Kieran Suckling

rdf:langString Kieran Suckling

rdf:langString Kieran Suckling

rdf:langString Kieran Suckling

rdf:langString Worcester Polytechnic Institute,

rdf:langString College of the Holy Cross, State University of New York, Stony Brook

rdf:langString Center for Biological Diversity

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString Environmental activist

rdf:langString Kierán Suckling (born 1964) is one of the founders and the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation group known for its innovative approaches to the protection of endangered species, wilderness, clean air and clean water. He has infused the traditionally staid environmental arena with an unusual degree of creative energy, leading New Yorker to dub the Center "the most important radical environmental group in the country" and Suckling a "trickster, philosopher, publicity hound, master strategist, and unapologetic pain in the ass." The LA Weekly calls the Center "pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the most effective conservation organization in the country," and says of Suckling: "Rimbaud reinvented poetry. Kierán Suckling would do the same with environmentalism." The Center, which has secured protection for over 700 endangered species and 475,000,000 acres (192,225,680 ha) of habitat in the U.S., has an excellent reputation for its scientific, litigation and media work among those in favor of environmental protection. It often comes under fire from logging, mining, pesticide, oil, coal and other industries. Suckling founded the Center for Biological Diversity while working on doctoral dissertation in 1989 along with Peter Galvin, Robin Silver and Todd Schulke. He served as executive director from 1989 to 2004, policy director from 2005 to 2007, and became executive director again in 2008.