By Ariana Thornton
After reading Kristy’s interview, I became inspired by the crucial role that female identifying individuals play in the fight for environmental justice. These three digital artworks are part of a larger multimedia project in which I plan to draw 26 portraits of influential female environmentalists from different backgrounds, cultures, and generations around the world–one name for each letter of the English alphabet.
Through this project, I seek to shed light on the intersectionality of the climate movement and raise awareness of important female environmentalists whose names are not as well known as, say, Greta Thunberg or Jane Goodall. Women climate activists who have made significant contributions to their cause are not just White, but also Black, Indigenous, African, South American, and Asian. They are not only strikers and conservationists, but also diplomats, scientists, landscape architects, fashion models, and social media influencers. Some are young and some are old. They are role models for young women in our own communities who want to make a positive difference for the environment and the quality of human lives.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a Black-American marine biologist and policy expert. She is a co-founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab and co-creater of the podcast How to Save a Planet. Johnson has crafted federal ocean policy at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), collaborated with the Elizabeth Warren campaign to write the Blue New Deal, and co-edited the book All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. In her career, she focuses on two key questions: “How are we building the future? And who can I team up with to build it?” (Sources: ayanaelizabeth.com, inverse.com/mind-body/ayana-elizabeth-johnson)
Watch: “How to Find Joy in Climate Action,” TED Talk by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Berta Cáceres was an indigenous Honduran activist who fought for the rights of the Lenca people of Honduras. In 1993, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) to address the growing threats facing Lenca communities. Beginning from 2006, Cáceres organized campaigns to stop Agua Zarca, a project partially financed by the Honduran hydroelectric company DESA that planned to build dams upon a Lenca worship place. Cáceres’s efforts successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder, Sinohydro, to pull out of its contract with DESA. Three years later, on March 3, 2016, Cáceres was tragically killed by gunmen hired by DESA executives. COPINH and activists around the world continue her enduring legacy. (Source: goldmanprize.org/recipient/berta-caceres)
Watch: “Berta Cáceres Acceptance Speech, 2015 Goldman Prize Ceremony”
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican diplomat who has led national, international, and multilateral policy negotiations. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010 to 2016, directing the global diplomatic effort that culminated in the historic Paris Agreement of 2015. As the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast Outrage & Optimism, and co-author of The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Figueres continues to help steer the global response to climate change. (Source: christianafigueres.com)
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