Sharing projects, initiatives and materials from across the ELT World

Eco Heroes

Still a work in progress – all suggestions and comments very gratefully accepted! 🙂

This page is dedicated to individuals who are making a difference. All the eco-heroes below have been nominated by someone in the ELT Footprint group. If you’d like to add someone, please let us know in the comments. Thanks!

1

Greta Thunberg Wikicommons

Greta Thunberg

I don’t think anyone would disagree with Greta Thunberg taking the first place in this list. And there are so many resources to share, here are a few:

2

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Wikicommons

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

Another inspiring teen eco-activist. Based in the States he is part of a group suing the federal government for their failure to protect the atmosphere. https://www.earthguardians.org/xiuhtezcatl – this site gives a brief bio and details on some of the initiatives he’s involved in.

3

David Attenborough Wikicommons

Sir David Attenborough

His documentary series The Blue Planet influenced millions of people all over the world. This is a link to a series of short texts spanning his life and career : Nine astonishing ways David Attenborough shaped your world.

4

Haidr el Ali

Haidr el-Ali

The clip that we link to below contains a strong but simple message from an amazing man who is single-handedly replanting mangroves in Senegal. Haidar el Ali’s reforestation project has planted 152 million mangrove buds over the past decade! The link is to a short video from BBC Africa, that has been shared on their Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=351151712490915

5

Sebastiao Salgado & Wife Instituto Terra

Sebastiao Salgado & his wife Leila

The famous photographer and his wife spent 20 years replanting a plot of rainforest in Brazil: article on a site called All That’s Interesting | article from IFL Science

6

Melati and Isabel Wijsen at TED Global London

Melati & Isabel Wijsen

The sisters from Bali have been campaigning to ban plastic bags in Bali since they were 12 and 10 years old: an article from CNN | TED talk | website for Bye Bye Plastic Bags

7

Caroline Lucas

Caroline Lucas

Head of the Green Party in the UK and the only Green member of parliament: A link to some videos she has made

8

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai

Nobel prize winner in 2004, she was the first African woman to win the prize. She led a movement to plant trees across Africa, the Green Belt Movement. The movement has planted more than 51 million trees in Kenya.

9

Jadav Payeng

Indian conservationist, spent 30 years single-handedly growing and nurturing trees in Assam.

10

Sadiman

Indonesian farmer who replanted a forest after a fire.

11

Phil Kingston

Retired Bristol university lecturer and eco activist in his 80s, arrested during the Extinction Rebellion protests in London in October 2019, tells his story in this short video clip. Highly inspiring!

12

Nemonte Nenquimo

Nemonte Nenquimo

The lawsuit that Nemonte Nenquimo, president of the Waorani of Pastaza and a co-founder of the Ceibo Alliance, filed culminated in a landmark ruling which protects the Waorani’s ancestral home in Ecuador from destruction. The ripples have brought hope to indigenous communities everywhere, all too often facing existential threats of their own. Find out more here and here.

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