Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 74 countries.

Friends of the Earth was founded in 1969 as an anti-nuclear group by Robert O Anderson who contributed $200,000 in personal funds to launch FOTE with David Brower, Donald Aitken and Jerry Mander after Brower's split with the Sierra Club. FOTE main mission was to lock up and prevent further development of nuclear energy. Their first employee was Amory Lovins, who kicked off FOE in the UK. It became an international network in 1971 with a meeting of representatives from the U.S., Sweden, the UK and France. For further historical details, see articles on the national FOE organizations.

FoEI is assisted by a small secretariat (based in Amsterdam, Netherlands) which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns. The executive committee of elected representatives from national groups sets policy and oversees the work of the secretariat. In 2010, Nigerian activist Nnimmo Bassey was elected to serve as chair of Friends of the Earth International.

Organization

An organization or organisation (see spelling differences) is an entity comprising multiple people, such as an institution or an association, that has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment.

The word is derived from the Greek word organon, which means "organ".

Types

There are a variety of legal types of organizations, including corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, political organizations, international organizations, armed forces, charities, not-for-profit corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, and educational institutions.

A hybrid organization is a body that operates in both the public sector and the private sector simultaneously, fulfilling public duties and developing commercial market activities.

A voluntary association is an organization consisting of volunteers. Such organizations may be able to operate without legal formalities, depending on jurisdiction, including informal clubs.

Organizations may also operate in secret and/or illegally in the case of secret societies, criminal organizations and resistance movements.

Friends of the Earth Scotland

Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is a Scottish charity and an independent member of the Friends of the Earth international network of environmental organizations It is one of the 30 national organisations that Friends of the Earth Europe represents and unites at the European level.

There is a membership of around 3,000 people in Scotland.

History

Scotland’s first Friends of the Earth group was formed in 1972 and the first joint meeting of all Scotland’s local groups was held in 1977. In 1980 it became legally independent of Friends of the Earth Ltd. By 1982 it had a membership of around 1,200. It has been registered as a charity since 1 January 1992, currently registered as a charitable company with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), Scottish charity number SC 003442. The organisation operates separately from Friends of the Earth in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (EWNI).

In 1991 Kevin Dunion was appointed as their first director, leaving in 2003 to become the Scottish Information Commissioner. Richard Dixon was appointed in 2013 and is the current director.

Scotland

Scotland (/ˈskɒt.lənd/; Scots: [ˈskɔt.lənd]; Scottish Gaelic: Alba [ˈal̪ˠapə]) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Edinburgh, the country's capital and second-largest city, was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual, and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

Friends

Friends is an American television sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which originally aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends living in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including a second title change to Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends.

Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; ultimately reaching the No. 1 spot with its eighth season. The series finale on May 6, 2004, was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth most watched series finale in television history, and the most watched television episode of the 2000s decade.