Actress Sienna Miller Unveils Documentary on Congo Women

Last spring, British actress Sienna Miller traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to document the lives of the women who are embroiled in the inescapable political conflict of the region. The documentary, titled ‘8 Minutes’, is named after a horrifying statistic: a woman is raped in the Congo every 8 minutes. The journey changed Miller’s life, and the story she tells is undeniably poignant.

From her travelogues on Take Part:

I met a mother who was running away from a group of militia three days earlier with her baby strapped to her back. They both got shot, but survived and thankfully made it into the facility in time. Her boy is so little and the huge bandages on his arms break my heart. Everything about this place breaks my heart.

These people all have stories which they share with me and there is just simply too much to try to grasp. Everyone has lost something, everyone has lost someone. I meet malnourished babies, mothers, fathers, widows and widowers, malaria sufferers, their eyes glazed, victims of rape and pillaging.

They are all here in massive numbers, and their stories are agonizing. I meet a group of about a hundred who have selected an old man to read out on behalf of them all, their list of grievances. They have no homes and no possessions and they need others to recognize they are in crisis.

Read the rest over at Take Part – and watch the documentary in its entirety at Ecorazzi.

Link [Take Part] + [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Take Part

Timberland Celebrates Undiscovered Independent Environmental Activists

How many unsung environmental heroes are there in the world, tirelessly working to improve the health of the planet and all of the living creatures that call it home? In a culture where celebrities are applauded for taking the tiniest of steps while the everyday people doing the real work go mostly unnoticed by the general public, Timberland has dedicated itself to elevating environmental activists onto the global green scene.

In partnership with Changents.com, The Timberland Company is creating a unique consumer engagement engine to help get emerging eco-change agents their big break. The Earthkeepers Movement garners support for these activists on an interactive platform that connects people who are changing the world with the people who can help them do even more.

Meet the 2009 Earthkeepers Heroes – from an eco-photographer to a teacher designing green makeovers for homes with inner city youth – at Changents.com/Earthkeepers.

You can help your favorite Earthkeeper get exposure on national TV for defending the planet! All you have to do is grab a widget and post it to your social networking profile or blog. When you register to join Earthkeepers, you get the opportunity to win some cool prizes, too.

If Timberland gets 100,000 supporters for these Earthkeeper Heroes by November 1st, they’ll unveil a publicity stunt where you can take action to help the winning hero get on TV. Check it out at Changents.com.

Link [Earthkeepers]

Who’s Who in Green: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have been born into one of the most privileged families in America’s history, but like his father and many of his aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings, he wasn’t content to live a selfish life of fame and fortune. Named one of TIME Magazine’s “Heroes of the Environment”, Kennedy is an environmental lawyer, author, activist and defender of the Hudson River and has won many cases upholding the Clean Water Act.

Born in 1954 to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in American history and literature and then went on to law school, obtaining his Masters of Law at Pace University School of Law. In 1984, Kennedy began his storied work with the Riverkeeper organization, suing alleged polluters of the Hudson River.

Kennedy also founded and is current chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization that connects local waterkeeper groups around the country. He has served as Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and co-director of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic since 1987, and is also Senior Attorney for the National Resources Defense Council.

Aside from his three New York Times best-selling books Crimes Against Nature (2004), The Riverkeepers (1997), and Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr: A Biography (1977), Kennedy has written two children’s books and hundreds of articles, mostly on environmental subjects, which have appeared in a wide variety of publications from The Wall Street Journal to Rolling Stone. He also co-hosts a radio show – ‘Ring of Fire’ on Air America – and writes regularly for The Huffington Post.

Kennedy was one of the most outspoken critics of former President Bush’s environmental policies, and his book Crimes Against Nature called Bush “America’s worst environmental president.” The book reveals, in stunning detail, the many ways in which the Bush administration put industry and big business ahead of the health of American citizens, the land and our natural resources.

This is one environmentalist who isn’t pushing ‘small steps’, but rather, encourages taking direct action. He told Grist in a 2004 interview,

Industry wants us reading those books that say “50 things you can do to help the environment” because it distracts you from what you ought to be doing, which is joining an environmental group and voting for politicians who support the environment and fighting against the lobbyists on Capitol Hill. I mean, you can go out and buy a car that gets 40 miles per gallon, but it’s not going to change the planet.

What’s going to change the planet is if we have somebody standing up to the auto-industry lobbyists on Capitol Hill to pass standards that require that every car in this country gets 40 mpg. I try to focus on that part, not on how individuals are incorporating environmental ethics into their lives. I think it’s important for people to do, but to the extent that it’s distracting you from participating in the political process, it’s not a good thing.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Green Score: 79,844

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Who’s Who in Green: Chuck Leavell

Chuck Leavell is a tree farmer and long-time environmentalist, co-founding the environmental website Mother Nature Network (MNN) in 2008. He’s also plays keyboard with The Rolling Stones, and was a member of the Allman Brothers Band.

When he’s not playing with one of the world’s greatest rock bands, Leavell is managing a sustainable tree plantation just outside of Atlanta, acting as a board member of the U.S. Endowment for Forest Communities, overseeing MNN.com, writing books on forestry and speaking to Congress about environmental issues.

Born in Alabama, Leavell was inspired to become a musician at the age of 13 after seeing Ray Charles play, and at just 15 played on a number of records including Freddy North’s soul classic Don’t Take Her, She’s All I’ve Got. Leavell went on to perform with Sea Level, Eric Clapton, The Black Crowes, George Harrison and many more in addition to his 27 years in the Rolling Stones (fun fact: Keith Richards reportedly calls him “Boy Georgia”).

Leavell’s forest was a refuge after long stints on the road, and the musician credits his life on the tree farm with changing his views about the world. He decided he wanted to share his love for nature with as many people as possible, hoping to stir them into action.

After many years of work on behalf of the forests of the world, Leavell saw an opportunity to reach everyday people with an environmental website that spoke about important environmental issues in terms that are appealing and easy to understand. TIME Magazine has since called MNN “the green CNN”.

Leavell told Rockom.net,

Theodore Roosevelt said over 100 years ago at a conference on water issues in Memphis, Tennessee that if we don’t address the challenges that face our natural lands we stand little chance of solving other problems. I think he was right then and he’s right now. I do think that now the “sleeping giant” (America) is finally awakening to these challenges. Maybe not everyone, but I think enough of us now see that it’s inevitable we make changes in our lives, our energy sources and energy consumption, our development models and methodologies and so forth if we want to have a beautiful and safe world to live in.

I believe we also have to face some realities in population growth. It seems to me that the Europeans and some other countries have made more strides in all these matters than we have. But with the new Administration now in place, I’m confident that we will do better. Hey, I’m a grandparent now and I worry about the world our future generations will have to deal with.

Chuck Leavell’s Green Score: 54,009

Photo credit: ChuckLeavell.com

New Zealand Prime Minister to Green Actress: Don’t Quit Your Day Job

A New Zealand actress best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in ‘Whale Rider’ has been publicly mocked by the country’s Prime Minister for her involvement in a Greenpeace campaign. Keisha Castle-Hughes is one of the celebrity faces of the ‘Sign On’ campaign, which is urging the New Zealand government to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020.

PM John Key told a crowd of 500 at a business gathering, “My advice to Keisha is this: stick to acting.”

New Zealand’s Labour department is asking the Prime Minister to apologize for the remark.

From The National Business Review, via Ecorazzi:

In Parliament, Acting Prime Minister Bill English was questioned about the remark.

Labour’s Charles Chauvel asked: “Does the Prime Minister agree with Keisha Castle-Hughes that telling her to `stick to acting’ is really odd, given that he had previouslyencouraged her to make a submission to the Minister for Climate Change Issues on New Zealand’s pollution reduction target?”

[English] said an ad campaign did not replace serious analysis and a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 would seriously hurt the economy and people’s livelihoods.

In a later statement Mr Chauvel said Mr Key should apologise.

“Young New Zealanders, whatever their profession, should never be discouraged from taking a stand on issues they feel passionately about and the Prime Minister’s decision to criticise the Kiwi actress for doing so to an overseas audience was a bad call.”

Castle-Hughes’ classy response was to offer to meet Mr. Key to discuss her concerns, saying that she knows a lot more about the issue than he realizes. Key has since agreed to a meeting.

The subject of celebrities speaking out about important issues is a tricky one. Obviously, no one is going to take Paris Hilton seriously if she suddenly makes demands about, say, food safety laws. But there are those celebrities who are passionate and knowledgeable about certain causes, and many an organization and campaign has received more funds and more exposure due to the participation of famous faces.

“If I’m going to put my name to a campaign as I’ve done with the Greenpeace Sign On campaign, I want to do more than read brochures and fact sheets. I want to see first-hand what I’m fighting for,” said Castle-Hughes. “I haven’t come out of the trip with the knowledge of a scientist, nor have I come out with all the answers on how to solve climate change, but I do have a stronger passion than ever before to see New Zealand do its fair share in this global crisis.”

Link [National Business Review] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Sign On Campaign

95-Year-Old Activist Arrested Trying to Save Kids from Coal Sludge

Last June, Daryl Hannah, Dr. James Hansen and 29 others were arrested in Raleigh County, West Virginia while protesting outside a Massey Energy subsidiary’s coal processing plant. Hannah, an outspoken activist, got a lot of press for her role in the mountaintop removal protest – including here on EarthFirst – but perhaps the more interesting story lies with fellow protester Ken Hechler, a 95-year-old former congressman.

Hechler’s dedication to fighting irresponsible coal mining practices runs deep. In 1966, 144 people died – including more than 100 elementary school students – when a huge collection of coal waste stored on the mountain above their school broke loose and crushed them with a deafening roar. Hechler, a U.S. Representative for coal state West Virginia, was deeply affected by the tragedy, which took place across the Atlantic in Aberfan, South Wales. He knew that such a thing could happen in his area, too.

The following year, some of his friends along Buffalo Creek and other sections of Logan County, which he represented in Congress, warned him that mudslides had made a coal waste dam extremely vulnerable to collapse. Hechler immediately went to work, but his efforts couldn’t stop the Buffalo Creek tragedy.

From Hechler’s op-ed in the West Virginia Gazette:

What I saw, particularly along Buffalo Creek, horrified me. I telephoned Gov. Hulett Smith and urged him to assemble a team of officials to see for themselves the danger confronting the residents, and to figure out what remedial measures were necessary to save people’s lives. I had the disaster at Aberfan very much on my mind.

Gov. Smith said he would ask Finance Commissioner Truman Gore and officials of the State Road Commission and Department of Natural Resources to be ready for a call from me. I also asked two representatives on the Army Corps of Engineers to join the group of state officials to drive down to Buffalo Creek and other threatened areas of Logan County the following morning.

It was raining the next morning, but the officials all showed up. I also asked the local head of Island Creek Coal Co., Richard Herron, to come along, since one of the trouble spots was at Proctor Hollow near Amherstdale on Buffalo Creek.

News reporters from the Logan Banner, The Charleston Gazette and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington ran accounts of our 1967 warning. But nothing was done – and five years later, 125 people were killed in the historic Buffalo Creek gob pile dam collapse.

Hechler was haunted by the deaths, and by the idea that it could happen yet again. In Raleigh County, a huge coal waste impoundment hangs, in Hechler’s words, “like a Sword of Damocles” a few hundred yards up the mountain above Marsh Creek Elementary School.

That’s why he was there that day, willing to get arrested to speak out against the dangers of coal mining once again. Hechler pleaded not guilty in July and is fighting the charges against him.

Read his full op-ed, ‘Ken Hechler: From Activist to Hell-Raiser’ at the West Virginia Gazette.

Link [West Virginia Gazette]
Photo: SludgeSafety.org

Who’s Who in Green: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Long before Julia Louis-Dreyfus became internationally famous for her role as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, the actress made a commitment to sustainability along with her husband and fellow SNL alum Brad Hall. Louis-Dreyfus lives in a green home and is actively involved a long list of environmental organizations including Heal the Bay, Trust for Public Land, the Environmental Media Association and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

While her husband grew up in hippiefied 1970s Santa Barbara, where an oil spill spurred community-wide environmental activism, Louis-Dreyfus told Grist that she never had any one defining experience that turned her on to being green.

I grew up spending a lot of time in Wyoming, hiking and so forth, so I certainly had an early appreciation for the natural world. I also spent years as a kid traveling in the developing worlds. We lived in Sri Lanka for a year, Colombia, Tunisia, where my stepfather was working as a doctor with Project Hope. I was made aware of the idea of being a part of something bigger than you, something bigger than our lives. That impulse is definitely what now drives my environmental work. It’s certainly part of what compelled me to want to live efficiently and build this house — to support solutions to problems that reach well beyond my lifetime.

The expansion of her family was another big motivation. Louis-Dreyfus wanted to make sure that her sons would inherit a healthy world, and in fact, it was the inability to take her firstborn swimming due to toxic waste in the bay near her home that led to her activism with Santa Monica organization Heal the Bay. She’s now a board member.

She also spoke to Grist about the greening of her home, and why she believes that the little things we do to green up our daily lives are so important:

This is a really scary time right now. The war and terrorism in the Middle East, the crisis of leadership in many of these oil-supply countries in the developing world, the crisis of global warming — all these are very clearly tied to energy. I mean, what the hell is going on? Why isn’t our leadership connecting the dots? What’s so frightening about these issues is feeling like you don’t have any control over them. So for me, these lifestyle decisions are a way of having control and feeling less guilty. I walk around feeling a sort of existential guilt all the time; for me this house is a way of feeling less guilty about the universe.

Louis-Dreyfus offered her earnest tips for greener living during an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2008:

The actress has even managed to squeeze some eco-values into her current starring vehicle, The New Adventures of Old Christine. Her character drives a Prius and if you look carefully, you can make out all-natural cleaning products perched on the countertop of the set’s kitchen. They’re small things, but Louis-Dreyfus and her husband believe that making such things everyday sights on television can help Americans accept the concept of sustainability into their own lives.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Green Score: 22,600

Photo credit: Heal the Bay

Who’s Who in Green: Irma Muñoz

Far too often, in places like Los Angeles County, California, Latina mothers have helplessly watched their children play in streets, parks and waterways contaminated with pesticides and other pollutants. They worry about the effects that these toxins could have on their sons and daughters, but it seems like nobody out there is too concerned about cleaning up poor communities, which are disproportionately home to factories and dumping sites. What could they do, when they needed to focus all their energy just on making ends meet?

That’s where Irma Muñoz came in. The community organizer, activist and advocate has dedicated herself to abolishing environmental racism and helping Latina women take action against the injustices they’re faced with on a daily basis. She is the President, Founder and CEO of Mujeres de la Tierra – ‘Women of the Earth’, the nation’s first Latina environmental organization.

“Mujeres gives groups of women a platform so they can go to the City Council, the School Board and be a force to be reckoned with,” Muñoz explained in a 2007 interview with Whole Life Times.

Mujeres de la Tierra has six chapters in the Los Angeles area, and Muñoz takes the time to interact on a personal basis with group members as often as possible. She emphasizes the need to tackle environmental problems that have a daily impact on the local community, helping Latino families achieve small victories that add up in a big way.

Asked by Newsweek what she sees as the biggest environmental issues facing Latinos in the Los Angeles area, she said,

“That’s a tough question, but I would say it’s a lack of access to passive and active recreational opportunities, to green space to play, to parks. Latinos in many urban areas are the new mainstream, but unfortunately that does not translate in the equitable distribution of resources – especially in the “green world.” A lot of power plants and factories are traditionally put in minority neighborhoods, and we suffer as a result of that. What we want are all the things that are necessary to good community health in any urban area: trees and clean air quality.”

Muñoz credits her upbringing in Los Angeles and her father’s encouragement when it comes to her strong sense of responsibility and drive to take action for the good of the community. One of seven daughters, Muñoz was brought up in a home with strong family values and a deep respect for their Mexican heritage and cultural traditions.

Muñoz was named in Hispanic Business Magazine’s 100 Influential Hispanics in October of 2008 and was featured in the November 2008 issue of O, Oprah Magazine. She has also been honored with La Opinion’s Mujeres Destacadas 2007 community award for leadership.

Irma Muñoz’s Green Score: 42,677

Who’s Who in Green: Cate Trotter

The green job possibilities are endless – just ask Cate Trotter, who has the unlikely (and awesome) title of Sexy Sustainability Consultant. That’s right, if you want to know what’s hot, new and green, Trotter is your go-to girl. She’s a green trendspotter and entrepreneur, “working to get people inspired so we can achieve a sustainable future faster.”

Trotter gives up the details about her many green hats on Changents.com:

Insider London’s Cutting-Edge Green Tour, a tour that I devised for the business I founded, showing individuals the latest, most unusual green developments in the city. The tour takes in London’s first five-star green hotel, better-than-fairtrade chocolate, futuristic biodegradable shoes, London’s hydrogen fuel cell bus… this list goes on. Everything from the smallest eco-product to the biggest, healthiest community is covered – pleasantly surprising people at every turn.

Insider Trends, my consultancy that combines my knowledge of what’s great and green with my marketing strategy expertise. I take businesses out and about, giving them powerful first-hand experience of the best initiatives. It means their green work is more likely to be successful, benefiting their business as well as the rest of us who share the planet with them.

Trotter’s Green Tour hits some pretty cool sights in London, so it’s definitely an important stop for any green-leaning travelers headed to the city. Ethical fashion, green architecture, eco food – it’s all on the agenda. Time Out London said “Trotter is a bubbly, engaging guide with a real passion for her subject.”

Taking it upon herself to help spread the word that sustainability is fun, cool, sexy and stylish is what Trotter is all about. Check out her field reports on ‘greenspottings’, vertical gardens and more.

Cate Trotter’s Green Score: 9,128

Who’s Who in Green: Christopher Swain

Some of Christopher Swain’s earliest memories are of the Atlantic Ocean. He has long loved to swim, wade, snorkel, bodyboard and run in the waves. But as an adult, he’s swimming for a cause as often as he swims for pleasure. Swain swims the entire length of dirty waterways like the Hudson, the Charles and the Columbia Rivers to raise awareness about water issues on our planet.

And these are not pleasant, leisurely swims. He’s dodged injury and death many times in the process, surviving collisions with boats, 12-foot waves, lightning storms, class IV+ rapids, giant storage dams, industrial chemicals, nuclear waste, oil slicks, raw sewage, toxic blue-green algae, and repeated Sea Lamprey Eel attacks.

In 2003, Swain became the first person to swim the entire 1,243 mile length of the Columbia River. The purpose of the swim was to raise awareness about dislocated peoples and disrupted ecosystems of the Columbia River basin. His swim is the subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary SOURCE TO SEA: the Columbia River Swim, which received the Environmental Activism and Social Justice Award at the EarthVision Film Festival, and the Most Inspiring Adventure Film Award at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

In April 2009, Swain began a 1000+ mile swim down the Atlantic Coast from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Washington, DC, helping students in over 2,000 classrooms launch projects designed to improve the health of our ocean planet. Swain is taking the swim one segment at a time, and you can follow his progress at Changents.com/ChristopherSwain.

Swain told The Sierra Club,

“If you’re in the business of conservation, you’ve got a responsibility to get outside. You’re not doing your job if you don’t. It’s not about e-mail blasts. It’s about what you can go out there and experience and come back and testify to. If you look at the people who’ve really done anything–John Muir, David Brower, Rachel Carson–you can feel it in their writing. Your credibility is going to come from your experience.”

Want to help Christopher on his journey? Adopt a mile of his swim.

Christopher Swain’s Green Score: 40,254

Who’s Who in Green: Shalini Kantayya

Growing up between Mumbai, India and Brooklyn, New York, it took filmmaker and water rights activist Shalini Kantayya a long time to understand how the survival of cities is dependent on finite natural resources. But soon enough, Kantayya began to feel torn between the materialistic, technologically advanced American society and the world that can’t even get a clean drink of water.

On Changents, Kantayya explains,

“My passion for water rights did not begin with an intellectual study, but as all great adventures of my life begin—with the heart. In 2001, I spent 40-days documenting the religious festival at the convergence of three holy rivers. In awe of the millions of pilgrims giving reverence to the river as a life-giving Goddess, and its contradiction with the environmental impact of the festival on the river, called me to ask questions. As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures – between a culture that values water as a shared sacred source of all life and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold.”

Kantayya began to feel that there were many stories about the struggle for water that just couldn’t be told using words. She committed herself to using media to give a powerful voice to the unheard, founding a production company called 7th Empire Media and beginning work on films that highlight social injustice across the world.

The William D. Fulbright Scholar in documentary film was the only woman to place in the top ten out of 12,000 filmmakers on FOX’s On the Lot, a reality television show created by Steven Spielberg dedicated to the search for Hollywood’s next great director.

“Water is life,” Kantayya said as keynote speaker at Wesleyan University’s 2009 Earth Day celebration. “We are facing a world water crisis. A world in which nations are at war for water and every drop is for sale.”

Kantayya’s recent film, a DROP of LIFE, is a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting water crisis and has been used by the African Water Network as an organizing tool in over 40 villages across Africa. A DROP of LIFE has also screened at festivals around the world, winning Best Short Film at Palm Beach International as well as the Audience Choice Award at the IUOW Film competition.

Check out a preview of a DROP of LIFE:

Kantayya was also nominated for the Reebok Human Rights Award and also received a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies to make a film about political street theater in India.

A DROP of LIFE can be purchased on DVD at AdropofLife.tv. Learn more about Kantayya’s water rights activism at Changents.com/Shalini.

Shalini Kantayya’s Green Score: 20,599

Who’s Who in Green: Woody Harrelson

You won’t find Woody Harrelson living in a huge mansion in Beverly Hills with a garage full of SUVs. It’s not his style. This actor lives perhaps the greenest life of any celebrity around – a simple, easygoing life in a sustainable solar-powered community of 200 on the island of Maui.

Harrelson, a vegan raw foodist who has been arrested in the past for his environmental activism, credits his Cheers co-star Ted Danson with getting him interested in environmental issues. But, the self-described “Hollywood Hippie” has had environmental leanings for as long as he can remember. As a child, Harrelson got beat up by other kids for defending a pile of ants.

As he told SF Gate, “…what really kinda kicked me over into another gear,” he says, “was in 1992 when I read in the L.A. Times — way back in the end of the paper, you’d think it’d be front-page news — that Congress was trying to pass a law to make six million acres available to extractive industries — timber and mining. And it was wilderness, you know? They aren’t making any more of those ancient trees — we’re down to a very small percentage of what there was.”

That spurred a series of changes in his own life, and a desire to help out with green causes. In 1996, Harrelson climbed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with the Rainforest Action Network to protest logging of ancient redwoods. Of the public reaction to this arrest and another one in Kentucky for planting industrial hemp seeds, Harrelson expresses a bit of frustration about the fact that his celebrity tends to outshine the issues themselves. But, he has also embraced the platform that his fame gives him to raise awareness.

Harrelson started a number of projects to help spread the word about sustainability, like launching the website ‘Voice Yourself’ with wife Laura Louie, which is dedicated to spreading the word about sustainable living. He also embarked on a biodiesel and pedal-powered tour of the West Coast with a group of friends to promote the sustainable lifestyle, an experience that was documented in the film ‘Go Further’. An accompanying book, ‘How to Go Further’, aims to show people how easy it can be to live a peaceful green life.

Perhaps you’ve wondered why Harrelson hasn’t yet appeared in any green-themed films. He was just waiting for the right kind of script to come along. Once it did – in the form of eco-thriller 2012 – he finally agreed to mix his two passions. The film will premiere on November 13th.

Woody Harrelson’s Green Score: 49,435

Who’s Who in Green: David Suzuki

David Suzuki is one of the world’s most prominent green leaders and has been named a ‘Hero of the Environment’ by TIME Magazine. The Canadian science broadcaster and environmental activist is well known for his TV and radio series and books about nature and the environment, and has long been host of CBC Television series The Nature of Things.

Suzuki began his career as Canada’s premier young geneticist and award-winning bench scientist, becoming a professor at the young age of 33, but ultimately found himself drawn to environmentalism. He made a second career for himself of creating nature documentaries for television and radio, and The Nature of Things – which began its run in 1979 – has aired in 50 countries around the world.

But Suzuki is more than a beloved television host – he’s also a long time climate change activist, working to reverse global warming and protect the Earth. He co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, which works to “find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us”, and has also been a prominent proponent of renewable energy and sustainable living.

His passion for global warming activism has done as much for his image as a green guru as his hosting duties. In recent years, Suzuki has spoken out again and again for the need to act on climate change, controversially urging college students to find a way to jail political leaders for ignoring science in February of 2008.

Suzuki has been honored with Canada’s most prestigious award, the Order of Canada Officer as well as Order of British Columbia and UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for science. He has been nominated as one of the top ten greatest Canadians by viewers of CBC, finishing fifth – and the four Canadians ahead of him on that list are all dead. Suzuki is also the recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award, presented by the Museum of Science in Boston.

David told Natural Life Magazine why he feels it’s important to target children with environmental education:

The lesson to me is that adults don’t want to change. People – especially people in positions of power – have invested a tremendous amount of effort and time to get to where they are. They really don’t want to hear that we’re on the wrong path, that we’ve got to shift gears and start thinking differently. And I understand that. After you’ve worked for a little nest egg, you don’t want to change.

Children haven’t invested time or effort into the status quo. They’re completely open. Now the problem is that children are going to take another 20 or 30 years to replace us and we don’t have 20 or 30 years. But I feel the one vulnerability adults have is their children. Even the most rabid right-wing conservative bastard loves his children and if you love your children you are vulnerable. If a child says, “Dad (or Mum), I’m really worried. What kind of a future am I going to have? What are you doing to help my future?”, parents have to respond. You have no choice. So the hope in this kind of endeavour is that children singing it around the house are going to effect mum and dad.

David Suzuki’s Green Score: 67,849

Environmentalists Clash Over Wildlife Conservation vs. Renewable Energy

It was bound to happen eventually. After all, it’s easy to understand why wildlife conservation activists have been quietly worrying about the impact that building new renewable energy infrastructure could have on animal habitats. Meanwhile, proponents of renewable energy feel that if we don’t get solar panels, wind turbines, power lines and other means of clean, green energy installed quickly, all of us – including the animals conservationists are trying to protect – will be much worse off.

It’s come down to environmentalist versus environmentalist, with each group passionately defending and advocating for their respective causes. The question now is, can they work together to ensure that wildlife is protected, but we don’t dally too much in moving forward on renewable energy?

The New York Times has the details:

The conflict began playing out almost a decade ago in places like Cape Cod, Mass., where a plan to place 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound has pitted energy-conscious environmentalists against local residents who fear harm to aquatic life and the view.

It has spread west to Mojave-area locales like flatland near the Ivanpah Valley, 130 miles northeast of here, where a proposal to install three clusters of 50,000 solar mirrors has prompted anxiety over the fate of endangered tortoises.

Terry Frewin, a local Sierra Club representative, said he had tough questions for state regulators. “Deserts don’t need to be sacrificed so that people in L.A. can keep heating their swimming pools,” Mr. Frewin said.

In California, many of these conservationists have joined an advisory group to help state regulators determine where renewable energy zones should be created. California is in a particular hurry to find renewable energy sites since a 2006 law requires utilities to produce 20 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

That will mean rapid construction of power plants and power lines, which has environmentalists understandably worried about preserving the habitats of endangered species and the state’s beautiful natural lands.

The good news is, it’s likely that the two groups will come together. The trade-offs are difficult and both sides will be forced to make concessions they’re not happy with – but in the end, it will be worthwhile.

Link [The New York Times]

Who’s Who in Green: Vandana Shiva

Physicist, ecologist, activist and author Vandana Shiva is often called one of the world’s top environmental leaders and thinkers. The Indian food-sovereignty activist is an outspoken critic of industrialized globalized agriculture and has dedicated much of her life’s work to uncovering the devastating human and environmental impacts of corporate international trade agreements. Her books include Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis.

Shiva was one of the most influential figures of India’s environmental movement and has played a major role in the international ‘ecofeminism’ movement. Shiva believes that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating a system of farming in India that is more centered around women. She was a co-chair of the 1991 World Congress on Women and the Environment and more recently launched a global movement called Diverse Women for Diversity.

One of Vandana Shiva’s most ardent causes is the introduction of genetically modified crops to Indian farmers by big corporations like Monsanto, which have led to thousands of farmers committing suicide when the experimental crops failed. The seeds are engineered not to reproduce, so the farmers have to continually buy more every year, putting new financial strain on people who are already struggling.

Shiva believes that corporate seeds aren’t about increasing productivity, they’re about increasing debt. That’s why she set up the Navdanya movement to counter corporate seed control in 1991. Navdanya distributed seeds to farmers and taught them how to go organic, creating what she calls “an alternative to corporate destruction”.

Opposing monoculture in the fields is far from Shiva’s only cause. She helped build the Movement for Retail Democracy to oppose monopolies in the commercial distribution of food, fighting to keep Wal-Mart out of India. She also heads up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, an independent research institute that she founded in 1982 and has argued on behalf of the wisdom of many traditional practices as a superior alternative to a life ruled by corporate money-mongering.

Yes Magazine interviewed Shiva in 2003, asking her what keeps her so energized and alive.

Well, it’s always a mystery, because you don’t know why you get depleted or recharged. But, this much I know. I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential.

And I’ve learned from the Bhagavad Gita and other teachings of our culture to detach myself from the results of what I do, because those are not in my hands. The context is not in your control, but your commitment is yours to make, and you can make the deepest commitment with a total detachment about where it will take you. You want it to lead to a better world, and you shape your actions and take full responsibility for them, but then you have detachment. And that combination of deep passion and deep detachment allows me always to take on the next challenge because I don’t cripple myself, I don’t tie myself in knots. I function like a free being. I think getting that freedom is a social duty because I think we owe it to each other not to burden each other with prescription and demands. I think what we owe each other is a celebration of life and to replace fear and hopelessness with fearlessness and joy.

Vandana Shiva’s Green Score: 85,689

Photo credit: Benjamin Root via Treehugger

Bill McKibben: I’ll Get Arrested to Stop the Burning of Coal

Coal is killing the planet. It’s as simple as that – so it’s easy to understand why 350.org founder Bill McKibben is willing to risk getting arrested in order to participate in a major act of civil disobedience at a coal-fired power plant next month.

McKibben, who is the scholar in residence at Middlebury College and has written a long list of well-respected books on the environment, plans to join demonstrators to protest coal’s role in global warming and the rampant use of this dirty fuel in America and all over the world. He explained to Yale 360 why it’s so important to keep this issue at the forefront of our leaders’ thoughts.

Coal provides 50 percent of our electricity. That juice comes from hundreds of expensive, enormous plants, each one of them owned by rich and powerful companies. Shutting these plants down — or getting the companies to install expensive equipment that might be able to separate carbon from the exhaust stream and sequester it safely in some mine somewhere — will be incredibly hard. Investors are planning on running those plants another half-century to make back their money — the sunk costs involved are probably on the scale of those lousy mortgages now bankrupting our economy.

McKibben explains why this march and other acts of civil disobediance against coal are so essential – not to force the Obama administration to do something they don’t want to do but to give them the political space they need to act on their convictions.  When it comes down to it, McKibben says, the bottom line is we’ve got to get the idea that coal is bad stuck in people’s minds.

When civil disobedience works, it’s because it demonstrates some willingness to bear a certain amount of pain for some larger end — a way to say, “Coal is bad enough that I’m willing to get arrested.” Which is not the biggest deal on earth, but if you’re going to be asking the Chinese, say, to start turning off their coal-fired plants, you can probably keep a straighter face if you’ve made at least a mild sacrifice yourself.

Read McKibben’s whole article over at Yale 360 – and if you’re interested in joining the march, check out this letter by McKibben and author Wendell Berry over at Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Here’s a PSA filmed by famed climate scientist James Hansen about the march:

Learn more about coal’s effects on the environment at Coal-is-Dirty.com.

Link [Yale 360] + [Chesapeake Climate Action Network]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Who’s Who in Green: Wen Bo, Chinese Environmental Activist

Environmentalism hasn’t traditionally been very popular in China. Granted, it’s certainly more widespread than it was just a few years ago – but being an environmental activist in a Communist country that suppresses criticism and sacrifices its environment for industry can be very lonely. Wen Bo, a noted Chinese environmentalist, can attest to that.

Many people in China still don’t see the need to protect the environment, says Wen, adding, “Even when I was a student putting up posters for a campus environmental group, people would look at me strangely. They couldn’t understand the need for a club that wasn’t for Ping-Pong or photography.”

Lack of significant support from classmates didn’t keep Wen from pushing forward, though – he’s the head of China operations for California-based Pacific Environment Group, and is one of the country’s best-known environmental activists. Wen allocates grants to grassroots environmental organizations in China, provided by a charity called Global Greengrants Fund. Wen has also bravely spoken out against China’s plan to build nuclear reactors without local consultation, calling the idea “irrational and undemocratic”.

Inspired to enter the environmental movement as a teenager when he watched the televised tactics of an international pressure group, Wen embarked on an environmental crusade, setting up Greenpeace’s office in Beijing in 2000 and then moving into international work.

What Wen sees today in China is hope, as a new generation of young people graduating from college begins to demand better from their government. He believes that young people in China, armed with information from the web and undaunted by the shadow of the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, are opening their eyes to environmentalism and why it’s so important.

Wen spoke to CNN in June of 2008 about his projects in China and elsewhere around the world.

CNN: How would you describe China’s environmental grassroots movement?

Wen: I think … we have come about over 10 years and, you know, during this period of time, there were lots of obstacles, for example, the government has never been, never really been supportive to grass-roots and non-governmental efforts.

But, many organizations are able to win the sympathy and support from many government officials; from the central government, from the local government, as well. The very… existence of these environmental organizations alone proves that they have managed to survive and accumulate the manpower and the resources for them to perform better, and they have also been able to recruit a large number of volunteers.

Many organizations, they are not membership-based but they are able to have a large number of volunteers. So, a lot of people check the Web site; write to these groups and some simply to report to these organizations of a local environment problem.

They no longer blindly just go to the environmental protection agency or go to the government in seek of answers. But, they now turn to the environmental organizations to find solutions, to find the opportunities for them to get involved. And also actively participate in some of the efforts.

It’s a sign of that there is a channel; there is a way for ordinary citizens to participate in the efforts to change the environmental problems in China.

Named an ‘Eco Hero’ by TIME Magazine in 2006, Wen has helped to pave the way for this new generation of Chinese citizens who are beginning to push for better environmental standards. And, while China still has a very long way to go to tackle its many environmental problems – from water pollution to smog to desertification – activists like Wen allow the rest of the world to see a silver lining… better things to come.

Wen Bo’s Green Score: 42,478

Daryl Hannah Discusses Jail Time for Defending LA Garden

Daryl Hannah is a green celebrity that really lives up to the hype. She’s not one of those celebs who claim eco-friendly habits to look good and then turn around and fly in private jets all over the world and drive 13 different gas-guzzling SUVs. On the contrary, Hannah lives on a sustainable farm in Colorado, drives a car powered by biodiesel and has joined activism efforts to save whales, trees and an urban farm in LA.

For the latter effort, Hannah was rewarded with jail time. She’s speaking out about it now to the UK’s Sunday Mail (via Ecorazzi):

She was arrested in June 2006 after chaining herself to a walnut tree to prevent the bulldozing of urban farmland in South Central Los Angeles.

She said: “For 14 years people had been growing their food there and the land was being bulldozed to make another warehouse.  I had not planned to stay – I didn’t even have a sleeping bag – but when I found out about their plight I couldn’t leave.  I stayed for three weeks and when they got their eviction notice I decided I would lay my body on the line. This was something of great beauty and inspiration that was worth fighting for. I knew being arrested was a possibility but I decided to stay and I think I was in jail for eight or 10 hours.

It was not pleasant – the cell was tiny – but I was not worried for myself, I was concerned about what was happening at the farm. I would absolutely do it again, in a heartbeat. I was not in any way ashamed.

I was proud of what I did. Sometimes you have to say that something like this is insane and you have to put yourself on the line to try to stop it.”

It’s always refreshing to see celebrities put their vanity aside and do something because they truly feel it is the right thing to do. It’s sad that the farm got bulldozed, but Hannah and the other activists who fought for it did their best.

Link [Sunday Mail] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Dhlovelife.com

Who’s Who in Green: Dr. James Hansen

No one has been more vocal about the need to address climate change than Dr. James Hansen. The NASA climate scientist’s testimony to Congress in the 1980s brought global warming into the spotlight, alerting the world to just how serious of a problem it really is. Since then, he has continued to advocate swift action on global warming, courting controversy at times but always staying true to his message.

There’s no question that Hansen has been incredibly influential. Despite pressure from colleagues who disagree with his urgent warnings, Hansen has never faltered in articulately communicating just how dangerous global warming is, how it’s going to affect the world and what we need to do to stop it.

As a college student in Iowa, Hansen trained in physics and astronomy, and he later focused his research on trying to understand the climate change on earth that would result from man-made changes to the atmosphere. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996, and he is now head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Among his specialties are interpreting satellite data and developing global numerical models for the purpose of understanding current climate trends, as well as predicting the impact of humans on climate.

In a June 2008 article at The Huffington Post, Hansen warned that “tipping points are near” for global warming, 20 years to the day after his famed 1988 congressional testimony.

What is at stake? Warming so far, about two degrees Fahrenheit over land areas, seems almost innocuous, being less than day-to-day weather fluctuations. But more warming is already “in the pipeline,” delayed only by the great inertia of the world ocean. And climate is nearing dangerous tipping points. Elements of a “perfect storm,” a global cataclysm, are assembled.

Climate can reach points such that amplifying feedbacks spur large rapid changes. Arctic sea ice is a current example. Global warming initiated sea ice melt, exposing darker ocean that absorbs more sunlight, melting more ice. As a result, without any additional greenhouse gases, the Arctic soon will be ice-free in the summer.

More ominous tipping points loom. West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are vulnerable to even small additional warming. These two-mile-thick behemoths respond slowly at first, but if disintegration gets well under way, it will become unstoppable. Debate among scientists is only about how much sea level would rise by a given date. In my opinion, if emissions follow a business-as-usual scenario, sea level rise of at least two meters is likely within a century. Hundreds of millions of people would become refugees, and no stable shoreline would be reestablished in any time frame that humanity can conceive.

Hansen boldly spoke out in 2005 and 2006 to the media about attempts by NASA administrators to influence his public statements about the causes of global warming. He claimed that NASA public relations staff were ordered to review his public statements and interviews, and said the White House edited climate-related press releases to make global warming seem less threatening. Though he was accused of having political motivation for making these statements, since he was no supporter of former President Bush, Hansen maintains that he’s actually a “middle-of-the-road conservative”.

In 2008, Hansen’s name was in the headlines once again after he controversially called for putting oil company executives on trial “for high crimes against humanity and nature”, saying the oil chiefs were actively spreading doubt and misinformation about global warming for their own financial benefit. Hansen also testified on behalf of the activists who defaced the Kingsnorth power station in Kent, England – and the activists were acquitted.

There are few people who can claim to have done as much for global warming awareness as Dr. Hansen, save perhaps Al Gore. It seems clear, standing now on the cusp of serious climate change consequences, that Dr. Hansen will go down in history as the man who tried to warn us all.

Dr. James Hansen’s Green Score: 97,665

Photo credit: Oscar Hidalgo for The New York Times

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