The following individuals deserve a special place in every greenie’s heart. All are compelling figures whose work and works have the ability to delight and inspire those of us who count stewardship for the earth among our key values.

Bob Hunter (Canadian) The first President of Greenpeace, Bob was a long-time campaigner for environmental causes. He lead the first on-sea anti-whaling campaigns in the world, and campaigned against nuclear testing, the Canadian seal hunt and later, climate change.

Al Gore (American)  In 2007, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gore also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which made climate change a household concern in the United States.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (American) An outspoken activist and mesmerizing speaker on behalf of the environment, Kennedy founded The Waterkeeper Alliance, which connects and supports local waterkeeper groups. Today there are 191 waterkeeper programs worldwide.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (American) Republican politician who signed a bill creating North America’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions and signed a second global warming bill that prohibits large utilities and corporations in California from making long-term contracts with suppliers who do not meet the state’s greenhouse gas emission standards.

Frances Moore Lappé (American) Her book Diet for a Small Planet argued that world hunger is caused not by the lack of food but rather by the inability of hungry people to gain access to the abundant amount of food that exists in the world and/or food-producing resources because they are simply too poor.

Farley Mowat (Canadian) is a fabled conservationist and one of Canada’s most widely-read authors. Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist.

E.F. Shumacher (German) His book Small is Beautiful, a collection of essays, brought his ideas to a wider audience. One of his main arguments in Small is Beautiful is that we cannot consider the problem of technological production solved if it requires that we recklessly erode our finite natural capital and deprive future generations of its benefits. Schumacher’s work coincided with the growth of ecological concerns and  he became a hero to many in the environmental movement.

Wangari Matthai (Kenyan) in the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Petra Kelly (German)  Kelly was instrumental in founding Die Grünen, the German Green Party in 1979. Between 1983 and 1990, she was a member of the Bundestag (German Parliament). Kelly received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1982 “…for forging and implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice, and human rights.”

Paul Hawken (American) author of The Ecology of Commerce, dedicated his life to changing the relationship between business and the environment, and between human and living systems in order to create a more just and sustainable world. His work includes starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce upon the environment.