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Staff
Cara Pike
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Title: Director, Social Capital Project Office: Headquarters Department: Communications |
"In the summers between semesters and for a time after graduation, I explored as much as possible. I planted trees in the clear cuts of British Columbia, did field ecology research in the low Arctic, worked on a video project in Nigeria...."
In 1978, when President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, I was nine years old. People were evacuating their homes due to a public health crisis in the 15-acre neighborhood. The community was built on a former chemical waste dump used by plants located along the Niagara River. Exposure to DDT, PCBs, and other hazardous waste caused high rates of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages. More than 25 years after the dump had been closed, chemical barrels were popping up in backyards and trees and lawns were turning black. This was the first news event I remember paying attention to because it was happening across the river from my house.
I grew up on the Canadian side of the Niagara River and spent every summer in the quick-moving waterway. We played in the reeds, waded in knee-deep muck, swam, and had mud wars with the boys next door. In the winter, we skated and cross-country skied for miles along the shore. The Niagara River was wilderness to me and it had become associated with one of the worst environmental health crises in history.
The Niagara Peninsula is a beautiful part of Canada and home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World -- the mighty Niagara Falls. With its slightly longer growing season and warm summers, the area is known as Canada's banana belt because it produces most of the country's soft fruits like peaches and grapes. The region is home to one of the world's premier rowing regattas and is rich in history. My hometown is where the final battle in the War of 1812 was fought, establishing the border between the US and Canada.
How sadly ironic that by the time I entered high school, the Niagara region also had the highest cancer, asthma, and allergy rates in all of Canada. Before I graduated, several friends had already been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. With the Love Canal incident, the health issues in my community, and all the stories I heard about Lake Erie catching on fire, I knew by age 17 that I would spend my life advocating for environmental protection.
But before starting university, I headed to Banff, Alberta, to teach skiing and have a good time. It was there that I fell in love with western wilderness and the magnitude of its mountains. I skied six days a week and couldn't seem to pry myself away when the season ended. I stayed on through the summer and went on my first major backpacking trips in some of the most stunning landscapes I've seen to date.
I somehow managed to pack up and leave for McGill University in Montreal. My experience out west had solidified my passion for environmental protection so I pursued a combined English and environmental science degree. This allowed me to take classes in ecology, environmental engineering, climatology, geology, environmental ethics, and law. I became convinced that part of solving environmental problems was figuring out how to communicate with people to influence change, and that the same tools being used to promote endless consumption (advertising, TV, etc.) could be used to promote sustainability. In the summers between semesters and for a time after graduation, I explored as much as possible. I planted trees in the clear cuts of British Columbia, did field ecology research in the low Arctic, worked on a video project in Nigeria, and went door-to-door canvassing for Greenpeace in Ottawa.
I then headed to California to start a Masters in Environmental Science at California State University, Fullerton -- at that time, the only school in North America with an interdisciplinary environmental science program with a focus on communications. I spent my time researching how business could be used as a tool for social change and on the emerging "world wide web" and its possibilities for democratizing information and promoting sustainable development.
After a several year stint at an award-winning environmental product company, I decided that my heart was back in the advocacy world so I joined Earthjustice as Director of Marketing. Two years later, I was asked to build and direct a communications department to support the litigation and policy programs, and to raise awareness of Earthjustice and the role of environmental law. We are now an eleven-person team that has achieved great success increasing media coverage of issues we take on in the courts, in driving public comments on important administrative rule changes, and influencing votes in DC. We've expanded our public outreach efforts through our web site, electronic news, books, and music projects. More than ever, people are turning to Earthjustice and to environmental law because our effectiveness has become well known.
Now our efforts include projects aimed at expanding public support for environmental values underlying issues Earthjustice advocates in the courts -- no small task! After seven and a half years, working with the talented staff at Earthjustice is still exciting and challenging. I feel fortunate that I am in a position to make a difference for the wilderness I love, and to work with people fighting toxic pollution in their own backyards.
Earthjustice VP of Communications Cara Pike with Earthjustice Attorney Todd True and singer Bonnie Raitt
Cara Pike is the Director of the Social Capital Project, after serving as the Vice President of Communications at Earthjustice, where she was responsible for leading the organization's advocacy communications efforts and brand strategy. Cara joined Earthjustice in 1997 as Director of Marketing and in 1999, began the process of building a new communications department. Before joining Earthjustice, Cara worked on sustainability issues and community outreach in the green business sector. Growing up in Canada, Cara did her share of fieldwork from tree planting in British Columbia to conducting field ecology research in the low Arctic. Cara has a Masters of Science in Environmental Studies with a focus on communications and education from California State University, Fullerton, and a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Environmental Studies from McGill University.
Created: January 3, 2006
