Enemies of Energy: Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Enemies of Energy, a research report created for the Capital Research Center. The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy.

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The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit that claims its public pressure campaigns and lawsuits have “secured protections for more than 740 species and more than half a billion acres of wildlife habitat.” Their motto is “Saving life on Earth.” [i]

Almost the only species CBD hasn’t tried to protect is the one that they belong to. None of the large American anti-energy NGOs are as obsessed with population control as the Center for Biological Diversity.

One CBD web page posts this question: “Why do we need to talk about population and sustainability?”  Their answer implies that people are a form of pollution: [ii]

There are more than 8 billion people on the planet, and we’re adding 227,000 more every day. We’ve already witnessed the devastating effects of runaway human population growth on biodiversity: Species abundant in North America just two centuries ago — from the woodland bison of West Virginia and Arizona’s Merriam’s elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, passenger pigeon and Puerto Rico’s Culebra parrot — have been wiped out by growing human numbers.

Most biologists agree that we’re in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event; species are disappearing at the fastest rate since dinosaurs roamed the planet. This time, though, it isn’t because of geologic or cosmic forces — it’s because of our unsustainable human population growth and overconsumption. It’s clear that these issues need to be addressed before it’s too late. ^[iii]

This statement is from the “About” page for CBD’s “Endangered Species Condoms” project. The Center for Biological Diversity claims the project has distributed “more than 1 million” of the birth control devices to “all 50 U.S. states” and produced an “online resource library with more than 100 published papers on the connection between population pressure and threats to wildlife. . .” ^[iv]

The condom project is either creepy or comical, depending upon a reader’s sense of humor and decorum. Examples of the package messages include “Hump smarter. . . save the snail darter” and “Safe intercourse saves the dwarf seahorse.” [v]

Weirder still was a March 2019 newsletter in which CBD’s population and sustainability director encouraged male sports fans to gather with friends for group vasectomies during the March Madness college basketball tournament. She wrote:^[vi]

March Madness is upon us. And as all the number one seeds prepare for the tournament, it’s time to think about whether you want your own seeds to advance. Put less punnily, it’s time for all the male sports fans out there who don’t want (more) children to think about scheduling a vasectomy.[vii]

Unsurprisingly, the condom project also includes pages promoting abortion access. [viii]

CBD’s family planning messaging doesn’t explicitly denounce the decision to have children, but it’s clear they are implicitly trying to push young Americans in that direction. Examples include:

• Each additional child increases your carbon legacy by 20 times what you could save over a lifetime of recycling, switching to low-voltage light bulbs and driving a hybrid car — combined.^[ix]
• When people have the tools, education and ability to choose if and when to have children, they tend to choose smaller families, which is healthier for mothers and children as well as the planet.^[x]
• Human population growth — along with our reckless overconsumption — is driving the sixth mass extinction crisis. But we can still save wildlife, by choosing to stop hogging the planet.^[xi]

In addition to reducing the human population, CBD is also obsessed with cutting down on cows. CBD’s “Grazing Facts” project is in practice promoting a public policy war against American cattle ranchers. CBD argues for a “substantial reduction in beef and dairy consumption and production,” and a switchover to “plant-based alternatives.” [xii]

A public relations war against childbirth and cheeseburgers is wildly outside of the mainstream of American culture. But the Center for Biological Diversity has used this agenda to become one of the largest players within the mainstream of the American “environmental” (i.e.: anti-energy) movement. CBD reported $45.7 million in total revenue in 2024, the richest year on record, $12 million more than they reported in 2013, and more than double their total fundraising from just five year earlier. ^[xiii]

In most other ways, the Center for Biological Diversity isn’t much different from the other anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report. They have opposed the continued use of all hydrocarbon fuels and nuclear power and to this end have also endorsed the neo-socialist Green New Deal. [xiv]

But as covered in the first section, hydrocarbon fuels and nuclear power both built and sustain our modern civilization, and opposing the use of them is implicitly opposition to human flourishing. To be anti-energy is to be anti-human.

Most of the largest American anti-energy NGOs are obviously not honest about this connection. They try instead to promote the false idea that unreliable, weather dependent power systems such as wind and solar can replace hydrocarbons and nuclear power, and that this substitution will not meaningfully damage our way of life. Whatever else may be said of CBD’s odd, anti-human and anti-energy agenda, they’re at least more honest than their peers about the inseparable correlation between the two.

PDF hyperlink to full report

[i] “Species.” Center for Biological Diversity. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/

[ii] “About.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/about.html

[iii] “About.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/about.html

[iv] “About.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/about.html

[v] “Vintage Condom Packages.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/old_packages.html

[vi] “Pop X, No. 100.” Center for Biological Diversity. March 15, 2019. Accessed March 17. 2026. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pop_x/pop_x_issue_100.html

[vii] “Pop X, No. 100.” Center for Biological Diversity. March 15, 2019. Accessed March 17. 2026. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pop_x/pop_x_issue_100.html

[viii] “Top Five Reasons to Support Reproductive Rights.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/reprorights/

[ix] “Top Five Reasons to Support Reproductive Rights.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/reprorights/

[x] “Top Five Reasons to Support Reproductive Rights.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/reprorights/

[xi] “Endangered Species Condoms: a project of the Center for Biological Diversity.” Center for Biological Diversity | Endangered Species Condoms project. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/

[xii] “Grazing Facts.” Center for Biological Diversity | Grazing Facts. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://grazingfacts.com/

[xiii] Center For Biological Diversity Inc. (EIN: 27-3943866). ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/273943866

[xiv] “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://earthworks.org/resources/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/