Marisol Becerra, 18
crisis with Change the World Kids
Environmental Justice Mapzine
(ChangeTheWorldKids.org/index.html),
a teen-run nonprofit organization she
In 2003, Becerra volunteered with Little Village Environmental Jus-
founded in 1998. The group has since
tice Organization (LVEJO) to inventory toxins in her predominantly
raised $165,000 to purchase, conserve
Mexican-American community in Chicago. She learned that the
and reforest areas critical to birds.
Harvard School of Public Health had directly linked health prob-
lems affecting area residents to two coal-burning power plants within blocks of her home.
Becerra launched a youth branch of LVEJO and devised an interactive online
Ivan Stiefel, 22
map (ElCilantro.org/?page_id=6) that uses facts and videos to educate residents
Mountain
about the pollutants in Little Village that were linked to both premature deaths and
Justice Spring
hundreds of emergency room visits. “In 2006,” she advises, “we got Governor Rob Break (MJSB)
Blagojevich to introduce the nation’s strictest mercury rule: a 90 percent reduction
Stiefel spearheaded
at every power plant by 2012.”
the creation of MJSB
as an alternative spring break option
Jessie-Ruth Corkins, 17 for university students willing to work
The Vermont Sustainable Heating
as social activists in communities
Initiative (VSHI)
adversely affected by the Appalachian
Corkins serves as the core leader of VSHI, a group of students
coal industry. In 2007, West Virginia
from 26 high schools. She first rose to a teacher’s challenge to
MJSB’s big project was securing a
create an energy conservation plan for her school, later work-
safe school for the children attending
ing to convince the school board to convert the school’s gas
Marshfork Elementary, which lies next
heater to a woodchip boiler, fueled by local products. Cork-
to a coal-processing plant, leaking coal
ins and VSHI went on to devise a persuasive statewide plan to develop Vermont’s
slurry into an impoundment. The initia-
100,000 acres of underutilized land to grow prairie grass for a revolutionary grass
tive culminated in university students
pelletization fuel system (see SustainableHeatingVT.org).
occupying the governor’s office until he
agreed to build a safe, new school for
Kari Fulton, 22
the Marshfork children.
Loving Our City, Loving Ourselves
(LOCLOS)
In his own 60-plus years of activism,
nothing gave pioneer David Brower
Fulton serves as a pivotal player in two environmental justice
greater joy than to see the success of the
projects. Locally, she co-founded LOCLOS, which works to
many young leaders he mentored. “My
build stronger campus and community solidarity on issues of
secret,” he said, “is to surround myself
concern in Washington, D.C. Nationally, Fulton works as the
with bright young people, stand back,
Energy Action Coalition Coordinator for the Environmental
then wallow in their accomplishments.”
Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC.org), where she has become a pioneer
Visit
BrowerYouthAwards.org and
organizer, building the youth climate movement among people of color.
EarthIsland.org.
Timothy Den Herder-Thomas, 21
Social Entrepreneurship for
Sustainable Community Development
Herder-Thomas is the leader behind creation of Macalester Col-
lege’s Clean Energy Revolving Fund (CERF), a student-designed
financial pool that funds energy-efficiency projects on cam-
pus. Beyond campus, through his Cooperative Energy Futures
program, he has convened a collaborative of labor groups, nonprofits, local busi-
nesses and students to engage with the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, in designing
sustainable, mixed-use development on the site of a closed Ford plant.
Phebe Meyers, 18
Change the world kids - Bosque Para Siempre
Through her growing-up years, Meyers noticed fewer and fewer
songbirds arriving at her Vermont feeders and was inspired to
find the reason for their absence. She found that a core prob-
lem lay in the deforested pastures that were once Costa Rican
rainforest. She shared her concern about the migratory bird
October 2008 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72