Wangari Maathai

I went to hear 2004 Nobel Peace winner Wangari maathai speak. Maathai founded The Green Belt Movement that helped women plant more than 30 million trees across Kenya. This helped these women improve the quality of life and conserve the environment. She was the first women to earn a doctorate in East and Central Africa and the first environmentlist to be awarded the Nobel Peace.
It was a packed auditorium; people were given permission to sit behind her on stage and when that wasn’t enough, a live feed of her speech was transmitted to a second auditorium!
She mentioned one thing that stood out for me: As she travels across the globe many often complain that the United States did not sign the Kyoto protocol treaty. She told the crowd that she is impressed with the United States on the efforts they take to reduce global warming. She has not visited one country, even the countries that signed the treaty, where individuals are aggressively involved in recycling and being aware of global warming. United States is number one in that.

We don’t have to wait until we can do big things. We can do little things like planting a tree. Anybody can do that. But if so many of us in the world did it ---and especially in areas where trees are needed---we can make a difference,” Maathai said.