Environmental issues plague our communities, especially in the summer when most larger cities come under a smog alert due to high temperatures and sunshine. The strong high pressures of our weather system acts like a lid and traps the atmospheric pollution at the surface, which is why the air quality decreases during the hot months. There are many people who have diligently worked hard to make a difference in the environment. Most people can remember former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” but there are many other people around the world trying to make a difference in their own way. The founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai, is a woman who just wanted to help other women in her own country of Kenya, but found that her efforts led to an international movement.
A Rising Star
Wangari’s parents gave up a lot to give her an education. For a number of years, her mom lived apart from her dad so that the children could attend school. She excelled in her studies, which led to an opportunity for her to study in Kansas, which was over 8,500 miles from her small village in Kenya. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology, she went to Pittsburgh to earn a Master of Science. While she was in Pennsylvania, she was introduced to environmental restoration. Following her education in the U.S., she returned to Kenya to work in a college there. At the urging of a mentor, she went to Germany and earned her Ph.D.
Wangari became the first woman in Nairobi appointed as a chair of a department and associate professor at a college, but her heart was drawn to civic work and helping others. She realized that environmental degradation was at the root of Kenya’s distressed economy. Her solution: to plant trees. It seems simple but it actually was a complex idea. Kenyan women would plant a tree nursery near their home. Then, when the seedlings were replanted elsewhere, the women received a stipend. The seedlings kept the soil from eroding. More trees meant fuel for the women, and because the unemployment rate in Kenya was rising at this time, women needed every bit of money they could earn.
The Green Belt Movement
Wangari’s campaign to plant trees was called the Green Belt Movement. Along with environmental concerns, Wangari encouraged local communities to become active in politics and civil rights. Although the national government did not appreciate her efforts because of concern over an uprising, internationally, Wangari was a role model. She was the first environmental activist and African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Her contributions to the environment and democracy were considered an inspiration to women and men everywhere to continually work to better their situation.
“When you think of all the conflicts we have—whether those conflicts are local, whether they are regional or global—these conflicts are often over the management, the distribution of resources. If these resources are very valuable, if these resources are scarce, if these resources are degraded, there is going to be competition,” said Wangari Maathai.
Wangari was active until her death in 2011, seven years after winning the Nobel Prize. The Green Belt Movement is going strong, addressing gender inequality and climate resilience, and planting trees. In 2014, more than 430,000 trees were planted in Kenyan communities to benefit families, the economy, and the environment. Wangari had no idea that her plan to help women would become an international movement. She is a role model for everyone. Her legacy lives on through the Green Belt Movement. The United States may not be facing the same issues that Kenya did when Wangari began her campaign to plant trees, but there are many lessons that can be learned. One small thing can make a difference.