Pope had worked with the Sierra Club for more than 30 years, and has served as a board member for other organizations, including the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, and Public Interest Economics Inc. He has served as Political Director for Zero Population Growth. He was a Peace Corpsvolunteer in India from 1967 to 1969.[4]
In 2008, Pope expressed support for the Pickens Plan, an effort by T. Boone Pickens to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Pickens, a billionaire oil investor, Republican, and financier of conservative causes, took Pope to his ranch in west Texas, where Pickens and a group of investors plan to invest $12 billion in wind turbines.[5]
In January 2009, Pope had announced his intention to step down from the post of executive director, effective upon the hiring of a successor.
Pope's first book, Sahib: An American Misadventure in India,[7] was published by Liveright in 1972.
In 2004 he published a book with Paul Rauber called Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress.[8]
^Pope, Carl (1972). Sahib: An American Misadventure in India. Liveright. ISBN0-87140-553-9.
^Pope, Carl; Rauber, Paul (May 4, 2006). Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress. Sierra Club Books. ISBN1-57805-125-8.