Eco-heroes

Activists

Awards

list by region, includes video and email contact and ways to take action

Youth award, includes Palo Alto student

more historical environmentalists

People

Majora Carter video ***** EJ

Julia Butterfly Hill see movie Resistance On Dec. 10, 1997, a 23-year-old woman named Julia "Butterfly" Hill climbed into a 55-meter (180 foot) tall California Coast Redwood tree. Her aim was to prevent the destruction of the tree and of the forest where it had lived for a millennium. Butterfly Hill worked in the tradition of Mahatma Ghandi, putting her own life on the line to save the life of a forest that was under immediate threat of destruction. The New College of California awarded her an honorary doctorate for her tree sit-activism.

Read Grist interview to learn where Butterfly-Hill derives her inspiration.

In CNN interview Butterfly Hill explains her involvement in transnational environmental movements after being deported by the Ecuadorian government for protesting an oil pipeline through the rainforest.

Gail A. Eisnitz (San Rafael, CA), winner of the Albert Schweitzer Medal for outstanding achievement in animal welfare, is the chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association. Humane Farming Association, P.O. Box 3577, San Rafael, CA 94912

Lois Gibbs is an environmental activist who discovered that her son’s elementary school was built on top of a toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, NY. Upon subsequent investigation she discovered that her entire neighborhood was built on the same dump, known as the Love Canal. Gibbs now runs The Center for Health and Envrionmental Justice. CHEJ can help citizens understand the technical issues and how to get support in fighting environmental injustice.

Van Jones Oakland CA EJ

Van Jones, civil rights leader and founding and executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Jones has made a name for himself linking prisons and environmental injustice, working in a pro-active way to ensure that marginalized inner city youth will not miss out on the next wave of “green capitalism.”

In this short one page article Van Jones argues against the environmental limits idea, but showing that the damage from Hurricane Katrina was not just the force of nature, but the negligence of the U.S. government. Good simple article for considering how environmental justice gets defined.

Interview

Wangari Mathai First environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize (cf LOE interviews)

Penny Newman, CA Executive Director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), a non-profit organization working on environmental justice issues. The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice is one of the oldest and most accomplished environmental justice/health organizations in the nation. CCAEJ’s believes the key to effectively solving community problems lies in bringing the diverse segments of the community together in democratically based, participatory organizations and networks in ways that empower. Penny Newman has gained wide recognition for her work on Environmental Justice issues with the emergence of toxic waste sites in the early 80’s. Her activities at the Stringfellow Acid Pits, California’s top priority Superfund site, led to extensive public policy changes on the state and federal level. Penny’s primary expertise on public participation methods and community organizing has made her a highly sought speaker on environmental health and justice issues.

Ka Hsaw Wa co-founder and executive director of EarthRights International (ERI) and a member of the Karen ethnic nationality, was one of the student leaders in the 1988 Burmese student democracy uprising and has been a human rights activist ever since, working to document and resist human rights and environmental abuses within Burma (and around the world). Ka Hsaw Wa has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, Reebok Human Rights Award, Whitley Fund for Nature/Sting and Trudie Styler Award for Human Rights and the Environment, and the Conde Nast Environmental Award.