TBT: Super Awesome People™ in History.
And now for something completely not pandemic-related.
Earth Day celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 22, 2020. In 1970, the first Earth Day mobilized 20 million Americans in protest of environmental ignorance and is credited with launching the modern environmental movement. 50 years later, 1 billion people from over 190 countries celebrate the Earth every year on April 22nd, as part of the largest secular observance in the world.
From nature writer Rachel Carson to student activist Greta Thunberg, women have always been central figures in the environmental movement. One woman you might not know about is Wangari Maathai, today’s Super Awesome Person™ in History.
Wangari Muta Maathai (image from real-leaders.com) 
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Kenya in 1940 and studied in the United States before earning her PhD from the University of Nairobi where she also taught veterinary anatomy. She was a woman of many firsts—the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, the first woman in the region to become chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor, and later, the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize.
IN 1976, while serving on the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), Maathai introduced the idea of planting trees as a grassroots way for communities—particularly women—to improve their quality of life. From that initial effort, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women struggling with an unstable food supply and an increasingly inhospitable environment. The Green Belt Movement “encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work.”
Maathai recognized that environmental concerns and human rights are intrinsically linked and that environmental degradation, deforestation, and food insecurity were made worse by disempowerment. She believed that national leaders (in Africa and beyond) were failing to use natural resources wisely rather than working for the common good. Because of this, GBD began conducting seminars in environmental and civic education and called for more accountability from African leaders.
Throughout her years as an educator, pro-democracy activist, and human rights advocate, Maathai encountered sexist detractors and government opposition. While fighting for fair and free elections in Kenya, she ran for parliament and president in 1997 as a candidate of the Liberal Party and lost. She used planting trees as a form of protest against government plans to privatize public forest land and was arrested multiple times for her efforts. In 2002 she ran for parliament again as part of the National Rainbow Coalition and won 98% of the vote for Assistant Minister in the Ministry for Environment and National Resources.
In 2004, Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace,” and became the first African woman and the first environmentalist to win the prize. The award was perhaps the most significant but far from the only award she received in her lifetime (check out the lists here, here, and here). Other notable recognitions include the Edinburgh Medal (1993), Petra Kelly Prize (2004), Indira Gandhi Prize (2007), the NAACP Image Award (2009), recognition as one of UNEP’s 100 Heroines of the World, and honorary degrees from distinguished institutions including Willem’s College and Yale University.
Maathai passed away in 2011, five years after spearheading the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign, which planted its billionth tree in November 2007. Her legacy lives on through the Wangari Maathai Forest Champion Award, the 2.7 acre community Wangari Gardens in Washington, D.C., and through the work of the GBM which “continues to stand as a testament to the power of grassroots organizing, proof that one person’s simple idea—that a community should come together to plant trees, can make a difference.”
In the more than 40 years since its founding, GBM has planted over 51 million trees in Kenya, and “works at the grassroots, national, and international levels to promote environmental conservation; to build climate resilience and empower communities, especially women and girls; to foster democratic space and sustainable livelihoods.”
“It is the people who must save the environment. It is the people who must make their leaders change. And we cannot be intimidated. So we must stand up for what we believe in.”
– Wangari Maathai