June 15, 2005
6/14 - Tree Envy: The oceans could use a group like Rainforest Action Network
I went to a talk last night by Michael Brune, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network. Now that's a group with some guts and savvy. Over and over again they are in the board rooms of logging companies and Burger King and Home Depot explaining to them, "Either you're going to change your business practices, or your clientele is going to hear from us." And guess what happens. These days when the companies hear about one of them acceding to the demands of R.A.N., the other companies call Michael to find out what they need to do to avoid having him visit them. The R.A.N. folks have a lot cooler vibe than the "we don't want to piss off the fishermen," attitude I heard when I first entered into this stuff four years ago. And by the way, I got yet another excellent phone call yesterday from a woman in Northern California who lost her job in the fishing business due to fishery closure, saw the Tiny Fish PSA on television, visited our site, called me up and said, "right on, what can I do to get involved." And my answer was, "go make a damn film about all the other people in your community that have lost their jobs from fishery mismanagement." We need more documentation of it.
The logo says it all: an aggressive animal, rather than a happy dolphin or whale. R.A.N. kicks ass.
![Rainforest Action Network](<img alt="logo.gif" src="http://shiftingbaselines.org/blog/logo.gif" width="150" height="30" border="0" />){kind=link}