Let's take a look at 5 of the many, many women making a difference for the greater good of the health of this planet. Through research, activism, conservation, and spreading a message of hope these 5 ladies are doing their part to make the Earth a better place.
Jane Goodall: When I think about someone who has done amazing work for this planet through conservation, research, and teaching awareness, Jane Goodall is the first person that comes to mind. She remains hopeful for Earth and the inspired, determined, feisty, and no-nonsense youngsters pushing for change to be made- unafraid to tackle big kahunas at summit meetings and conferences and taking on their own governments to incite change. Goodall is here for it and supports it wholeheartedly. She, herself, has worked with chimps for 50 years and established an institute that has researched and been committed to the conservation of the Gombe chimp communities for the past 60 years. In 1994 she started Tacare, which is a community-based conservation initiative that includes bringing fertility back to affected farmlands without the use of chemicals, taking on water management, and aiding in reforestation. This year, today actually, Jane Goodall: The Hope will be premiering on Disney+, Hulu, and the National Geographic Channel at 9/8c and discusses what she has been up to recently, and her switch from scientist to activist. Goodall sums thing up well when she says, "we tend to think of ourselves as separate from the natural world. In fact we are part of it. As we destroy more wilderness areas, we are stealing our children's future."
Greta Thunberg: From a well-known name, to a name that has newly entered into the climate change and activist arena, Thunberg was only 16 when awarded TIME's person of the year in 2019. This young Swedish girl with Asperger Syndrome finds being different to be a super power, challenging what people expect her to be capable of on all sorts of levels- young, female, and with a disability. But none of that seems to be slowing her down one bit. After winning a climate change essay contest at age 15, she began protesting later that same year, disappointed with the response of government officials to the rapid escalation of climate change. Her school strike for climate has inspired students from around the globe to do the same, with over 20,000 joining in back in December of 2018. In 2019 she spent two weeks on a racing yacht from Sweden to New York in order to attend and address a UN climate conference, as she refused to fly in order to keep her carbon footprint low. Here she confronted governments and big businesses for not moving fast enough in cutting carbon emissions and for failing young people while simultaneously relying on them for answers to this pressing issue (which both governments and businesses also seem proceed to dismiss when presented to them).
Sylvia Earle: Doing her part as an oceanographer and marine biologist to help bring awareness to the plight of our oceans and the effects of such on the planet as a whole. Known for her work with algae, proponent of SCUBA in its early stages, and essential in developing deep dive submersibles, Earle knows her way around a body of water and has seen first hand what we're facing. She is on a mission to protect our oceans through her focus on what she calls "hope spots." Less than 6% of the ocean is protected in any sort of capacity, many not enough, and these hope spots give us a way to hone in on important areas in the great, expansive amount of water. These places are important because of their abundance or diversity of species and the presence of an unusual or representative species, habitats, or ecosystems. They're also picked based on the potential they have to reverse the damage from negative human impacts, their populations of rare or threatened species, the presence of natural processes (large migrations or spawning grounds for example), or they have important historical, cultural, or spiritual values. Her spotlight on the consequences of over-fishing and pollution on the worlds oceans is imperative as the oceans and the creatures that live in them are a gigantic resource that we could be in danger of losing.
Hilda Nakabuye: Another youngster, this time from Uganda, the 22 year old founded Uganda's branch of Fridays for Future and also participates in the school strike. Fridays for Future organizes and helps others find climate strikes near them so others can participate. After being forced to miss 3 months of school due to climate change, unusually heavy rains washed away her family's crops followed by an extreme drought that caused them to sell their land and livestock, and realizing in 2017 that climate change was to blame for her grandmother's inability to grow food, Nakabuye decided it was time to speak out. Similar to Thunberg, Nakabuye took on her government and then went larger, stating "we are a generation of scared people, but very ambitious ones." And from her speech addressing mayors from over 90 cities world wide at the Copenhagen Summit, "you too can make a decision now. If you are willing to join the youth in this fight, I want you to make a promise by standing up right now. Thank you. And for those of you that didn’t stand up, your beds might be comfortable now but not for long. You will soon feel the same heat we feel every day."
Ridhima Pandey: Along with Thunberg, Pandey was one of 16 youngsters to file a complaint at the UN Climate Action Summit for the lack of government action on climate change. The 12 year old Indian girl argues for lowering our carbon footprint with a large concern for pollution and the heavy reliance on plastics. Ridhima is aware that her generation will be inheriting their country's climate issues and will have to deal with them head on due to the lack of intervention from government leaders now. So fed up with that lack of intervention, she took to submitting a petition to the National Green Tribunal against her government that is now pending in the Supreme Court. "In the petition, Ridhima asks the court to order the Government to prepare a carbon budget and a national climate recovery plan to ensure that India does its share to reduce atmospheric CO2 below 350 parts per million by 2100, according to scientific recommendations."
She also "wants the Government to move away from fossil fuels, protect forests, grasslands, soil, mangroves, engage in massive reforestation and improve agricultural and forestry practices." (Independent) Living on the banks of the Ganges River has also inspired her to take action specifically on its pollution and contamination. Pandey states that Ganga is supposed to be a Goddess, a mother, and yet they do those titles no justice when waste and garbage is spilled into its flowing waters while the government talks about cleaning it up, without actually taking the actions necessary to do so.
So this Earth Day, please take these 24 hours to appreciate what we have here and reflect on how you can do your part to help her recover, which will hopefully spill out of those 24 hours and into a daily routine. Being environmentally conscious is something I struggle with, but after researching these inspiring ladies, I want to do more to help and will be thinking about what small, doable changes I can make that can turn into bigger and bigger changes as I get used to them.
Sources:
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/climate-warriors-after-greta-now-meet-hilda-67241
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