October 19th, 2009 · No Comments

Diana Lopez

In February 2007, Lopez along with other fellow organizers and community leaders started the Roots of Change Community Garden to help provide the San Antonio East Side neighborhood with fresh, organic and local produce.

Balancing school and organizing wasn’t easy, she says. “But you have to decide which is more important. I was learning more outside of school with my hands-on organizing than in school.”

“As a young activist, I get a positive response when it comes to my work,” Lopez says. However, right now she plans to go to school full-time, “focusing on the garden while still being engaged in other areas.” She would like to get the San Antonio community more involved in the city’s Roots of Change garden and “create a sense of ownership.”

Hai Vo

Hai Vo says he became intrigued with the environment when he went to the University of California, Irvine. “Growing up, I ate a lot of junk food…I didn’t feel physically and mentally healthy and balanced…[Living] on my own for the first time…I started cooking for myself and making the conscious choice to eat healthier, fresher and more whole foods.” He says he realized that, “our current food system has vast and detrimental effects to producers, consumers, communities and the environment.”

Vo brought his ideas to the attention of UCI, working with the California Student Sustainability Coalition and UCI’s Students for Sustainability organization. He was able to integrate his school work with his environmental interests by majoring in Social Ecology. His senior thesis involved understanding how much real and sustainable food was purchased at UCI’s campus dining halls. Since graduation, Vo has moved to Northern California where he is looking at new opportunities in sustainable food systems such as farming apprenticeships and farm-to-institution programs.

Robin Bryan

Robin Bryan of Winnipeg, Manitoba, says he grew up in a forest, “which sparked a deep connection with the natural world, which I brought with me to the city,” he says. When he realized that so much of the wildlife, parks and public land in Manitoba were endangered due to unsound industrial practices, “it only made sense to step up and take action,” he says. He actually got started at the age of 15, volunteering with a group called the Wilderness Committee. Since then, he has made it his mission to help preserve the boreal forest of Manitoba and prevent the mismanagement of public land by putting an end to logging activity here.

Like many of the Brower Youth Award winners, Bryan believes that his environmental activism is an education in and of itself. “I think that the skills, confidence and freedom of thought that I gained through my work with these issues and my connection with the natural world are things that no school can teach,” he says. Bryan says “following my inner voice and passions has led me to success both in the academic world and, more importantly, in the real world.”

Climate change is nothing new for one of the youngest recipients of the Brower Youth Award, Alec Loorz of Ventura, Ca. Ever since he and his mom rented Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, three years ago, Loorz has been an advocate for cleaning up the planet. Loorz founded Kids vs. Global Warming, a non-profit group dedicated to getting youth involved in the fight against global warming. The organization is sponsored by Earth Island Institute.

“As young people,” he said in a recent interview, “we are the ones who have to face the consequences of global warming.”

Alec Loorz

Loorz started Kids vs. Global Warming after he was rejected, at the age of 12, to train as a presenter for the traveling “Inconvenient Truth” programs. Since then he has met the former Vice President a number of times and occasionally is invited onstage during Gore’s presentations.

Loorz balances school work and his global warming work by taking advantage of his school’s independent study program. He also finds time to be a drummer for his band and to work on film making and graphic design. He plans on attending the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December when he will be addressing one of the conference’s smaller events.

All six of the Brower Youth Award winners speak enthusiastically about their projects. But to win the contest, they also had to show a panel of environmentalist judges that their ideas were unique and that they’d pursued them persistently.

The Brower Youth Awards honor the legacy of Earth Island’s founder David Brower. Brower’s efforts to save and preserve the Grand Canyon, King’s Canyon, Cape Cod won him three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (in1978, 1979, and 1998).

The 10th Annual Brower Youth Awards will be presented Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The Awards Ceremony is free and open to the public. Festivities include events before and after the ceremony. For details see the website.

Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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