Six Eco-Warriors From Around the World

Ever since the release of Al Gore’s sobering documentary about our planet’s future, An Inconvenient Truth , there’s been no escaping the fact that we need to focus our efforts on cleaning up our land, sea, and air in order to ensure that we have a future here at all. Fortunately, all around the world, environmental activists have been using a variety of innovative methods to do their part to clean up the Earth for decades, long before most of us knew how severe the problem really is. You may not be aware of these six international heroes of the conservation movement—but it’s time for a proper introduction. Raise money for these stories and other stories.

In 1971, John Francis witnessed an oil spill beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. More than 800,000 gallons of oil spilled into the ocean, killing 6,000 seabirds. For Francis, this was a life-altering moment: he decided that instead of relying on oil to use cars, he would walk everywhere instead. Several months later, on his 27th birthday, he made an even bigger social statement by taking a vow of silence.

For 22 years, Francis walked thousands of miles on his own across the U.S., attracting attention wherever he went. He pantomimed and wrote to communicate with others, always stressing the importance of conserving the Earth’s environment, and founded a nonprofit organization called Planetwalk , dedicated to raising awareness of conservation issues. He obtained a college degree, and then a Ph.D in land resources, all without speaking a word. Finally breaking his silence in 1990, Francis took a job as project manager of the United States Coast Guard Oil Pollution Act Staff, where he wrote regulations to help prevent and manage future oil spills. He was also recruited by the United Nations to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador for their Environmental Program. Now 63, Francis has published a book about his traveling adventures—and, while he now drives a hybrid when necessary, he still hits the road by foot for hours every day, just like old times.

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai of Kenya is nicknamed the “Tree Mother of Africa” because of her integral role in creating the Green Belt Movement in 1977.  Maathai established the organization as a way to protect Kenya from soil erosion by planting new seedlings throughout the country. The program trains rural women in forestry and other useful skills, allowing them to help the environment by planting and tending to trees while earning income that can sustain themselves and their families. Since the program’s start, more than 30,000 women have helped to plant over 30 million trees, making a huge positive impact on both the environment and the economy in Kenya. Though you may not have heard of her, Dr. Maathai’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed—in 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her work to conserve Kenya’s environment.


China is the world’s worst polluter, with more than 700,000 citizens dying from avoidable environmental causes each year. China isn’t the only country affected by its environmental hazards, though—the country’s pollution can cause climate change that may put the whole world at risk. Though speaking out against such policies can be dangerous in China, some residents are standing up to protest their country’s environmental destruction—led by one woman, Wang Yongchen .

Wang, a radio journalist, founded a nonprofit organization called Green Earth Volunteers in 1996, which provides environmental education and wilderness trips to local children, helping them to grow passionate about the natural world. Today, the organization has more than 50,000 members who are helping to take a stand against China’s dangerous environmental policies. Wang is also working with the media to influence public policy, hosting monthly meetings of journalists to discuss the country’s environmental issues, and lobbying for the passage of laws that will help keep China—and the world—a safe place for all of us.


An oil company is a pretty tough competitor for two men to take on—but when Texaco began dumping almost 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling wastewater into the Ecuadorian Amazon, Pablo Fajardo Mendoza and Luis Yanza knew they needed to stand up for their community. The pollution had devastated the environment, killing off countless species, deforesting more than 2 million acres of trees, and contaminating the region’s water supply. Incidence of cancer and other diseases has skyrocketed in the region—the 30,000 people in the area are seven times more likely to have cancer than the rest of the Ecuadorian population.

Texaco (later acquired by Chevron) claimed that the environmental mess wasn’t their fault, but Yanza and Fajardo took action against the oil giant, filing a class-action lawsuit against the company requesting a full cleanup of the area. Fajardo, a former farmer, even obtained a law degree to help fight the case himself.

Yanza and Fajardo’s lives haven’t been easy since taking a stand: they receive frequent death threats, and Fajardo’s brother, a member of the legal team was murdered, but they still persist with the fight. Last year, the two men were awarded a Goldman Fund Environmental Prize , one of the world’s most prestigious honors for environmental activists—but they’re still hoping for an even bigger prize when the case is finally decided.


Alleyne Regis uses a unique method to raise awareness of environmental and social issues in the Caribbean: radio soap operas. For three years, Regis produced a radio show for residents of the island of St. Lucia called Changing Tides , a serial drama that used gripping plotlines to spotlight issues like AIDS and the South Pacific ecosystem. The show, which was sponsored by a conservation group called RARE , had more than 200,000 listeners, and they paid attention to the social messages: 32 percent said that they had stopped littering because of what they’d learned on the program. Now, Regis is building up an even bigger audience: he’s working with the nonprofit group Population Media Center on a new socially-conscious radio program that airs in nine Caribbean countries. Who knew soap operas could be such a good influence?