Laurie David
Producer activist urges women to tackle global warming
Producer and environmental activist Laurie David has been so involved in environmental conservation and raising awareness about climate change, it would be much easier to make a list of her achievements than to speak of each one individually.
From spearheading public awareness and action campaigns to producing documentaries and writing books, David works tirelessly to spread the message that something needs to be done now to stop global warming. Unlike many newly green celebs, environmental work is her biggest claim to fame and her bio reads like an activist resumé.
Laurie David’s accomplishments
- Natural Resources Defense Council trustee (also co-chairs Action and Executive forums).
- Endowed the David Family Environmental Action Center to the NRDC. It features exhibits on global warming, ocean pollution, toxins and green building solutions. Sustainably made clothing and gear are sold in the center.
- Advisory Board member of the Children’s Nature Institute in California.
- Co-founder of The Detroit Project - a public education and action campaign. TV commercials ignited debate about SUVs, oil dependence and national security.
- Launched the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, urging residents, religious leaders, elected officials, labor unions and business leaders to force government to address the “ticking time bomb” that is global warming.
The author
- Wrote The Solution is You: Stop Global Warming - An Activist’s Guide.
- Contributing blogger on The Huffington Post.
David has won numerous awards, raised millions for environmental issues and been named a woman of the year by Glamour Magazine. She campaigns for candidates with environmental priorities and pushes Congress and automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards and manufacture higher-mileage vehicles. Yet she still finds time for the little things, like using canvas shopping bags, driving a hybrid and being involved in her children’s school (by creating a no idle rule).
Editor honors
During her stint as a guest editor for Elle magazine, David wrote about her green conversion in the mid ’90s, which came about after the birth of her first daughter. While pushing the stroller around her neighborhood she realized how many SUVs there were. Books like Keith Bradsher’s High and Mighty urged her to action on what she saw as “the” issue. She says multitasking, nurturing women are in the perfect position to tackle the climate change problem.
David as producer
- Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, starring Al Gore.
- HBO’s Too Hot Not to Handle, on effects of global warming in the U.S.
- Comedy special Earth to America! for TBS featured Will Ferrell, Jack Black and Steve Martin.
What Laurie David stresses through her varied endeavors is that change doesn’t have to mean sacrifice. But without people like her laying the groundwork for us, it could be a completely different story.
