Laurie David (born March 22, 1958) is an American environmental activist. She serves as a trustee on the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the Advisory Board of the Children's Nature Institute and is a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post.
David was born as Laurie Ellen Lennard, and raised in a middle class Jewish family on Long Island. In 1979, she graduated from Ohio University with a degree in journalism. Laurie was married to Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld and creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm) for 14 years. They married in 1993, and Laurie David filed for divorce on July 19, 2007.
Before working full-time on environmental and political issues, Laurie David worked in the entertainment industry. She began her career in New York City as a talent coordinator for the David Letterman show. Four years later she left to start her own management company, representing comedians and comedy writers.
She also produced several comedy specials for HBO, Showtime, MTV, and Fox Television. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she became vice president of comedy development for a division of Fox Broadcasting and developed sitcoms for 20th Century Fox TV.
Laurie David is best known for her efforts to stop global warming. She founded the Stop Global Warming Virtual March with Senator John McCain and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Ms. magazine quoted David about the grassroots aspect of her campaign: "If everyone does one thing, they are likely to do two things, then three things. Then they are likely to influence friends and family, and that's how you build a movement."
In addition to the Virtual March, Laurie David has produced several other projects to bring the issue of global warming into mainstream popular culture, including the release of her first book, Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You!, and the comedy special, Earth to America! for TBS, which aired November 20, 2005, featuring Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, and Jack Black, among others.
The show garnered positive reviews and sparked hundreds of TV, print and radio stories about global warming. In addition to the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, starring Al Gore, she produced the HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle on the effects of global warming in the United States, which aired on HBO on April 22, 2006. Laurie David also appeared in Big Ideas for a Small Planet, an environmentalist documentary series on the Sundance Channel.
Campaigns
As a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a founding member of the Detroit Project, Laurie David has spearheaded numerous public education and action campaigns urging Congress and auto-makers to raise fuel efficiency standards and make higher mileage cars.
In January 2004, the NRDC opened the David Family Environmental Action Center. Endowed by the David family, the Center promotes activism to protect the environment. It features exhibits on issues such as global warming, ocean pollution, everyday toxins, and green building solutions.
In an interview with The Guardian in November 2006, David acknowledged that owning two homes on opposite sides of the country and flying in a private jet several times per year is at odds with her message to others. In the interview she notes "Yes, I take a private plane on holiday a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it. I probably shouldn't do it. But the truth is, I'm not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don't expect anybody else to be perfect either. That's what hurts the environmental movement — holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away."
Paving over protected wetlands
In 2005, and then again in 2009, David was cited by the Chilmark Conservation Commission for paving over protected wetland areas on her estate at Martha's Vineyard.
In October 2006, Laurie David was featured in Glamour as one of its “Women of the Year”. She received the Gracie Allen Award for Individual Achievement by the American Women in Radio & Television and the NRDC's 2006 Forces for Nature award for her work against global warming.
In 2003, she was honored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s organization, Riverkeeper. She also received the Los Angeles-based Children's Nature Institute's Leaf Award in 2003 for her commitment to the environmental education of young children.
