Earth Focus: Wangari Maathai

Journalist Mark Hertsgaard interviews 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai. The Honorable Professor Maathai is the first woman, the first Kenyan and the first environmentalist to win the prize. She was selected for her role in founding the Green Belt Movement, which for nearly 30 years has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa. She also won acclaim for her campaign to fight deforestation by planting 30 million trees in Africa, making her Nobel Peace Prize the first to acknowledge environmentalism as a means of building peace through pre-empting conflict over increasingly scarce resources. She is Kenyan by nationality, a biologist by training, an activist by occupation and now a member of the government in Kenya as Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Mark
• Hertsgaard
• Wangari
• Maathai
• Nobel
• Peace
• Prize
• Africa
• Environment
• green
• belt
• kenya
• ecology
• sustainable

[mrembo123]

I love you Wangari!

[shdow25]

A true world leader.Mother nature has a voise.Thank you Dr.Wangari!!!

[giftedwoman777]

I have nothing but respect for this great woman. She is a prime example of the GREAT MOTHER and her powerful attributes, repairing the damage done to this earth and nurturing and feeding her children. Feminine energy is soo powerful!

[zorestro]

I had to cry when I watched this, listening to her words is so deeply moving.

[Eznam]

some people will never see beyond tribalism. What this woman is trying to do and has done is beyond tribalism, you and me. Kudos to Dr. Maathai, you made me so proud to be an African when you came to The OHIO State University.

[maddydb]

Mark, I love your books. I read Under Eagles Shadow three times so far. All I can say is that you are a great American. Stay warm and healthy.

[muskussliebe]

Damn I can't wait for women to get full power back again, they're obviously more intelligent, and compassionate then men! If we continue to have even a slight bit of more men in charge, the world goes to shit, it's sad, but true. Bring back matriarchy! Matriarch pride!

[Africanmistress29]

Dr. Maathai is an inspiration.

[adikiny]

The problem in Africa IS NOT ABOUT NATURAL RESOURCES. It's about black NEO-COLONIALISM. Every people in Africa have got their own NATURAL RESOURCE and SPACES yet Wangari Maathai seems to want to manage the RESOURCES and lands of other natives. For example, Mount Kirinyaga(Kenya) and the lands around it belong to the Kikuyu. That's where the Kikuyu should exercise their powers, not elsewhere. Wangari Maathai is on an EXPANSIONIST mission.

[vistavision2]

A true leader of mankind; God Bless you.