First, how can concerned citizens invoke the mission statements and declared principles of NGOs to ensure that they protect the ecosystem and public health in practice? Second, what can be done to ensure that regular meetings of these organizations be held at convenient times and places (e. g., in the evenings and with easy access to public transportation to facilitate maximum participation) rather than at 8 or 9 am in a remote office building? Third, what can be done to question the extreme discrepancies in the wages and salaries of senior executives and lower-echelon staffers in these organizations? Fourth, what can be done to protect whistleblowers who might recognize that corporate donations are compromising the organization’s integrity but are fearful of reprisals? Fifth, how can the tax-exempt status of an environmental NGO be utilized as a pressure point to induce it to abide by its declared principles? Finally, what can be learned through a review of Rachel Carson’s role in supporting two of the world’s largest environmental NGOs (the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy)?