Ralph Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and candidate for President of the United States as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000. With grassroots democracy civic actions, green politics and left-wing politics, he is a reputed populist, harking to 19th century American populists and movements like Henry George's geoism, to which he referred in his 2004 presidential election platform.

In the 1970s and 1980s Nader was a key leader in the anti-nuclear power movement. He advocates the complete elimination of nuclear energy in favor of solar, tidal, wind and geothermal, citing environmental, worker safety, migrant labor, national security, disaster preparedness, foreign policy, government accountability and democratic governance issues to bolster his position. 

Nader spent much of 1970 on his campaign to educate the public about ecology. Nader believed that the rivers and lakes in America that are the source of drinking water for many citizens were extremely contaminated.

Hundreds of young activists, inspired by Nader's work, came to DC to help him with other projects in the late 60’s and early 70’s. They came to be known as "Nader's Raiders" who, under Nader, investigated government corruption, publishing dozens of books. In 1971, Nader co-founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) Public Citizen with fellow public interest lawyer Alan Morrison as an umbrella organization for various projects. Today, Public Citizen has over 140,000 members and investigates Congressional, health, environmental, economic and other issues. In 1980, Nader resigned as director of Public Citizen to work on other projects, forcefully campaigning against what he believed to be the dangers of large multinational corporations.

During Nader’s campaigns for president, environmental issues were central to his platform. On energy, Nader urges for a new clean energy policy that no longer subsidizes entrenched oil, nuclear, electric and coal mining. He wants to invest in a diversified energy policy including renewable energy like wind and other forms of solar power, more efficient automobiles, homes and businesses that would break our nation’s addiction to oil, coal, and atomic power. Nader is firmly opposed to offshore drilling and the environmental destruction it brings. Nader also believes that environmental protection needs to be a priority, weaved into energy, trade, industrial, agricultural, transportation, development, and land use policies and governance. He also promised to ban mountain-top removal mining if elected president, becoming the first presidential candidate to make such a promise.

Sources

• Wikipedia Contributors, Ralph Nader, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 5 August 2009.
• “Nader/Gonzalez on Environmental Issues.” Nader/Gonzalez ’08. Accessed 5 August 2009.