rocktheearth.org

In 2001, environmental attorney, Marc Ross, was contemplating how to best combine his two primary loves, music and the environment, into a vehicle that would create positive, measurable impacts on both the environment and society as a whole. Having formerly been an environmental litigator representing both the public and private sectors (including Assistant Counsel to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), Mr. Ross had the opportunity to experience environmental litigation from both industry and the public perspectives. It became all too clear that the deck was stacked heavily in favor of industry and the more powerful the industry, the less likely the public would have adequate recourse or remedies to prevent or correct corporate environmental transgressions. Furthermore, through his work in industry, Mr. Ross became familiar with numerous industry groups which provided individual corporations the opportunity to effectively litigate and lobby for particular changes to environmental laws and regulations at very little cost to the individual corporations.

During a concert in the midnight moonlight at the base of Mt. Shasta in California, it dawned on Mr. Ross that the music industry could form an equally formidable organization if concerned stakeholders within the music industry, joined together with each other and with their fans to advocate for more stringent environmental regulations or to challenge environmental conditions or proposals by industry. Further, such an organization could also assist the public by providing pro bono legal and technical assistance to those who could least afford such service, but who were directly impacted by environmental conditions or who were victims of environmental racism. The key would be to find competent, experienced, passionate and pragmatic environmental professionals to lend experience and credibility to the organization. Starting in the summer of 2001, Mr. Ross began to recruit music fans with experience in the areas of environmental law, environmental sciences and consulting, fundraising, marketing, media relations, and internet technology to form Rock the Earth.

Rock the Earth was incorporated in the State of Pennsylvania in February of 2003. Rock the Earth was reincorporated in the State of Colorado in December 2004.