Donation
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Seeing first hand the devastating effects of global warming on her childhood's natural playground, Australia born singer song-writer Missy Higgins is using her angelic voice for more than singing songs. "It's easy to feel helpless but instead I had a look at my lifestyle and realized it was my responsibility not only as a person in the public eye but as a human-being with a conscience, to do what I could about it. This includes changing the way I go about touring, what kind of organizations I choose to lend my name to and talking to fans about what they can do to help." Missy has been named by Billboard magazine as one of the top ten green artists of 2008 and is a featured artist for Clif GreenNotes, a project launched by Clif Bar to provide artists with the resources and assistance required to integrate eco-friendly touring practices including filling their tour busses with biodiesel, providing locally and organically grown foods backstage, and buying renewable wind energy credits to offset their carbon dioxide emissions.
Donation Organization: conservation.org
missyhiggins.com
In the movement towards a more sustainable future, Graham Hill is taking a leadership role. With a number of entrepreneurial ventures to his credit, Graham's current projects put a green perspective on the way we look at the world. With subjects ranging from science and technology to fashion and food, Graham's environmental site Treehugger.com, a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information, is pushing sustainability into the mainstream. Treehugger.com, launched in 2004, has become one of the most respected and trafficked green lifestyle sites on the web. Recently acquired by Discovery, Graham is working to further push Treehugger and to build out the action-oriented site PlanetGreen.com, the companion site to the first-ever 24-hour television network dedicated solely to green lifestyle programming. Consistent with Graham's entrepreneurial spirit, he is a big supporter of Kiva.org, an organization allowing people to connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world, ultimately helping the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence.
Donation Organization: Kiva
kiva.org
"I want you to see a wild river thick with salmon fighting their way upstream. I want you to feel the company of massive, ancient trees, toes nestled deep in moss, giant ferns brushing your shoulders." -Pollyanna Lind
But less than 5% of the nation's native forests remain standing. And synthetic pesticides have been found in almost every river tested. Born and raised in a logging town in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, Polly witnessed the devastating impact of profit-driven industry on water quality, ecosystems, and community sustainability. Inspired, she chose action: for over 20 years she's engaged in community outreach, policy change, and activism. Simultaneously she served as a founding board member of the Cascadia Wildlands Project, whose aim it is to protect and restore the forests, waters, and wildlife of Cascadia (forested region from northern California to southeastern Alaska) and as program coordinator for the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides reducing pesticide contamination in water. Currently, she's pursuing a PhD in geomorphology, to become an even more effective advocate for the place she's always known as home.
Donation Organization: Cascadia Wildlands Project
cascwild.org
Simran Sethi failed the only course she ever took on the environment because she couldn't see the relevance of the science to people's everyday lives. Since then, she has devoted her life to helping people understand social and environmental issues and the ways in which we are all impacted and connected. Armed with an MBA, personal commitment to social justice, and professional background anchoring MTV News for Asia, hosting the first national PBS series on sustainable business, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey and other shows, and interviewing eco-luminaries including Nobel Laureate Al Gore for radio, television and the web, the freelance sustainability journalist is well-deserving when called an environmental messenger and named an eco-hero of the planet. But she knows that we are all environmentalists everyday: with each purchase we make, with each vote we cast, with each meal we share. Simran's passion is food justice, supporting efforts to ensure everyone has access to clean, safe, healthy food. She promotes and savors local, seasonal, organic food from independent farms whenever possible. Consistent with this focus, Simran is a strong supporter of the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, an organization dedicated to reconnecting people with nature and transforming vacant city spaces into small, community-based farms that provide fresh and healthy food to city residents in Kansas and Missouri.
Donation Organization: Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture
kccua.org
"Don't subscribe to the soapbox revolution! Words alone cannot overcome the great challenges facing humankind today. From environmental destruction, to war, to poverty, to social injustice - any real change has to begin with a deep commitment to making your own life a truer reflection of the way you feel the world should be. If we can accomplish the small, simple things individually, then our collective efforts, to make the world a better place, can be a real and potent force". (Canadian Rock Star and humanitarian- Sam Roberts) www.samrobertsband.com
Donation Organization: Green Belt Movement
greenbeltmovement.org
Based on his years of experience leading some of the nation's most cutting edge businesses, advocacy organizations and non-profits, Andrew Sharpless is helping to bring the oceans back from the brink of collapse. Since becoming CEO of Oceana four years ago, his campaign-based management model has helped protect one million square miles of ocean habitat, including coral reefs; get penalties in place to stop half of the world's shipping fleet from dumping twenty million gallons of oily water into our oceans every year; influence the adoption of advanced wastewater treatment systems by the second largest cruise line in the world, and convince five of the largest mercury polluters in the United States to switch to mercury-free technology or shut down. Oceana is now the largest international organization focused solely on protecting the world's oceans with 300,000 online supporters in 150 countries.
Donation Organization: Oceana
oceana.org
After countless rejection searching for a captain to take them to witness US nuclear testing in Amchitka, refuge for 3,000 endangered sea otters, bald eagles, and falcons, members of the Don't Make a Wave Committee finally met captain John Cormack. Cormack responded to his intrigue for adventure and challenge, and in doing so set a nautical stage for the birth of the most recognized environmental group of our time. Although the boat never reached Amchitka, this heroic journey made headlines around the world, stirred a swell of outrage, and set in motion the grand vision for Greenpeace, currently operating in 41 countries with 2.8 million supporters world-wide.
Donation Organization: Green Peace
greenpeace.org
Caitlin Hills has dedicated her career towards raising environmental awareness and providing leadership in the critical campaigning and lobbying efforts necessary to protect our forests. Armed with a law degree and a B.A. in political science, Caitlin has served as the legislative director of the Alaska Rainforest Campaign as well as policy advisor focused on environmental and energy issues for a US Senator. Currently, Caitlin is the National Forest Program Director for American Lands Alliance, whose aim it is to provide national leadership on forest policy issues by combining grassroots experience with a deep understanding of Washington politics, ultimately striving to protect and restore America's forest ecosystems.
Donation Organization: American Lands Alliance
americanlands.org
After 13 years of steady devotion to his invention, Rudolf Diesel, German born humanitarian/engineer/social theorist was granted patent #608,845 for an internal combustion engine, otherwise known as the Diesel Engine today. Fueling Diesel's inspiration was a desire to enable independent craftsman and artisans with the ability to endure the monopoly big business had on the expensive and highly polluting power sources of the time. Diesel was aware of the environmental impacts of common fuels, and began experimenting with greener cheaper vegetable and seed oils, as a viable alternative. In 1900, Diesel surprised the world when he ran his engines on peanut oil. Following this triumph many revolutionaries and inventors foresaw multiple advantages for agriculture and the environment. Rudolf Diesel unexpectedly died before his vision of vegetable oil powered engines became a reality, leaving his design open to modification and the use of "diesel fuel" an oil byproduct derived from refinement of petroleum.
Donation Organization: Carbonfund
carbonfund.org
Natalie Fobes has captured many of the key social/environmental issues facing our generation through photography. Otherwise known as the Salmon Lady for her 10 plus years devotion telling the story of the Pacific Salmon and its cultures around the pacific rim, she is the recipient of numerous awards, not to mention a finalist for the pulitzer prize, and author of three coffee table books. She was one of the first photographers on site to capture the tragedies of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and she is co founder of Blue Earth Alliance, a non-profit that educates the public about endangered cultures, threatened environments and social concerns through photography. Natalie's current documentary project is about the impact of china's one child policy in that country as well as the USA.
Donation Organization: Blue Earth Alliance
blueearth.org
"We don't inherit the earth, we are merely borrowing it from our children" -ancient Indian proverb
Native Americans' reputation as "the original conservationists" was never a result of ecological surveillance, but rather their reciprocal relationship with their natural environment and a belief in the unity between their spiritual and physical worlds. Inherent in Native American culture is an acknowledgement and worship of the earth they inhabit, and a focus on sustained yield of its natural resources versus maximum production.
Donation Organization: Native American Heritage Association
naha-inc.org