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Environment>Encouraging
Latin America | Chile | Activism

Native Women Bring Solar Energy to Chile’s Atacama Desert

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Three indigenous communities from the Chilean highlands have just received solar panels, which will be set up and maintained by unlikely solar engineers: five native women who travelled halfway around the world to India and overcame language and other barriers to bring photovoltaic energy to their villages. Luisa and Liliana Terán are cousins from Caspana, an Atacameña indigenous community; Elena Achú and Elvira Urrelo are from the Quechua village of Ollagüe; and Nicolasa Yufla is an Aymara Indian from Toconce. The three villages, with a combined population of 1,000, are in the Atacama
South Asia | Sri Lanka | Environment

Women to power Sri Lanka’s mangrove conservation plan

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Sri Lanka's new mangrove protection scheme, the world's first country-wide initiative, is relying on women like Michel Priyadarshani, head of a fisherwomen's group in eastern Ambantotam village. Priyadarshani and her colleagues did not understand the importance of mangroves for the ecosystem, including the fish population, until they benefited from a program offering microcredit in return for looking after the coastal forests. Since 1997, Sudeesa, a national organization that works to protect coastal ecosystems, has given women living near mangrove forests financial assistance - mainly l
Asia | Mongolia | Adventure

Badass Women Battle Untamed Mongolian River

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Ocean-sized waves, unreliable navigation, and corrupt officials were just some of the challenges National Geographic grantee, Amber Valenti, faced during her 2,700-mile trip along the Amur River. Valenti, along with three other women, chose to travel the entirety of the Amur through Mongolia and Russia because of the river’s unique nature. “It’s the third longest free-flowing river left on our planet, and with 60 percent of the world’s rivers being dammed now, it was an opportunity to see something that’s truly last of its kind,” Valenti says. But the beauty of the Amur was o
International | Environment

Sylvia Earle: There’s Still Time to Save the Oceans

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The legendary oceanographer talks about why she crisscrosses the globe to protect marine life Pioneering oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s lifelong affinity for the ocean began early. “When I was three years old I got knocked over by a wave, and the ocean got my attention,” she told me at DOER Marine, the ocean technology company in Alameda, California, that she founded. It’s held her attention ever since. A former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and current National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, Earle has led dozens of deep-sea missions
North America | Canada | Environment

Elizabeth May amends government bill for 1st time

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The Green Party scored two major legislative points this week when it won the support of the Conservative-dominated House of Commons' natural resources committee to make amendments to Bill C-46, the Pipeline Safety Act. It's a rare circumstance in the current parliamentary climate to have any opposition amendments passed in committee. In fact, these are the first Green Party amendments to a government bill ever adopted. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she is "just so pleased."
Africa | Kenya | Environment

Single mom wins top prize for forcing toxic plant closure

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Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan single mother, has won the prestigious annual Goldman environmental prize for her arduous but ultimately successful campaign against a battery recycling plant that was exposing inhabitants of a community in the port city of Mombasa to lead poisoning. As an employee of the factory and, therefore, regularly exposed to its harmful toxic effects, Omido was pushed to act after her own baby son was diagnosed with lead poisoning that he received from the breast milk she had been feeding him. She immediately quit her job to launch a concerted campaign, along with other a
South Asia | Nepal | Environment

Women Lead on Conservation in Nepal

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Helping others be healthy is only one of the responsibilities Devi KC has taken on in her remote village, where she serves as a community health volunteer. She is 35 years old, and one of approximately 50,000 people trained in everything from sanitation and nutrition to modern hygiene. Devi lives in Khata, within the long, narrow Terai Arc landscape, which spans nearly 20,000 square miles of northern India and southern Nepal. The region holds endangered one-horned rhinos, elephants and the world’s largest concentration of tigers. Communities here depend on the forest for food, water and s
Asia | Thailand | Corruption

Thai environmentalists pay for activism with their lives

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Jintana Kaewkao, a 53-year-old activist, shop-owner and mother of three, arrived at the district government office on March 12 ready for a fight. With local tensions rising over the planned construction of a steel manufacturing plant amid the wetlands and coconut trees of this seaside community of Bangsaphan, Thailand, more than 30 villagers had assembled in the morning heat. Most were women; some had toddlers in tow. They were ready to register their concerns over potential pollution, and a local conglomerate’s questionable land acquisitions, with the district leader. As usual, they w

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