Friends of the Earth

The organization routinely moves beyond environmental matters and into various other left-of-center advocacy including economic redistribution, restricting campaign speech, LGBT rights, and opposition to free trade deals. ²

In January 2019 Friends of the Earth was a co-signatory on a letter that denounced nuclear power as “dirty energy,” even though nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions. ³

Background

Friends of the Earth’s U.S. branch was established in 1969. On the first Earth Day in 1970 Friends of the Earth and Ballantine Books published The Environmental Handbook: Prepared for the first National Environmental Teach-In, warning overpopulation would harm the planet. ⁴

The Friends of the Earth International Chair is Karin Nansen, a founding member of Friends of Earth Uruguay. ⁵

Erich Pica has been president of the U.S. branch of Friends of the Earth since 2009. Before becoming president, he was the organization’s director of domestic programs. Pica is the chairman of the board of the Partnership Project and Partnership Project Action Fund and sits on the executive committee of the Citizens Trade Campaign. ⁶

Political Initiatives

The organization’s finance and economics focus is to make companies pay for pollution and push them to transition to a low-carbon economy, through means such as carbon taxes. The organization opposes economically beneficial trade agreements. ⁷

Friends of the Earth criticized President Barack Obama for backing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade proposal and “fast track” negotiating authority. ⁸

FOE International labeled the Paris Climate Accord “a sham of a deal” that will “fail to deliver.” FOE spokesman Dipti Bhatnagar griped “Politicians say it is a fair and ambitious deal yet it is the complete opposite. People are being deceived.” ⁹

However, after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in June 2017, the organization decried the action claiming it would “accelerate” climate change. ¹⁰

FOE also has a “Friends of Democracy” campaign that promotes electoral changes that it expects to favor the political left, including campaign speech regulation, restricting Republican efforts to draw legislative districts, and ending conservative electoral integrity efforts. ¹¹

Green New Deal

Also see Green New Deal (Movement)

The organization is among the strongest proponent of a version of the “Green New Deal.” However, it has criticized the up to $90 trillion proposal characterized as a “radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy” put forward by Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as too moderate since it does not “expressly call for an end of the fossil fuel era.” ^{12 13 14}

The Ocasio-Cortez-Markey version of the bill was too extreme even to get the support of Democrats in a Senate procecudural vote. The Green New Deal died by a vote of 0-57, as three Democrats and one independent voted with all Senate Republicans against, while most Democrats abstained from voting. ¹⁵

Friends of the Earth calls for a plan that would “fight climate change while tackling issues of justice and rising inequity.” ¹⁶ Regarding the plans put forward in Congress, FOE president Erich Pica said, “The Green New Deal is a strong vision for the future, stuck in the politics of today.” ¹³

The organization wants global redistribution from the United States to pay for the rest of the world to transition to a green economy, stating on its website: ¹⁷

Although wealthy countries like the United States are most responsible for creating the climate crisis, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are paying the highest price — in lives and livelihoods lost . . . .

Friends of the Earth U.S. advocates for the U.S. to provide its fair share of funding, commensurate with what science, justice, and equity demand.

In its zeal for natural foods, the FOE has also lectured African countries experiencing severe hunger for accepting U.S. food aid that contained genetically enhanced rice. ¹⁸

Activism

In December 2017, the FOE issued its “Statement of Commitment to Anti-Oppression” that tied the environment to other issues, which says: “We understand that the ways we interact with the environment and the burden of pollution we bear are closely tied to class, race, gender, age and other forms of identity. Groups confronting racial and economic injustice are often targeted by polluting industries and others who harm the environment for profit.” ¹⁹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ²⁰ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²¹

In a September 2018 “Impact Story” titled “Ending Dangerous Nuclear Power,” Friends of the Earth criticized nuclear energy as a “dangerous and dirty technology.” The report boasted that Friends of the Earth had “been the United States’ leading voice opposing nuclear energy,” and claimed credit for closing or obstructing the creation of several nuclear power facilities since 1969. ²²

Friends of the Earth was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ³

In May of 2021, Friends of the Earth was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ²³

In 2024, Friends of the Earth, alongside environmental groups Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, filed a lawsuit to stop the state of California from extending the license renewal for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The lawsuit claims that the plant, which reportedly supplies about 10% of the state’s power supply, is “unnecessary and environmentally harmful” ²⁴ even though other reports show that the plant has actually prevented, “roughly 7 million tons of greenhouse gasses from being emitted.” ²⁴ The three groups, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), previously made a deal with California power company PG&E to shut down the plant by early 2024 until federal regulators accepted a license renewal in December 2023. ²⁴

In January 2025, Friends of the Earth dropped the lawsuit against state of California after California lawmakers approved and disbursed financial support for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The group said that even if the lawsuit prevailed, there would be no way to prevent the nuclear power plant from operating until 2030, the new projected closing year for the nuclear power plant as of 2025. ²⁵

Agriculture

Friends of the Earth operates an educational program it argues helps encourage school districts to serve fewer animal-based products and substitute with more plant-based options. The group has supported serving non-dairy milk substitutes with school lunches. ²⁶

In May 2024, Friends of the Earth supported a decision by the World Bank which released a blueprint to measure the environmental and health impacts of modern meat and dairy agriculture. The group called on the World Bank and other financial institutions to halt financial support for modern, conventional meat and dairy production. ²⁷

In February 2025, Friends of the Earth announced its opposition to a USMCA trade tribunal’s decision that declared Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified (GMO) corn a violation of said trade agreement. The group claimed that requiring Mexico to accept GMO corn from the United States and Canada would harm the local population. The group argued the tribunal did not dispute or disprove their claims and attacked tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump as being “far more economically damaging trade measures implemented with no prior consultation at all. The world is watching this hypocrisy.” ²⁸

In April 2025, Friends of the Earth released a report attacking “no till” agriculture which is viewed as a more environmentally friendly “regenerative” farming technique. The group denounced “no till” agriculture as too reliant on modern pesticides and herbicides claiming that one-third of U.S. pesticide use was due to “no till” agriculture. The group also claimed that “no till” agriculture does not result in soil carbon sequestration and in fact increases carbon emissions. The group instead argued for farmers to shift towards organic farming methods. ²⁹

Other Policy Activism

In September 2025, Friends of the Earth was one of over 400 organizations to sign an open letter advocating against the ruling in a lawsuit by energy company Energy Transfer against Greenpeace after the latter was fined $300 million due to actions meant to disrupt the constriction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. The letter alleges the lawsuit “is an abuse of the legal system and a blatant attempt to silence legitimate work to protect people and our planet.” ³⁰

Leadership

Hemantha Withanage is Friends of the Earth’s international chair. In 2004, he co-founded the Sri Lanka-based environmentalist group Centre for Environmental Justice. He has been Friends of the Earth international chair since July 2021. ³¹

Erich Pica has been president of the U.S. branch of Friends of the Earth since 2009. Before becoming president, he was the organization’s director of domestic programs. Pica is the chairman of the board of the Partnership Project and Partnership Project Action Fund and sits on the executive committee of the Citizens Trade Campaign. ⁴

Jeffrey Gleuck is the chair of the U.S. branch’s board as of 2025. He is the CEO of healthcare startup Salvo Health. He was previously the CEO of Foursquare and one of the leaders of Hawkfish, which was formed to support former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. ³²

The group’s former chair is Jayni Chase, who is the wife of actor Chevy Chase. In November 2023, she left the board after 30 years. ³³

Financials

According to Friends of the Earth’s 2024 tax returns, the group had $16,901,495 in revenue, $19,167,470 in expenses, and $17,056,896 in net assets. ³⁴

The group gave $300,000 to its lobbying arm Friends of the Earth Action and $50,000 each to Action for the Climate Emergency, Environmental Defense Fund, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, GreenLatinos, Ironbound Community Corporation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The group gave smaller grants to Healthy Gulf, Sustainable Markets Foundation, the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Sanders Institute, the International Accountability Project, and numerous other state and local environmentalist groups. ³⁴

Between August 2019 and 2025, Friends of the Earth received $1,915,000 from the Ford Foundation. ³⁵

Friends of the Earth also received $100,000 from Health Care Without Harm in 2022 ³⁶ and $6,650 from Earthshare in 2023. ³⁷