A Brazilian rubber tapper turned union organizer and environmentalist. Chico Mendes was one of the earliest and most vocal opponents of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. When rubber prices fell, and cattle ranchers started buying up the jungle and burning it to the ground, Chico organized non violent resistance movements to stop them from taking over. Unfortunately this lead to his assassination in 1988 by local ranchers intent on stopping him.

Howard Zahniser

Environmental activist Howard Zahniser was the man most responsible for the creation of the Wilderness Act of 1964. In 1956 while while working with the Wilderness Society, he drafted what would become the Wilderness Act. It took the last 8 years of his life, multiple rewrites, 18 public hearings, and him personally lobbying nearly every congressmen. Sadly, he died of heart failure a few months prior to it being signed by President Lyndon Johnson. Thanks to Howard’s hard work, over 100 million acres of land are permanently protected.

Rachel Carson

Loved by millions, hated by pro business conservatives, Rachel Carson is without a doubt the most influential and controversial environmentalist of the 20th century. Her book, Silent Spring ushered in a new era of thinking in regards to pesticide and chemical use. She opened the eyes of the entire nation to the risks posed by bio accumulation of toxins and the harm they were silently doing to us all. Her work spawned the activism that led to the creation of the EPA, which essentially used her playbook as its rules of operation.

Al Gore

These days Vice President Gore is best known for his fight against global warming, and his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. But long before that, during his days in the house of representatives, he was one of the most ardent supporters of environmental protections. He held the very first congressional hearings on global warming, sponsored legislation on toxic waste, and presided over the Global Marshall Plan in 1990. All of this during a point in time when speaking out for the environment as an elected official was a political risk.

David Attenborough

David Attenborough has brought the wonders of the natural world into our homes and exposed millions to both the natural beauty, and destruction of our environment. Without him, the environmental and naturalist movements would be nowhere near as strong as they are thanks to his work in showing us the planet in such detail. More recently he has become very vocal with environmental causes such as deforestation, global warming and overpopulation.

James Hansen

Climatologist James Hansen has been at the forefront of global warming research for close to thirty years now. His work as head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has given some of the most concrete proof of the dangers of global warming. He has testified before congress, taken on the Bush Administrations censorship of science, and has been one of the most vocal scientists against global warming deniers propaganda campaigns.

Paul Watson

Love him or hate him, he has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for decades. Watson has been involved with the Sierra club, Defenders of Wildlife, Was a founding member of Greenpeace, and today runs the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Which has gained him the most attention for its direct action approach to stop whaling.

Theodore Roosevelt

As the 26th President of the United States Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to really take conservation of nature and resources seriously. At a time when the world, and especially Americans only viewed the environment as something to exploit, Teddy showed us all that it was something to enjoy and respect. He was directly responsible for the protection of over 230 million acres of forest.

Gaylord Nelson

Senator Wilson was one of the first and most influential environmentalist members of Congress. He helped bring about the Clean Air Act, the banning of DDT, and the creation of the Appalachian Trail. He is best known though as the father of Earth Day, which was one of the most monumental moments in the environmental movement.

John Muir

John Muir was instrumental in the creation of the early stages of environmentalism. His founding of the Sierra Club started the initial push to protect the natural wonders of the United States. His work directly lead to the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia, Rainier, and Glacier National Parks, as well as saving the last remaining coastal redwoods in California.

By Mark Johnson

Flickr: Davipt

As natural resource supplies continue to dwindle, and with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen only a few months away, the clock is ticking for international leaders to come to an agreement on a viable plan for reducing the world’s reliance on natural resources. Switching from a global reliance on coal to a renewable source of energy would solve many of the problems facing the planet, according to a new report by Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

“Global leaders can tackle the twin crises of global economic recession and climate change head on by investing in renewable energy,” Damon Moglen, a Greenpeace campaign director, said.

Switching from a global reliance on coal to a cleaner, renewable source of energy would prevent 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The report also predicts a boom in jobs, with 2.7 million more clean energy jobs produced by the switch. This increase in jobs would come at the same time the coal industry contracts from its current 4.7 million jobs to an estimated 1.4 million by 2030.

The authors of the report assert that a change to clean energy would create more jobs than would exist if the world were to continue its reliance on coal. “For each job lost in the coal industry our green energy scenario…creates three new jobs in the renewable power industry. We can choose green jobs and growth or unemployment, ecological and social collapse” Moglen said.

With the new jobs that would be created, the report shows that 6.9 million people could be employed in the renewable power industry by 2030. An additional 1.1 million jobs could also be created due to higher efficiency in electrical applications.

The renewable energy industry already employs 450,000 people in Europe, according to the report. A global consensus on energy sources is necessary, however, to create an actual change to humans’ impact the environment.

The report, “Working for the Climate: Renewable Energy & The Green Job [R]evolution” is based on research by Greenpeace and the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney.

By Elizabeth Wolfe