All Environmental Heroes Wanted
Planet Harmony's list of Top 10 African-American Green Heroes offers some food for thought.
The list includes these names: Will Allen of Growing Power; Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx; Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University; Van Jones, fellow at the Center for American Progress; Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is chief executive officer of Green for All; Hazel Johnson of People for Community Recovery in Altgeld Gardens on the South Side of Chicago; Jerome C. Ringo, director of Apollo Alliance; Ludacris, rapper and co-star of Battleground Earth on the Discovery Channel; Drake, a performer that helped with this year's Green the Block campaign; and George Washington Carver.
Do you know about these people and their accomplishments? I recognized only four of them: Van Jones because of his book The Green Collar Economy; Ludicris and Drake, but not for their environmental activities; and of course, G.W. Carver.
So as I am reading about their work, I begin to wonder who this year's heroes are in the Hispanic community, the Asian community, and the European community. Heck, I don't even know who I would include in a list of Caucasians for 2010. What even makes someone an environmental hero?
So many organizations develop a Top 10. I'd be interested in who you think ─ in your circle ─ merits special recognition for the work they've done. Feel free to send a name and I'll look into it. I'm sure I'll learn a lot and in sharing, maybe we'll have more to celebrate in this industry. Maybe we could develop a color-blind list of green heroes and celebrate all the achievements.
Posted by L.K. Williams, EPonline on Jun 28, 2010