporters of the dam had a friend in the White House.

The bill to dam Hetch Hetchy passed Congress in 1913, and so the Sierra Club lost its first major battle. In retaliation, the club supported creation of the National Park Service in 1916, to remove the parks from Forest Service oversight. Stephen Mather, a Club member from Chicago and an opponent of the Hetch Hetchy dam, became the first National Park Service director.

1920s–1940s

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Sierra Club functioned as a social and recreational society, conducting outings, maintaining trails and building huts and lodges in the Sierra. Preservation campaigns included a several-year effort to enlarge Sequoia National Park (achieved in 1926) and over three decades of work to protect and then preserve Kings Canyon National Park (established in 1940). Historian Stephen Fox notes, "In the 1930s most of the three thousand members were middle-aged Republicans."

The New Deal brought many conservationists to the Democratic Party, and many Democrats entered the ranks of conservationists. Leading the generation of Young Turks who revitalized the Sierra Club after World War II were attorneys Richard Leonard and Bestor Robinson, nature photographer Ansel Adams, and David Brower.

Adams sponsored Brower for membership in the club, and he was appointed to the editorial board of the Sierra Club Bulletin. After World War II Brower returned to his job with the University of California Press, and began editing the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946.

National reach

In 1950, the Sierra Club had some 7,000 members, mostly on the West Coast. That year the Atlantic chapter became the first formed outside California. An active volunteer board of directors ran the organization, assisted by a small clerical staff. Brower was appointed the first executive director in 1952, and the club began to catch up with major conservation organizations such as the National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, and Izaak Walton League, which had long had professional staff.

The Sierra Club secured its national reputation in the battle against the Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, which had been announced by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1950. Brower led the fight, marshaling support from other conservation groups. Brower's background in publishing proved decisive; with the help of publisher Alfred Knopf, This Is Dinosaur was rushed into press. Invoking the specter of Hetch Hetchy, conservationists effectively lobbied Congress, which deleted the Echo Park dam from the Colorado River project as approved in 1955. Recognition of the Sierra Club's role in the Echo Park dam victory boosted membership from 10,000 in 1956 to 15,000 in 1960.

The Sierra Club was now truly a national conservation organization, and preservationists took the offensive with wilderness proposals. The club's Biennial Wilderness Conferences, launched in 1949 in concert with The Wilderness Society, became an important force in the campaign that secured passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, marking the first time that public lands (9.1 million acres) were permanently protected from development. Grand Teton National Park and Olympic National Park were also enlarged at the Sierra Club's urging.

Book series
In 1960, Brower launched the Exhibit Format book series with This Is the American Earth, and in 1962, In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with color photographs by Eliot Porter. These coffee-table books, published by their Sierra Club Books division, introduced the Sierra Club to a wider audience. Fifty thousand copies were sold in the first four years, and by 1960 sales exceeded $10 million. Soon Brower was publishing two new titles a year in the Exhibit Format series, but not all did as well as In Wildness. Although the books were successful in introducing the public to wilderness preservation and the Sierra Club, they lost money for the organization, some $60,000 a year after 1964. Financial management became a matter of contention between Brower and his board of directors.

Grand Canyon campaign
The Sierra Club's most publicized crusade of the 1960s was the effort to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from building two dams that would flood portions of the Grand Canyon. The book Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon authored by Francois Leydet was published in the Exhibit Format book series. Opposing the Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon dam projects, full-page ads the club placed in The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1966 exclaimed, "This time it's the Grand Canyon they want to flood," and asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" The ads generated a storm of protest to the Congress, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to announce it was suspending the Sierra Club's 501(c)(3) status pending an investigation. The board had taken the precaution of setting up the Sierra Club Foundation as a (c)(3) organization in 1960 for endowments and contributions for educational and other non-lobbying activities. Even so, contributions to the club dropped off, aggravating its annual operating deficits. Membership, however, climbed sharply in response to the investigation into the legitimacy of the society's tax status by the IRS from 30,000 in 1965 to 57,000 in 1967 and 75,000 in 1969.

The victory over the dam projects and challenges from the IRS did not come without costs. To make up for the power that would have been produced by the dams, the Sierra Club actually advocated for coal power plants. The result of the campaign and its trade-off was, in the words of historian Andrew Needham, that "the Grand Canyon became protected, sacred space," while "the Navajo Reservation"—which housed some of the main power plants picking up the slack—"became increasingly industrial."

End of the Brower era
Despite the club's success in blocking plans for the Grand Canyon dams and weathering the transition from 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(4) status, tension grew over finances between Brower and the board of directors. The club's annual deficits rose from $100,000 in 1967 and 1968 to some $200,000 in 1969. Another conflict occurred over the club's policy toward the nuclear power plant to be constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) at Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo, California. Although the club had played the leading role blocking PG&E's nuclear power plant proposed for Bodega Bay, California, in the early 1960s, that case had been built around the local environmental impact and earthquake danger from the nearby San Andreas fault, not from opposition to nuclear power itself. In exchange for moving the new proposed site from the environmentally sensitive Nipomo Dunes to Diablo Canyon, the board of directors voted to support PG&E's plan for the power plant. A membership referendum in 1967 upheld the board's decision.

But Brower concluded that nuclear power at any location was a mistake, and he voiced his opposition to the plant, contrary to the club's official policy. As pro- and anti-Brower factions polarized, the annual election of new directors reflected the conflict. Brower's supporters won a majority in 1968, but in the April 1969 election the anti-Brower candidates won all five open positions. Ansel Adams and president Richard Leonard, two of his closest friends on the board, led the opposition to Brower, charging him with financial recklessness and insubordination and calling for his ouster as executive director. The board voted ten to five to accept Brower's resignation. Eventually reconciled with the club, Brower was elected to the board of directors for a term from 1983 to 1988, and again from 1995 to 2000. Brower resigned from the board in 2000.

McCloskey years

Michael McCloskey, hired by Brower in 1961 as the club's first northwest field representative, became the club's second executive director in 1969. An administrator attentive to detail, McCloskey had set up the club's conservation department in 1965 and guided the campaigns to save the Grand Canyon and establish Redwoods National Park and North Cascades National Park. During the 1970s, McCloskey led the club's legislative activity—preserving Alaskan lands and eastern wilderness areas, and supporting the new environmental agenda: the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, the Clean Air Act amendments, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, passed during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Efforts of the Sierra Club and others—including Black community organizers who fought against destructive "urban renewal" projects—led to passage of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Water Pollution Control Act.

The Sierra Club formed a political committee and made its first presidential endorsement in 1984 in support of Walter Mondale's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan. McCloskey resigned as executive director in 1985 after  years (the same length of time Brower had led the organization), and assumed the title of chairman, becoming the club's senior strategist, devoting his time to conservation policy rather than budget planning and administration. After a two-year interlude with Douglas Wheeler, whose Republican credentials were disconcerting to liberal members, the club hired Michael Fischer, the former head of the California Coastal Commission, who served as executive director from 1987 to 1992. Carl Pope, formerly the club's legislative director, was named executive director in 1992.

Lobbying within the club
In the 1990s, club members Jim Bensman, Roger Clarke, David Dilworth, Chad Hanson and David Orr along with about 2,000 members formed the John Muir Sierrans (JMS), an internal caucus, to promote changes to club positions. They favored a zero-cut forest policy on public lands and, a few years later, decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam. JMS was successful in changing club positions on both counts.

21st century

In 2008, several Sierra Club officers quit in protest after the Sierra Club agreed to promote products by Clorox, which had been named one of a "dangerous dozen" chemical companies by the Public Interest Research Group in 2004. According to Carl Pope, the Sierra Club chairman, the deal brought the club $1.3 million over the four-year term of the contract. In November 2011, Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope stepped down amid discontent about the Clorox deal and other issues. Between 2007 and 2010, the Sierra Club accepted over $25 million in donations from the gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, a large gas drilling company involved in fracking.

In January 2013, executive director Michael Brune announced that the Sierra Club would officially participate in the first civil disobedience action in its 120-year history as part of the ongoing protest calling on the Obama administration to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, stating, "We are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes, and to stand aside and let it happen—even though we know how to stop it—would be unconscionable." On February 13, 2013, Brune was arrested along with forty-eight people, including civil rights leader Julian Bond and NASA climate scientist James Hansen. In May 2015, the Sierra Club appointed its first black president of the board of directors, Aaron Mair. The Sierra Club endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, citing its opposition to Donald Trump's environmental deregulation.

In January 2023, former NAACP president Ben Jealous became the organization's new executive director, making him the first African American to fulfill the role.

Outdoor programs

Mountaineering
In 1901, William Colby organized the first Sierra Club excursion to Yosemite Valley. The annual High Trips were led by mountaineers  such as Francis P. Farquhar, Joseph Nisbet LeConte, Norman Clyde, Walter A. Starr, Jr., Jules Eichorn, Glen Dawson, Ansel Adams, and David R. Brower. A number of first ascents in the Sierra Nevada were made on Sierra Club outings. Sierra Club members were also early enthusiasts of rock climbing. In 1911, the first chapter was formed, Angeles, and it began conducting local excursions in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles and throughout the West. Steve Roper's Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, sponsored and published by the Sierra Club, is still considered one of the definitive rock climbing guidebooks in the United States. The Wilderness Travel Course is a basic mountaineering class that is administered by the Sierra Club.

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, The Mountaineers, or the Colorado Mountain Club. Due to an increasing focus on political activity and concerns about financial liability, mountaineering activity in the Sierra Club has subsided since the 1980s. Some chapters, mostly in California, continue to maintain large mountaineering programs. The club currently occasionally awards the Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award to outstanding member mountaineers.

Hiking and outings
In World War II, a number of Sierra Club leaders joined the 10th Mountain Division. Among them was David R. Brower, who managed the High Trip program from 1947 to 1954, while serving as a major in the Army Reserve.

In many areas of the country, Sierra Club also organizes hiking tours. Sierra Club's website has a "hiking near me" function. Section "Sierra Club Near You" shows all the upcoming trips in nearby area.

The historic High Trips, sometimes large expeditions with more than a hundred participants and crew, have given way to smaller and more numerous excursions held across the United States and abroad. These outings form a major part of Sierra Club culture, and in some chapters, constitute the majority of member activity. Other chapters, however, may sponsor very few outdoor or recreational activities, being focused solely on political advocacy. Generally, chapters in California are much more active with regard to outdoor activities.

Sierra Club awards

The Sierra Club presents a number of annual awards, such as the Sierra Club John Muir Award, the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, the Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award, the Edgar Wayburn Award for public officials, the Rachel Carson Award for journalists and writers, the William O. Douglas Award for legal work, and the EarthCare Award for international environmental protection and conservation.

Policy positions

Land management
Land management, access, conservation are traditionally considered the core advocacy areas of the Sierra Club. Uniquely for a progressive organization, the Sierra Club has strong grassroots organization in rural areas, with much activity focused on ensuring equitable and environmentally-friendly use of public lands. This is particularly accentuated by the fact that the club attracts many people who primarily join the club for recreation and use of public land for hiking.

Some Sierra Club members have urged the club to be more forceful in advocating for the protection of National Forests and other federally owned public lands. For example, in 2002 the club was criticized for joining with the Wilderness Society in agreeing to a compromise that would allow logging in the Black Hills in South Dakota.

In 2023, the Sierra Club sued the Puerto Rico government for 18 renewable energy projects on more than 2,000 hectares of land. The Sierra Club argued that the land was ecologically sensitive and of high agricultural value. The Sierra Club said that building renewable energy projects on agricultural land was a "serious attack on the food security of Puerto Rico."

Opposition to coal

A goal of the Sierra Club is to replace coal with other energy sources. Through its "Beyond Coal" campaign, the Sierra Club has set a goal to close half of all coal plants in the U.S. by 2017. American business magnate and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $50 million to the Sierra Club's anti-coal work in 2011, and announced another $30 million gift to Sierra's Beyond Coal campaign in 2015. The Beyond Coal campaign says 187 coal plants have been closed since 2010. Other funders of the Sierra Club's anti-coal campaign include the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The CEO of Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company, donated $26 million to the Beyond Coal campaign between 2007 and 2010.

Opposition to nuclear power
The Sierra Club is "unequivocally opposed" to nuclear power.

Opposition to hydropower and dams
The Sierra Club has lobbied against hydropower projects and large-scale dams. In lobbying against hydropower projects, the Sierra Club has expressed opposition to power lines and said that hydropower projects disrupt animal habitats.

The Sierra Club opposes dams it considers inappropriate, including some government-built dams in national parks. In the early 20th century, 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 support removal of the dam.

The Sierra Club advocates the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam and the draining of Lake Powell. The club also supports removal, breaching or decommissioning of many other dams, including four dams on the lower Snake River in eastern Washington. The Sierra Club opposes the importation of energy from Quebec's hydropower plants to New York, arguing that importing excess energy by the Quebec plants will cause environmental damage and lead to fewer in-state New York renewable energy projects.

Mixed views on solar projects
Some chapters of the Sierra Club have lobbied against solar power projects, whereas other chapters have defended solar power projects. The Sierra Club opposed the Battle Born Solar Project, the largest solar project in the U.S., citing its potential impact on desert tortoise habitats. The Sierra Club sued the federal government to stop the 663.5-megawatt Calico solar station in the Mojave Desert in California, saying it would imperil protected wildlife.

Opposition to streamlined permitting
In response to proposed reforms to streamline the permitting process for environmental projects amid concerns that environmental permitting reviews were delaying and blocking projects with a beneficial environmental impact, the Sierra Club expressed opposition to such reforms, arguing "Whatever the proposed project is — whether it's a pipeline or a highway or a solar farm — it should be subject to the same commonsense review process. If we want these projects to move forward faster, we shouldn't be weakening environmental laws, but investing more resources into the agencies and staff."

Lawsuits against housing
The Sierra Club has a history of filing lawsuits against new housing developments and trying to block legislative proposals to ease housing construction. Critics have characterized the Sierra Club's actions on housing as NIMBYism.

In 2012, the Sierra Club sued to block the construction of a mixed-use development composed of 16,655 housing units (for an estimated 37,000 residents) and commercial space in Riverside, California.

In 2018, the Sierra Club opposed SB 827, which would have permitted dense housing near major public transit stations in California. Most other environmental groups supported the legislation, as dense housing construction near public transit was estimated to substantially reduce car pollution and help California reach its emissions target. Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Change and Business Program at UC-Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law, called it "one of the most important climate bills in California." The Sierra Club argued the bill sought to take away the sacrosanct right of localities "to make smart local decisions about development." In 2023, the Sierra Club lobbied against AB 1633, which prevents NIMBY abuse of the California Environmental Quality Act to block new housing developments that already comply with local and state land use and environmental regulations.

In 2023, the Sierra Club sued the state of Hawaii after Hawaii Governor Josh Green issued an emergency declaration to streamline housing construction in order to alleviate the Hawaii housing shortage. The Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii said that lack of housing supply was not the cause of the housing shortage in Hawaii, but rather the "decades of profiteering off of our lands and waters" by developers.

Alliance with organized labor

The Sierra Club is a member of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions.  The BlueGreen Alliance was formed in 2006 and grew out of a less-formal collaboration between the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers. In 2012, the Laborers' International Union of North America left the coalition due to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups' opposition to the Keystone Pipeline.

Population and immigration
Immigration was historically among the most divisive issues within the club. In 1996, after years of debate, the Sierra Club adopted a neutral position on immigration levels. As the club has shifted to the left over the years, this position was amended in 2013 to support "an equitable path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants".

Although the position of the Sierra Club has generally been favorable towards immigration, some critics of the Sierra Club have charged that the efforts of some club members to restrain immigration, are a continuation of aspects of human population control and the eugenics movement. In 1969, the Sierra Club published Paul R. Ehrlich's book, The Population Bomb, in which he said that population growth was responsible for environmental decline and advocated coercive measures to reduce it. Some observers have argued that the book had a "racial dimension" in the tradition of the Eugenics movement, and that it "reiterated many of Osborn's jeremiads."

During the 1980s, some Sierra Club members, including Paul Ehrlich's wife Anne, wanted to take the club into the contentious field of immigration to the United States. The club's position was that overpopulation was a significant factor in the degradation of the environment. Accordingly, the club supported stabilizing and reducing U.S. and world population. Some members argued that, as a practical matter, U.S. population could not be stabilized, let alone reduced, at the then-current levels of immigration. They urged the club to support immigration reduction. The club had previously addressed the issue of "mass immigration", and in 1988, the organization's Population Committee and Conservation Coordinating Committee stated that immigration to the U.S. should be limited, so as to achieve population stabilization.

Other Sierra Club members thought that the immigration issue was too far from the club's core environmentalist mission, and were also concerned that involvement would impair the organization's political ability to pursue its other objectives. In the mid 1990s, the club began gradually stepping away from the immigration restrictionist position, culminating with the board adopting a neutral position on immigration policy in 1996. In 1998, 60.1% of Sierra Club voting members voted that the organization should remain neutral on America's immigration policies, while 39.2% supported a measure calling for stricter curbs on immigration to the United States.

After the 1996 board policy adoption, some members who were advocates of immigration reduction organized themselves as "SUSPS", a name originally derived from "Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization", which now stands for "Support U.S. Population Stabilization". SUSPS advocates a return to the Sierra Club's "traditional" (1970–1996) immigration policy stance. SUSPS has called for fully closing the borders of the United States, and for returning to immigration levels established by the Immigration Act of 1924, which includes strict ethnic quotas. David Brower also cited the club's position shift on immigration as one of the reasons for his resignation from the board in 2000. Supporters of immigration reduction within the club also charged that the board had abandoned the restrictionist position on immigration due to donations from investor David Gelbaum, who reportedly gave $200 million to the club between the mid 1990s and early 2000s and threatened Carl Pope in the mid 1990s to cease donations if they did not change their position on immigration adopted in 1988.

The controversy resurfaced when a group of three immigration reduction proponents ran in the 2004 Sierra Club Board of Directors election, hoping to move the club's position away from a neutral stance on immigration, and to restore the stance previously held. Groups outside of the club became involved, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and MoveOn. Of the three candidates, two (Frank Morris and David Pimentel), were on the board of the anti-immigration group Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and two (Richard Lamm and Frank Morris) were on the board of directors or the board of advisors of the Federation for American Immigration Reform; both had also held leadership positions within the NAACP. Their candidacies were denounced by a fourth candidate, Morris Dees of the SPLC, as a "hostile takeover" attempt by "radical anti-immigrant activists". The immigration reduction proponents won 7% of all votes cast in the election. In 2005, members voted 102,455 to 19,898 against a proposed change to "recognize the need to adopt lower limits on migration to the United States."

With the increased number of progressive activists joining the club in recent years, the Sierra Club has dramatically shifted its stance on immigration further towards the affirmative. Today, the Sierra Club supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, opposes a border wall and works with immigrant groups to promote environmental justice.

The Sierra Club has been criticized by anti-immigration groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform for opposing Trump's plan of creating a wall on the United States' southern border. These groups claim that the Sierra Club has criticized the plan for purely partisan reasons and not actually due to any environmental concerns.

Affiliates and subsidiaries
The Sierra Club Foundation was founded in 1960 by David R. Brower. A 501(c)(3) organization, it was founded after the Internal Revenue Service revoked the Sierra Club's tax-exempt status due to the group's political activities. The Sierra Club added its first Canadian chapter in 1963 and in 1989 opened a national office in Ottawa. Canadian affiliates of the Sierra Club operate under the Sierra Club Canada.

In 1971, volunteer lawyers who had worked with the Sierra Club established the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. This was a separate organization that used the "Sierra Club" name under license from the club; it changed its name to Earthjustice in 1997. The Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) is the student-run arm of the Sierra Club. Founded by Adam Werbach in 1991, it has 30,000 members. The Summer Program (SPROG) is a one-week leadership training program that teaches tools for environmental and social justice activism to young people across the country.
 The organization maintains a publishing imprint, Sierra Club Books. They also publish the John Muir library, which includes many of their founder's titles.

The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund is a 527 group that became active in the 2004 Presidential election by airing television advertisements about the major party candidates' positions on environmental issues. Through the Environmental Voter Education Campaign (EVEC), the club sought to mobilize volunteers for phone banking, door-to-door canvassing and postcard writing to emphasize these issues in the campaign.

Budget and funding
The Sierra Club's annual budget was $88 million in 2011 and $100 million in 2012. In 2013, the group's budget was $97.8 million.

In 2008, Clorox donated $1.3 million to the Sierra Club in exchange for the right to display the Sierra Club's logo on a line of cleaning products.

In February 2012, it was reported that the Sierra Club had secretly accepted over $26 million in gifts from the natural gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy. The Sierra Club used the Chesapeake Energy money for its Beyond Coal campaign to block new coal-fired power plants and close old ones. Michael Brune reported that he learned of the gifts after he succeeded Carl Pope as executive director of the Sierra Club in 2010. Brune reported that he ended the financial agreement with natural gas industry interests.

In 2013 Naomi Klein wrote on the club taking large, multi-million dollar funding from fossil fuel interests, had begun to spark "major controversy" within it and other "environmental" groups that were in similar receipt of fossil funding.

In 2014, the Energy and Environment Legal Institute filed a referral with the Internal Revenue Service pointing out that Sierra Club and Sierra Club Foundation were not paying income taxes from sales of solar panels for their partners across the US.

The Sierra Club has an affiliated super PAC. It spent $1,000,575 on the 2014 elections, all of it opposing Republican candidates for office. The Sierra Club is a partner of America Votes, an organization that coordinates and promotes progressive issues.

Donors to the Sierra Club have included David Gelbaum, Michael Bloomberg, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Sierra Club has also received funding from the Democracy Alliance and the Tides Foundation Advocacy Fund.

In 2015, a PR group, known as the Environmental Policy Alliance, claimed that the Sierra Club and other U.S. environmental groups received funding from groups with ties to Russia's state-owned oil company.

In April 2023, the Sierra Club announced a restructuring plan in response to a $40 million budget deficit. The following month, the union representing about 400 employees said that dozens of layoffs had occurred, and it filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

Criticisms

Stance on housing
The Sierra Club has come under criticism for opposing high-density housing development projects in California, which are intended to reduce the state's housing shortage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) at UC Berkeley Law, said that the Sierra Club's opposition to California Senate Bill 827—which would require cities to allow denser and taller housing near public transport centers and ease the parking requirements that cities can impose on housing developments—was "surprising". He wrote, "is Sierra Club an organization of wealthy homeowners who want to keep newcomers out of their upscale, transit-rich areas? Or are they actually committed to fighting climate change by providing enough housing for Californians in low-carbon, infill areas? Because their opposition to SB 827 unfortunately indicates more of the former than the latter."

In 2023, the Sierra Club of Hawaii criticized Governor Josh Green for issuing an emergency declaration on Hawaii's housing shortage and issuing an executive order that streamlined housing construction in Hawaii and suspended various stringent land use regulations.

Potential foreign influence
In late 2020, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming asked the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, saying that "robust political and judicial activism—combined with the fact that these groups often espouse views that align with those of our adversaries—makes it all the more critical that the Department is aware of any potential foreign influence within or targeting these groups."

Trips to Israel
In early 2021, a variety of pro-Palestinian organizations demanded that the Sierra Club cancel "greenwashing" trips to "apartheid" Israel.  As a result, the Sierra Club announced cancellation of two forthcoming trips, but quickly reversed its decision, saying it was "hastily" made "without consulting a robust set of stakeholders". It subsequently announced a rescheduled trip, which included visits to the Golan Heights and Palestinian territories, but did not cancel the trip.

Ramona Strategies Report
In June 2021, an executive summary of a report by D.C. consulting firm Ramona Strategies described widespread problems involving harassment, workplace discrimination, and organization protection of abusive senior leadership. The report was commissioned in 2020 after a rape accusation made against a volunteer leader became public and published in August 2021 by The Intercept. It acknowledged the Sierra Club's reliance on volunteer leadership presented unique challenges and advised reforming its structure as part of a "restorative accountability process". On August 13, 2021, Michael Brune announced that he would be stepping down as executive director after eleven years, and apologized for any time that volunteers and staff did not "feel safe, supported, and valued". Politico called the resignation, "a major blow to the U.S. environmental movement and the Democratic party's green base".

Leadership

Presidents
Presidents of the Sierra Club have included:

 1892–1914 John Muir
 1915–1917 Joseph N. LeConte
 1919–1922 William F. Badè
 1922–1924 Clair S. Tappaan
 1925–1927 Walter L. Huber
 1927–1928 Aurelia Harwood
 1928–1931 Duncan McDuffie
 1931–1933 Phil S. Bernays
 1933–1935 Francis P. Farquhar
 1936–1937 Ernest Dawson
 1937–1940 Joel H. Hildebrand
 1940–1941 Francis D. Tappaan
 1941–1943 Walter A. Starr
 1943–1946 Duncan McDuffie
 1946–1948 Bestor Robinson
 1948–1949 Francis P. Farquhar
 1949–1951 Lewis F. Clark
 1951–1953 Harold E. Crowe
 1953–1955 Richard M. Leonard
 1955–1957 Alexander Hildebrand
 1957–1959 Harold C. Bradley
 1959–1961 Nathan C. Clark
 1961–1964 Edgar Wayburn
 1964–1966 William E. Siri
 1966–1967 George Marshall
 1967–1969 Edgar Wayburn
 1969–1971 Phillip S. Berry
 1971–1973 Raymond Sherwin
 1973–1974 Laurence I. Moss
 1974–1976 Kent Gill
 1976–1977 Brant Calkin
 1977–1978 William Futrell
 1978–1980 Theodore Snyder
 1980–1982 Joseph Fontaine
 1982–1984 Denny Shaffer
 1984–1986 Michele Perrault
 1986–1988 Lawrence (Larry) Downing
 1988–1990 Richard Cellars
 1990–1991 Susan Merrow
 1991–1992 Phillip Berry
 1993–1994 Michele Perrault
 1994–1996 Robbie Cox
 1996–1998 Adam Werbach
 1998–2000 Chuck McGrady
 2000–2001 Robbie Cox
 2001–2003 Jennifer Ferenstein
 2003–2005 Larry Fahn
 2005–2007 Lisa Renstrom
 2007–2008 Robbie Cox
 2008–2010 Allison Chin
 2010–2012 Robin Mann
 2012–2013 Allison Chin
 2013–2015 Dave Scott
 2015–2017 Aaron Mair
 2017–2020 Loren Blackford
 2020–present Ramón Cruz

Executive directors
The Sierra Club's executive directors have included:

 1952–1969 David R. Brower
 1969–1985 J. Michael McCloskey
 1985–1986 Douglas Wheeler
 1987–1992 Michael L. Fischer
 1992–2010 Carl Pope
 2010–2021 Michael Brune
 2023-present Ben Jealous

Directors

 Ansel Adams, 1934–1971
 David Brower, 1941–1953; 1983–1988; 1995–2000
 William Edward Colby
 Leland Curtis 1943–1946
 George Davidson 1894–1910
 Glen Dawson
 Michael Dorsey 1997–2003; 2009–2010; 2014–2017
 Jim Dougherty
 William O. Douglas
 Veronica Eady, 1998–1999
 Anne H. Ehrlich
 Jules Eichorn
 Jennifer Ferenstein, 2001–2003
 Dave Foreman
 Lisa Force, 2003–2006
 Betsy Gaines, 1997–2000
 Marcia Hanscom, 2002–2005
 Chad Hanson, 1997–2003, 2018–
 David Starr Jordan
 Doug La Follette, 2003–2006
 Joseph LeConte, 1892–1898
 Richard M. Leonard
 Vivian Li
 Martin Litton, 1964–1973
 Norman Livermore
 Alexander George McAdie
 Duncan McDuffie
 Maryann Nelson
 Charlie Ogle, 1999–2002
 Eliot Porter
 Bestor Robinson
 Richard C. Sill
 William E. Siri
 Wallace Stegner
 René Voss, 1999–2002
 Adam Werbach
 Paul Watson, 2003–2006
 Bernie Zaleha, 2003–2009
 Ben Zuckerman, 2002–2005

See also

 Biodiversity
 Conservation movement
 Conservation ethic
 Earth Science
 Ecology
 Ecosystem
 Environmental education
 Environmental movement
 Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.
 Habitat conservation
 List of environmental organizations
 List of recreational organizations
 Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency
 Nature
 Recycling
 Sierra Club v. Morton
 Sierra cup
 Sustainability
 Timeline of environmental events

References

Further reading
 David Brower, For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1990)
 Michael McCloskey, In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005)
 Tom Turner, Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991)
 Holt-Atherton Special Collections John Muir Papers

External links

 Sierra Club's Addup.org
 The Sierra Club Foundation
 Guide to the Sierra Club Members Papers at The Bancroft Library
 Finding Aid to Sierra Club Southwest Office records, 1900–2000, The Bancroft Library
 Finding Aid to the Sierra Club Board of Directors meeting minutes, 1892–1995, The Bancroft Library
 Finding Aid to John Muir Papers

Nature conservation organizations based in the United States
Environmental organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Anti-nuclear organizations based in the United States
Anti–nuclear power movement
Climate change organizations based in the United States
Climbing organizations
Clubs and societies in California
Hiking organizations in the United States
History of California
John Muir
Water resource policy
Non-profit organizations based in California
527 organizations
Organizations based in San Francisco
Environmental organizations established in 1892
Sports organizations established in 1892
1892 establishments in California
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Sierra Club


Earth-centered religion or nature worship is a system of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomena. It covers any religion that worships the earth, nature, or fertility deity, such as the various forms of goddess worship or matriarchal religion. Some find a connection between earth-worship and the Gaia hypothesis. Earth religions are also formulated to allow one to utilize the knowledge of preserving the earth.

Origins

Origin claims by earth religion sources
According to Marija Gimbutas, pre-Indo-European societies lived in small-scale, family-based communities that practiced matrilineal succession and goddess-centered religion where creation comes from the woman. She is the Divine Mother who can give life and take it away. In Irish mythology she is Danu, in Slavic mythology she is Mat Zemlya, and in other cultures she is Pachamama, Ninsun, Terra Mater, Nüwa, Matres or Shakti.

In the late 1800s, James Weir wrote an article describing the beginnings and aspects of early religious feeling. According to Boyer, early humans were forced to locate food and shelter in order to survive, while constantly being directed by their instincts and senses. Because their existence depended on nature, humans began to form their religion and beliefs on and around nature itself. It is evident that humanity's first religion would have had to develop from the material world, he argues, because humans relied heavily on their senses. In this sense, the worship of nature formed, allowing humans to further depend on nature for survival.

Neopagans have tried to make claims that religion started in ways that correspond to earth religion. In one of their published works, The Urantia Book,  another reason for this worship of nature came from a fear of the world around primitive man.  His mind lacked the complex function of processing and sifting through complex ideas. As a result, man worshiped the very entity that surrounded him every day. That entity was nature. Humans experienced the different natural phenomena around him, such as storms, vast deserts, and immense mountains. Among the first parts of nature to be worshiped were rocks and hills, plants and trees, animals, the elements, heavenly bodies, and even man himself. As primitive man worked his way through nature worship, he eventually moved on to incorporate spirits into his worship.

The origins of religion can be looked at through the lens of the function and processing of the human mind. Pascal Boyer suggests that, for the longest period of time, the brain was thought of as a simple organ of the body. However, he claims that the more information collected about the brain indicates that the brain is indeed not a "blank slate." Humans do not just learn any information from the environment and surroundings around them. They have acquired sophisticated cognitive equipment that prepares them to analyze information in their culture and determine which information is relevant and how to apply it. Boyer states that "having a normal human brain does not imply that you have religion. All it implies is that people can acquire it, which is very different." He suggests that religions started for the reasons of providing answers to humans, giving comfort, providing social order to society, and satisfying the need of the illusion-prone nature of the human mind. Ultimately, religion came into existence because of our need to answer questions and hold together our societal order.

An additional idea on the origins of religion comes not from man's cognitive development, but from the ape. Barbara J. King argues that human beings have an emotional connection with those around them, and that that desire for a connection came from their evolution from apes. The closest relative to the human species is the African ape.  At birth, the ape begins negotiating with its mother about what it wants and needs in order to survive. The world the ape is born into is saturated with close family and friends. Because of this, emotions and relationships play a huge role in the ape's life. Its reactions and responses to one another are rooted and grounded in a sense of belongingness, which is derived from its dependence on the ape's mother and family. Belongingness is defined as "mattering to someone who matters to you ... getting positive feelings from our relationships."  This sense and desire for belongingness, which started in apes, only grew as the hominid (a human ancestor) diverged from the lineage of the ape, which occurred roughly six to seven million years ago.

As severe changes in the environment, physical evolutions in the human body (especially in the development of the human brain), and changes in social actions occurred, humans went beyond trying to simply form bonds and relationships of empathy with others. As their culture and society became more complex, they began using practices and various symbols to make sense of the natural and spiritual world around them. Instead of simply trying to find belongingness and empathy from the relationships with others, humans created and evolved God and spirits in order to fulfil that need and exploration. King argued that "an earthly need for belonging led to human religious imagination and thus to the otherworldly realm of relating to God, gods, and spirits."

Encompassed religions
The term 'earth religion' encompasses any religion that worships the earth, nature, or fertility gods or goddesses. There is an array of groups and beliefs that fall under earth religion, such as paganism, which is a polytheistic, nature-based religion; animism, which posits that all living entities (plants, animals, and humans) possess a spirit; Wicca, which holds the concept of an earth mother goddess as well as practices ritual magic; and Druidism, which equates divinity with the natural world.

Another perspective of earth religion to consider is pantheism, which takes a varied approach to the importance and purpose of the earth and to the relationship of humans with the planet. Several of their core statements deal with the connectivity humans share with the planet, declaring that "all matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part" and "we are an integral part of Nature, which we should cherish, revere, and preserve in all its magnificent beauty and diversity. We should strive to live in harmony with Nature locally and globally".

The earth also plays a vital role for many Voltaic peoples, many of whom "consider the Earth to be Heaven's wife", such as the Konkomba of northern Ghana, whose economic, social, and religious life is heavily influenced by the earth. It is also important to consider various Native American religions, such as the Peyote Religion, Longhouse Religion, and Earth Lodge Religion.

Around the world
April 22 was established as International Mother Earth Day by the United Nations in 2009, but many cultures around the world have been celebrating the Earth for thousands of years. Winter solstice and Summer solstice are celebrated with holidays like Yule and Dongzhi in the winter and Tiregān and Kupala in the summer.

Africa
Animism is practiced among some Bantu peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Dahomey mythology has deities like Nana Buluku, Gleti, Mawu,     Asase Yaa, Naa Nyonmo and Xevioso.

Europe
In Baltic mythology, the sun is a female deity, Saulė, a mother or a bride, and Mēness is the moon, father or husband, their children being the stars. In Slavic mythology Mokosh and Mat Zemlya together with Perun head up the pantheon. Celebrations and rituals are centered on nature and harvest seasons. Dragobete is a traditional Romanian spring holiday that celebrates "the day when the birds are betrothed."

India
In Hindu philosophy, the yoni is the creative power of nature and the origin of life. In Shaktism, the yoni is celebrated and worshipped during the Ambubachi Mela, an annual fertility festival which celebrates the Earth's menstruation.

Popular culture
Although the idea of earth religion has been around for thousands of years, its presence in popular culture became more pronounced in the early 1990s. "The X-Files" was one of the first nationally broadcast television programs to air witchcraft and Wicca (types of earth religion) content, particularly in episodes like "Die Hand Die Verletzt" and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose". On average, Wiccans—those who practice Wicca—were more or less pleased with the way the show had portrayed their ideals and beliefs, though they found it to be a little "sensationalistic". That same year, the movie "The Craft" was released, also depicting the art of Wicca. Unlike "The X-Files", this cinematic feature faced mixed reviews from the Earth Religion community due to its sensationalized portrayal of witchcraft.

A few years later, programs such as "Charmed" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" became widely popular, further introducing audiences to Earth Religion themes. "Charmed", although focused mostly on witchcraft, portrayed magic that closely resembled Wiccan practices. Meanwhile, "Buffy" was notable for casting a Wiccan character, Willow Rosenberg, albeit within a fantastical context given the show's focus on vampires.

The genre of Earth Religion in popular culture expanded with films by director Hayao Miyazaki, like "Princess Mononoke" and "My Neighbor Totoro", which delve into human interaction with nature spirits. These films were lauded for their respectful and intricate depiction of Earth Religion themes, both in Japan and internationally.

Disney films such as "The Lion King" and "Brother Bear" have also been identified with Earth Religion themes due to their exploration of the "interconnectedness" and "Circle of Life" between animals, plants, and life in general. These films illustrate the consequences when the harmony between humans and nature is disrupted, resonating with Earth Religion principles.

Other films like "The 13th Warrior", "The Deceivers", "Sorceress" (1982), "Anchoress", "Eye of the Devil", "Agora", and "The Wicker Man" (1973) have also explored earth religion and nature worship. Each film, with its unique narrative and setting, contributes to the diverse portrayal of Earth Religion in popular culture.  For instance, the religious aspect in "The Deceivers" is primarily embodied by the Thuggee cult's worship of the goddess Kali, a deity in Hinduism. Although Kali worship is a part of Hindu tradition, the portrayal in the movie is associated with violence, robbery, and ritualistic murders carried out by the Thuggee cult, which is far from a representation of Earth religion or a reverence for nature. Moreover, the Thuggees' criminal activities and the religious fanaticism depicted in the movie serve as a plot device to drive the narrative forward, rather than an exploration or demonstration of Earth religion. The focus of "The Deceivers" lies more on the historical thriller aspect, religious fanaticism, and the moral dilemmas faced by the protagonist, rather than on exhibiting practices or ideologies typically associated with Earth religion.

Similarly, online communities and social media platforms are used to discuss and spread Earth Religion ideas. By doing so, people are able to foster a global dialogue, enhancing the representation of Earth Religion in digital popular culture.

Video Games: Video games such as "The Elder Scrolls" series and "Final Fantasy" have woven Earth Religion themes into their narratives, offering players an interactive medium to explore these ideas.

Impact on Public Perception: The portrayal of Earth Religion in popular culture has played a significant role in shaping public perception. While some portrayals have been commended for their accuracy and depth, others have been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes and misconceptions.

Core beliefs and practices

 Veneration of nature:
 Earth-centered religions or nature worship are systems of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomena, including the earth, nature, and fertility deities.
 The veneration of the planet and nature has been integral to various religions and spiritual practices throughout history. Adherents to earth religions subscribe to a belief system based on the preservation and reverence for natural phenomena.
 Diversity of beliefs and practices:
 Earth religion encompasses a range of groups and beliefs such as paganism (a polytheistic, nature-based religion), animism (the worldview that all living entities possess a spirit), Wicca (which holds the concept of an earth mother goddess and practices ritual magic), and druidism (which equates divinity with the natural world).
 Connection with Earth:
 Core statements of some earth religions emphasize the connectivity humans share with the planet, declaring that "all matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part" and advocate for living in harmony with nature both locally and globally.
 Cultural variations:
 The earth plays a vital role in many cultures; for example, some Voltaic peoples consider the Earth to be Heaven's wife, and their economic, social, and religious life is heavily influenced by the earth. Native American religions, such as the Peyote Religion, Longhouse Religion, and Earth Lodge Religion, also have earth-centric beliefs and practices.
 Incorporation of fertility deities:
 Worship of fertility gods or goddesses is a common practice within many earth religions, which often have roots in ancient goddess worship or matriarchal religions.
 Environmental stewardship:
 Earth religions often promote practices that are aimed at preserving the earth and its ecosystems, aligning with conservationist and environmentalist principles.
 Integration of ancient and neo-pagan practices:
 Many earth religions draw from ancient pagan practices, integrating old and neo-pagan earth religions and often including a variety of life-affirming faiths dedicated to healing both individuals and the Earth.
 Gaia hypothesis connection:
 Some individuals find a connection between earth worship and the Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that the Earth is a self-regulating complex system.

Controversy and criticism

Hindrance of progress
Many religions have negative stereotypes of earth religion and neo-paganism in general. A common critique of the worship of nature and resources of "Mother Earth" is that the rights of nature and anti-ecocide movements are inhibitors of human progress and development. This argument is fueled by the fact that those people socialized into 'western' world views believe the earth itself is not a living being. Wesley Smith (of the conservative Discovery Institute which advocates for Intelligent Design ) believes this is "anti-humanism with the potential to do real harm to the human family". According to Smith, earth worshipers are hindering large-scale development, and they are viewed as inhibitors of advancement.

Negative representatives
Much of the criticism directed towards earth religion stems from the adverse actions of a handful of individuals who have faced reproach for their deeds. A notable figure often cited as a negative representation of earth religion is Aleister Crowley. He is critiqued for being "too preoccupied with awakening magical powers"  rather than prioritizing the well-being of others in his coven. Crowley is purported to have admired "Old George" Pickingill, another nature worshipper who garnered negative attention. Critics labeled Pickingill as a Satanist and "England's most notorious Witch."

Crowley was "allegedly expelled from the Craft due to his perverse tendencies." He exhibited arousal towards torture and pain, and took pleasure in being "punished" by women. These behaviors severely tarnished Crowley's public image and, by extension, cast a shadow over earth religion, leading to a misperception where many began to associate all followers of earth religion with perverse Satanism."

Accused of Satanism
Followers of earth religion have suffered major opprobrium over the years for allegedly being Satanists. Some religious adherents can be prone to viewing religions other than their religion as being wrong sometimes because they perceive those religions as characteristic of their concept of Satan worship. To wit, Witchcraft, a common practice of Wiccans, is sometimes misinterpreted as Satan worship by members of these groups, as well as less-informed persons who may not be specifically religious but who may reside within the sphere-of-influence of pagan-critical religious adherents. From the Wiccan perspective, however, earth religion and Wicca lie outside of the phenomenological world that encompasses Satanism. An all-evil being does not exist within the religious perspective of western earth religions. Devotees worship and celebrate earth resources and earth-centric deities. Satanism and Wicca "have entirely different beliefs about deity, different rules for ethical behavior, different expectations from their membership, different views of the universe, different seasonal days of celebration, etc."

Neo-pagans, or earth religion followers, often claim to be unaffiliated with Satanism. Neo-pagans, Wiccans, and earth religion believers do not acknowledge the existence of a deity that conforms to the common Semitic sect religious concept of Satan. Satanism stems from Christianity, while earth religion stems from older religious concepts.

Accusations of Satanism as religious harassment

Some earth religion adherents take issue with the religious harassment that is inherent in the social pressure that necessitates their having to distance themselves from the often non-uniform, Semitic sect religious concept of Satan worship. Having to define themselves as "other" from a religious concept that is not within their worldview implies a certain degree of outsider-facilitated, informal, but functional religious restriction that is based solely on the metaphysical and mythological religious beliefs of those outsiders. This is problematic because outsider initiated comparisons to Satanism with the intent of condemnation, even when easily refuted, can have the effect of social pressure on earth religion adherents to conform to outsider perception of acceptable customs, beliefs, and modes of religious behavior.

To illustrate, a problem could arise with the "other" than Satanism argument if an earth centered belief system adopted a holiday that a critic considered to be similar or identical to a holiday that Satanists celebrate. Satanists have historically been prone to adopting holidays that have origins in various pagan traditions, ostensibly because these traditional holidays are amongst the last known vestiges of traditional pre-Semitic religious practice in the west. Satanists are, perhaps irrationally, prone to interpreting non-Semitic holidays as anti-Christian and therefore as implicitly representative of their worldview. This is not surprising given the fact that this is, in fact, how many Christians interpret holidays such as Samhain. In spite of any flawed perceptions or rationale held by any other group, earth centered religion adherents do not recognize misinterpretation of their customs made by outside religious adherents or critics inclusive of Satan worshippers.

Organized Satan worship, as defined by and anchored in the Semitic worldview, is characterized by a relatively disorganized and often disparate series of movements and groups that mostly emerged in the mid-20th century. Thus, their adopted customs have varied, continue to vary, and therefore this moving target of beliefs and customs can not be justifiably nor continuously accounted for by earth centered religious adherents. Once a Satanist group adopts a holiday, social stigma may unjustifiably taint the holiday and anyone who observes it without discrimination as to whence and for what purpose it was originally celebrated. Given these facts, many earth centered religion devotees find comparisons to Satanism intrinsically oppressive in nature. This logic transfers to any and all religious customs to include prayer, magic, ceremony, and any unintentional similarity in deity characteristics (an example is the horned traditional entity Pan having similar physical characteristics to common horned depictions of Satan).

The issue is further complicated by the theory that the intra and extra-biblical mythology of Satan that is present throughout various Semitic sects may have originally evolved to figuratively demonize the heathen religions of other groups. Thus, the concept of Satan, or "the adversary", would have been representative of all non-Semitic religions and, by extension, the people who believed in them. Although, at times, the concept of the "other" as demonic has also been used to characterize competing Semitic sects. Amongst other purposes, such belief would have been extraordinarily useful during the psychological and physical process of cleansing Europe of traditional tribal beliefs in favor of Christianity. This possibility would account for the historical tendency of Christian authorities, for example, to deem most pagan customs carried out in the pagan religious context as demonic. By any modern standard, such current beliefs would violate western concepts of religious tolerance as well as be inimical to the preservation of what remains of the culture of long-persecuted religious groups.

Ethics
Because of the vast diversity of religions that fall under the title of earth religion there is no consensus of beliefs.  However, the ethical beliefs of most religions overlap. The most well-known ethical code is the Wiccan Rede. Many of those who practice an earth religion choose to be environmentally active. Some perform activities such as recycling or composting while others feel it to be more productive to try and support the earth spiritually. These six beliefs about ethics seem to be universal.
There is no divine judgement
It is up to each individual to decide what is ethical
Each individual is responsible for his or her actions
Nature and all life should be honored
There is no one correct path or religion, only that which fits best for each individual
Moral doings are done for their own sake and not for a reward

The Wiccan Rede

"An [if] it harm none, do what ye will."   Commonly worded in modern English as "if it doesn't harm anyone, do what you want."  This maxim was first printed in 1964, after being spoken by the priestess Doreen Valiente in the mid-20th century, and governs most ethical belief of Wiccans and some Pagans. There is no consensus of beliefs but this rede provides a starting point for most people's interpretation of what is ethical.   The rede clearly states to do no harm but what constitutes as harm and what level of self-interest is acceptable is negotiable.  Many Wiccans reverse the phrase into "Do what ye will an it harm none," meaning "Do what you want if it doesn't harm anyone." The difference may not seem significant but it is. The first implies that it is good to do no harm but does not say that it is necessarily unethical to do so, the second implies that all forms of harm are unethical. The second phrase is nearly impossible to follow. This shift occurred when trying to better adapt the phrase into modern English as well as to stress the "harmlessness" of Wiccans. The true nature of the rede simply implies that there is personal responsibility for your actions. You may do as you wish but there is a karma reaction from every action. Even though this is the most well-known rede of practice, it does not mean that those that choose not to follow it are unethical. There are many other laws of practice that other groups follow.

The Threefold Law
The Threefold Law is the belief that for all actions there is always a cause and effect. For every action taken either the good or ill intention will be returned to the action taker threefold. This is why the Wiccan Rede is typically followed because of fear of the threefold return from that harmful action.

Honor
This term is what Emma Restall Orr calls reverence for the earth in her book Living with Honour: A Pagan Ethics. She separates the term into three sections: courage, generosity and loyalty, or honesty, respect and responsibility. There is no evil force in Nature. Nothing exists beyond the natural, therefore it is up to the individual to choose to be ethical not because of divine judgment. All beings are connected by the earth and so all should be treated fairly. There is a responsibility toward the environment and a harmony should be found with nature.

The Earth Religion Anti-Abuse Resolution (1988)
In 1988, a significant resolution titled the Earth Religion Anti-Abuse Resolution was drafted and approved by various Pagan communities to address concerns of abuse and misrepresentation. This resolution was initially penned by the Church of All Worlds and later garnered approval from the Pagan Ecumenical Conferences of Ancient Ways (held in California from May 27 to May 30) and the Pagan Spirit Gathering (held in Wisconsin on June 17). Following these affirmations, the Pagan Community Council of Ohio presented the resolution to the Northeast Council of W.I.C.C.A., further solidifying its acceptance within the broader Pagan community.

The text of the resolution reads as follows:

"We, the undersigned, as adherents of Pagan and Old and Neo-Pagan Earth Religions, including Wicca or Witchcraft, practice a variety of positive, life-affirming faiths that are dedicated to healing, both of ourselves and of the Earth. As such, we do not advocate or condone any acts that victimize others, including those proscribed by law. One of our most widely accepted precepts is the Wiccan Rede's injunction to "harm none," and thus, we vehemently condemn practices of child abuse, sexual abuse, and any other form of abuse that inflicts harm on the bodies, minds, or spirits of the victims. We recognize and revere the divinity of Nature in our Mother the Earth, and we conduct our rites of worship in a manner that is ethical, compassionate, and constitutionally protected. Contrary to misconceptions, we neither acknowledge nor worship the Christian devil, "Satan," as he is not a part of our Pagan pantheons. We strongly oppose slander or libel against our Temples, clergy, or Temple Assemblers and are prepared to defend our civil rights through legal action as deemed necessary and appropriate."

This resolution was a significant step towards addressing and condemning abusive practices while also aiming to dispel common misconceptions and stereotypes associated with Earth Religions, particularly Wicca and Witchcraft. It also highlighted the collective stance of the Pagan community against abuse and their commitment to ethical and compassionate practices.

References

Earth in religion
New Age
Modern pagan traditions
Matriarchy
Nature and religion

Earth religion


Narine Grigoryan (Armenian: Նարինե Գրիգորյան born 14 June 1980) is an Armenian actress known for her role in Yeva, the Armenian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. In this film she portrays, a young woman flees to Karabakh with her daughter to escape her in-laws after her husband's death. She also known for her roles in Half Moon Bay (2014), Bravo Virtuoso (2016), The Line 2: 25 Years Later (2017) and Long Return (2017).

References

External links

1980 births
Armenian film actresses
Living people
People from Stepanakert
21st-century Armenian actresses

Narine Grigoryan


People

Women
 Abbie Betinis (born 1980), American composer
Abby Binay (born 1975), Filipino politician
 Abbie Boudreau (born 1979), American television news correspondent
 Abbie Farwell Brown (1871–1927), American author
 Abbie Brown (rugby union) (born 1996), British rugby sevens player
 Abbie Burgess (1839–1892), American lighthouse keeper
 Abby Choi (1995–2023), Hongkonger celebrity and murder victim
 Abbie Cornett (born 1966), American politician
 Abbie Cornish (born 1982), Australian actress and rapper
 Abby Dalton (1932–2020), American actress
 Abbie Eaton (born 1992), British racing driver
 Abby Ellin, American author and journalist
 Abby Elliott (born 1987), American actress and comedian
 Abby Erceg (born 1989), New Zealand footballer
 Abby Ershow, American nutritionist
 Abbie Huston Evans (1881–1983), American poet and teacher
 Abby Franquemont (born 1972), American textile crafts writer and lecturer
 Abbie Park Ferguson (1837–1919), American founder and president of Huguenot College in South Africa
 Abbie M. Gannett (1845–1895), American essayist, poet and philanthropist
 Abby and Brittany Hensel (born 1990), American conjoined twins
 Abby Hoffman (born 1947), Canadian former middle-distance runner
 Abigail Johnson (born 1961), American businesswoman
 Abby Johnson (activist) (born 1980), American anti-abortion activist
 Abby Kelley (1811–1887), American abolitionist and radical social reformer
 Abby Fisher Leavitt (1836–1897), American social reformer
 Abby Martin (born 1984), American journalist
 Abbie K. Mason (1861–1908), Black American suffragist.
 Abby Rockefeller Mauzé (1903–1976), American philanthropist, first child of Abby Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller Jr.
 Abbie Mitchell (1884–1960), African-American operatic soprano
 Abbie Myers (born 1994), Australian tennis player
Abby Meyers (born 1999), American basketball player
 Abby Ringquist (born 1989), American ski jumper
 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874–1948), American socialite and philanthropist, wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
 Abby Rockefeller (ecologist) (born 1943), American ecologist and feminist
 Abby Stein (born 1991), American transgender activist and writer
 Abby Steiner (born 1999), American sprinter
 Abby Sunderland (born 1993), American sailor who attempted to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world
 Abby Taylor (born 1985), Tobago politician
 Abby Travis (born 1969), American musician
 Abby Trott, American voice actress
 Abby Wambach (born 1980), American retired soccer player and co

Men
 Albert Brunies (1900–1978), American jazz cornetist nicknamed "Abbie"
 Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989), American social and political activist
 Abbie Johnson (1871–1960), Canadian-born Major League Baseball player
 Abby Mann (1927–2008), American film writer and producer
 Abbie Shaba (born 1958), Malawian politician
 Abbie Shadbolt (), New Zealand rugby league player
 Abby Singer (1917–2014), film production manager and assistant director from the 1950s to the 1980s
 Abbie Wolanow, Israeli-born American soccer player in the early 1960s

Fictional characters
 Abby (Doctor Who), in audio dramas based on the TV series Doctor Who
 Abigail "Abby" Anderson, character in the 2020 video game, The Last of Us Part II
 Abby Archer, main protagonist of the 2006 YTV animated program Grossology
 Abigail Van Buren, pen name used for the Dear Abby syndicated personal advice column
 Abigail "Abby" Cadabby, on the television show Sesame Street
 Abbie Carmichael, on the television show Law & Order, played by Angie Harmon
 Abby Davies, on the soap opera Hollyoaks
 Abby Deveraux, on the American soap opera Days of our Lives
 Abby Hatcher, main protagonist of the eponymous 2018 animated children's program produced by Guru Studio
 Abby Holland, a fictional comic book character who exists in the DC Universe
 Abby Lockhart, a medical doctor on the television series ER
 Abby Maitland, on the ITV science-fiction drama Primeval
 Abby Newman, on the American soap opera The Young and the Restless
 Abby Park, one of Meilin Lee's best friends from the 2022 Pixar film Turning Red
 Abby Sciuto, a forensic scientist on the television series NCIS
 Abigail "Abbie" Scrapple, in the American comic strip Abbie an' Slats (1937–1971)
 Abby the Cow, on the Nickelodeon animated series Back at the Barnyard
 The title character of Abby, a 2003 television series starring Sydney Tamiia Poitier
 The title character of Abby (film), a 1974 blaxploitation/horror film about a woman possessed by an African demon
 Abbie, a 12-year-old vampire in the film, Let Me In
 Abby, in the Disney movie Chicken Little
 Abby, one of many mutant creatures on the American TV series Wayward Pines
 Abby Schmidt, the sister of Mike Schmidt in Five Nights at Freddy's (film)

See also

English feminine given names
Feminine hypocorisms

Abby


Paul Jerome Remigius Hilton (1 October 1899 – 18 August 1965) was an Australian politician, and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1935 until 1963 representing the seat of Carnarvon, and a minister in both the Hanlon and Gair Ministries.

Biography
Hilton was born to Richard Hilton, a school teacher, and his wife Agnes (née Quirke). He was educated at the state school in Allora and in 1915 got a job as a pay clerk for Queensland Railways, moving to Toowoomba and ultimately Stanthorpe by 1921. He served as an NCO in the militia but was rejected for overseas service for World War I. In 1922, he married Esther Mary Clifford in the town of Gatton; they were to have two sons and two daughters. He became involved with many public bodies in Stanthorpe at this time.

Hilton first ran for the seat of Carnarvon (which was centred on Stanthorpe) at the 1932 election before winning it at the 1935 election. He became a supporter of the Industrial Groups and the Catholic Social Studies Movement organised by B. A. Santamaria, as well as being a member of the Order of St. Francis. He also supported the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and was the organiser of the Queensland Cancer Research Fund.

On 10 May 1950 he was appointed to the Hanlon Ministry, serving as Secretary for Public Works, Housing and Local Government. The portfolio of Local Government was abolished on 1 May 1952, and he otherwise served in these roles until the 1956 election. He then became Secretary of Lands and Irrigation, relinquishing his old portfolios to Colin McCathie.

On 26 April 1957, Hilton along with Premier Vince Gair and most of the rest of the Ministry were expelled from the Australian Labor Party, and joined the new Queensland Labor Party with which they contested the 1957 election. Hilton won under this banner at the 1957 and 1960 elections, and led the QLP for his final term before losing to Henry McKechnie of the Country Party at the 1963 election.

He retired to Esther Street, Ekibin (part of modern-day Tarragindi) in Brisbane's inner southern suburbs, and died there on 18 August 1965. He was accorded a State funeral and as a catholic buried in Nudgee Cemetery.

References
 Waterson, D.B. Biographical register of the Queensland Parliament, 1930-1980 Canberra: ANU Press (1982)

 Former Members (Queensland Parliament)

1899 births
1965 deaths
Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland
Politicians from Queensland
Burials at Nudgee Cemetery
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland
20th-century Australian politicians

Paul Hilton (politician)


The Thames Barrier Park is a   park in Silvertown in the London Borough of Newham and is named after its location on the north side of the River Thames next to the Thames Barrier. It is intended to aid the regeneration of the area by creating an attractive public space alongside residential and commercial developments. It is adjacent to Pontoon Dock DLR station.

Allain Provost and Alain Cousseran of Groupe Signes with Patel Taylor won the international competition to design the park in 1995. As the first largely post-modern design in London, the park has a fresh modern look with adventurous planting and dancing water fountains.

The site was built on what was one of the country's most polluted sites, the former PRChemicals factory. Decontaminating the site took many years.

External links
Official site
Images of Thames Barrier Park

References

Urban public parks
Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Newham
Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Newham

Thames Barrier Park


The Tonto Basin, also known as Pleasant Valley, covers the main drainage basin of Tonto Creek and its tributaries in central Arizona, at the southwest of the Mogollon Rim, the higher elevation transition zone across central and eastern Arizona. Although the word tonto means silly or foolish in Spanish, this place name is derived from the Apache word, Koun'nde, which means wild, rough people and refers to the indigenous Dilzhe'e Tonto Apache.

Tonto Basin is mostly north-south trending and outflows into the Salt River at the extensive canyon reservoir called Theodore Roosevelt Lake.

Arizona Route 188 traverses the lower Tonto Basin on the southwest side of Theodore Roosevelt Lake; it then merges at the water divide northeast of the Mazatzals, with State route 87 which proceeds to Payson and further to Kohls Ranch and Christopher Creek at the basin headwaters at the foot of the Mogollon Rim.

Regional geography
The Tonto Basin is Y-shaped at its headwaters. East are the Sierra Ancha range, part of the Mogollon Rim, and Tonto Creek draining from the northeast. West lies the Mazatzal Mountains and a ridgeline of hills on the north, the Limestone Hills on the south-side of the East Verde River; this is the water divide at the west of the Y-shape, a much shorter drainage basin, dwarfing the major upper Tonto Creek drainage.

See also
 Tonto Basin (novel)
 Tonto Basin, Arizona
 Pleasant Valley War
 Yavapai Wars

References

External links
 lower Tonto Creek, Tonto Basin, (Four Peaks, Mazatzal Mountains); Map

Mogollon Rim
Landforms of Gila County, Arizona
Valleys of Arizona
Watersheds of the United States

Tonto Basin


In Irish mythological history Mug Nuadat (servant of Nuada) son of Mug Neit, son of Derg, son of Dergthene, son of Enna Munchain, son of Loch Mor, son of Muiredach Mucna, son of Eochaid Garb, son of Dui Dalta Dedad was a legendary, supposed King of Munster in the 2nd century AD. He was, according to later medieval tradition, a rival of the High King, Conn of the Hundred Battles, and for a time after the year 123 was the de facto ruler of the southern half of Ireland.  Everything south of a line drawn between Galway Bay and Dublin was known as Leth Moga ("Mug's half") (Modern Irish: Leath Mhogha), and everything north of that line was Leth Cuinn ("Conn's half") (Modern Irish: Leath Chuinn).

Conn later invaded Leth Moga and drove Mug from Ireland. He took refuge in Spain and returned with an army, but was defeated and killed by Conn at Mag Léna (Kilbride, County Offaly). (In some versions, Conn treacherously kills Mug in his bed.)

Mug's son was Ailill Ollamh. His grandson Éogan Mór fought alongside Conn's son Art at the Battle of Maigh Mucruimhe, and is credited with founding the Eóganachta dynasty.

T.F. O'Rahilly speculated that Mug Nuadat may in fact have been the god Nuada rather than an actual historical person. Equally it could be that Éogan Mór was the earthly representation of the god.

John O'Hart calls  Mug Nuadat, Eoghan Mor [Owen Mor], or Eugene the Great. Then he further goes on to say that this Eugene was commonly called "Mogha Nuadhad," and was a wise and politic prince and great warrior. From him Magh-Nuadhad (now "Maynooth") is so called.

See also
 Deirgtine
 Nia Segamain

References

Cycles of the Kings
Eóganachta
Legendary High Kings of Ireland

Mug Nuadat


Richard Edgar-Wilson is an English tenor who has had an international career on the concert platform and the opera stage. He is particularly known for his oratorio work, especially as a Bach Evangelist and as an interpreter of the music of Benjamin Britten.

Life and career

Richard Wilson (he changed his name on joining Equity to prevent any possible confusion with the well-known Scottish actor) was born in Ipswich, Suffolk. He attended Ipswich School and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar and read history. He later won a postgraduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied with Edward Brooks and Alasdair Graham.

Early singing engagements included concerts and recordings with the Consort of Musicke, the Tallis Scholars, the Deller Consort, Combattimento and the Scholars.

Since 1989 when he began working exclusively as a soloist he has sung in over thirty countries collaborating with many conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Raymond Leppard, Sir Neville Marriner, Thierry Fischer, Jeffrey Tate, Philippe Herreweghe and Sir Charles Mackerras and with orchestras such as Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Le Concert Spirituel, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, CBSO, English Chamber Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Opera appearances include Acis (Canada and London), Tamino (Portugal and New Zealand), Don Ottavio (Lisbon), Thespis/Mercure (Platée) at the Palais Garnier, Gonsalve (L'Heure Espagnole) for Grange Park Opera and Death in Venice for ENO, La Monnaie, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and La Scala, Milan.

In recital, Edgar-Wilson has performed with Graham Johnson and the Songmakers' Almanac, and with Malcolm Martineau, Eugene Asti, Iain Burnside, Roger Vignoles and Julius Drake.

He won a Gramophone Award for Stradella San Giovanni Battista with Les Musiciens du Louvre/Minkowski and his many solo recordings include Coates Songs with Sir Thomas Allen and the BBC Concert Orchestra, Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Die Schöne Müllerin, and works by Arne, Monteverdi, Bach, Purcell, Boyce, Howard Blake and Bernard Herrmann amongst many others.
Film and television work includes Beauty in the world premiere of Gerald Barry's The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit for Channel 4 TV and Radames in the award-winning Norwegian feature film Suffløsen.

Richard Edgar-Wilson is married to Dr Jennifer Barnes, Pro-Vice Chancellor (International Strategy) at the University of Cambridge and President of Murray Edwards College. They have a son and a daughter.

Select discography
 Arne: Artaxerxes, with the Parley of Instruments, conducted by Roy Goodman, (Hyperion)
 Boyce: Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day / David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, with the Hanover Band and the Choir of New College, Oxford, conducted by Graham Lea-Cox (Gaudeamus)
 Eric Coates: Songs accompanied by Eugene Asti – pianoforte (Marco Polo)
 Bernard Herrmann: Moby Dick, with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Concert Chorus, conducted by Michael Schønwandt (Chandos)
 Purcell: Dioclesian with The English Concert, conducted by Trevor Pinnock (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv)
 Stradella: San Giovanni Battista. Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski (Erato)
 Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge, accompanied by the Coull String Quartet with James Lisney – pianoforte (SOMM)

References

External links
Personal website

Living people
English operatic tenors
Alumni of the Royal College of Music
21st-century British male opera singers
Musicians from Ipswich
British performers of early music
Year of birth missing (living people)
20th-century British male opera singers

Richard Edgar-Wilson