The inspirational woman that I chose is named Luisa-Marie Neubauer and she was born on April 21st, 1996 in Germany making her 23 years old today. This woman was inspired by the famous Greta Thunberg as she got concerned about living in a world of rising temperatures. In 2018, she is one of the main initiators and organizers of the “Fridays For Future” strike, which is a school strike for the climate in Germany. All these events that she organizes put pressure on the governments to abide by the 2015 Paris Agreements, an agreement that has the goal to decrease global warming. In addition, Neubauer is a member of the Alliance 90 and the Green Youth, two associations that promote the environment. She is studying in Geography since 2015 at the University of Gottingen and has received many scholarships. 

This woman is like me as she is a young university student that is passionate about Geography and I am a young CEGEP student that loves Geography just like her. I did not choose a career path in Geography, however, I truly enjoyed the Geography classes that I had in high-school as well as in CEGEP. Another important way that Luisa and I are similar in that the fact that she is European and I am half European as my mother is Polish. In high school, I was a volunteer in a program for the environment along with 19 other students in my district, where we did all sorts of things to promote and educate others about the environment. For instance, we took part in things like planting trees, flowers, having presentations, painting a mural, going to manifestations, etc. Much like Luisa, I am engaged with the environment wanting to protect it and wanting to have better laws to do so. Also, I participated in the 2019 march for the environment in Montreal with Greta Thunberg just like how she participated in a march for climate change in Hamburg with Thunberg.

This woman is different from me as she has taken a different career path than me. Another difference would be that she lives in Germany, which is very different from Canada culturally. On top of having these cultural differences in our daily lives, she is a woman and I am a man. These sex differences have possibly led her to live certain obstacles that I will not have to live in my life simply because of the fact that I am a man. The same goes for me, I have possibly had obstacles that she will not have to go through in her life solely because she is a woman. Unfortunately, there are still today differences in the way one is treated in society because of one’s sex.

I decided on this woman as I find that she is very implicated in the world of climate change and the fight for the environment. I also chose this woman because she is young just like me and I find that it is easy to relate to a younger person that is fighting for a good cause and to be inspired by them as we have a similar background growing up in today’s society.

I find that her actions and what she stands for are inspirational. She has had a Ted Talk, which shows her confidence and her determination while she speaks in public and fights for the environment. She has participated in countless protests for climate change and stays true to herself and what she believes in as she refutes comparisons that the media makes about her being the German Greta Thunberg. She is her own person and she is trying to fight for the environment, which I find inspirational.

References:

https://www.ted.com/speakers/luisa_neubauer

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/climate-activist-turns-down-siemens-offer-of-seat-on-energy-board

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2019/03/16/luisa-neubauer-22-ans-figure-des-marches-pour-le-climat-en-allemagne_5437067_3244.html

https://peoplepill.com/people/luisa-neubauer/

     As of recently, the issue in concern with climate change has become more and more alarming. As a result, many protests all around the world have appeared and many well-known celebrities are using their platforms to speak up on the matter. Environmental activist and supermodel Gisele Bündchen is no exception.

     On July 20^th, 1980 Gisele was born in the town of Horizontina in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. She was born into a big family of six children, meaning she had five sisters one of them being her fraternal twin. Gisele grew up in her town of birth and was later on discovered at the early age of 13. As of presently, Gisele has modeled for some of the most renowned companies around the world including Dolce & Gabana, Versace, and lastly Victoria’s Secret. 

     It was after she had taken a trip to Brazil in the Amazon that Gisele started to get more and more interested about climate change. She had spent time with Native tribes and saw how the water pollution was affecting them gravely. As a result, this inspired her to start her journey on making a difference in our environment. Since then, she has done a lot to raise awareness of the issue and help the environment such as creating an eco-friendly skincare products to creating the Clean Water Project with her family in their hometown. The Project allowed for them to be able to plant over 40,000 plants which aided to sustain the water in said region. Not only has she been apart of trying to change the environment for the better, she has also received recognition and rewards for such efforts. These include the “Best Green Celebrity Award”, and the “Global Citizen Award”, etc. On top of that Gisele was also given the position of Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Environment Program in recognition to her efforts in the fight for environmental justice.

     I decided to choose Gisele because of her inspiring work for the environment that not many know about since it is overlooked by her career (being a model). For one, I believe that she is very inspirational figure to me and to many. The way I would describe inspirational is something or someone that motivates others to be the best version of themselves that they can be. I believe she qualifies as inspirational on a variety of different levels. For instance, she has spoken about her struggles with anxiety and her own personal mental health. I do believe that this sets an example to others that they should not be ashamed nor feel the need to hide their issues and that the stigma surrounding mental health itself should cease to exist. As, everyone goes through it no matter how much we idolize them or the life they live. Not only are we the same in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation but also in terms of beliefs. One distinct belief that I believe we have in common is being family-oriented. I do believe she values the importance of family since her family has been mentioned as something that motivates her to fight climate change so that her children can have a future. 

     Although we both have our similarities we also have differences in comparison to one another. Other than race and ethnicity we are also different in the sense that we are at different points in our lives. To elaborate she has found a passion that she truly is devoted to, this being environmental justice. Whereas, I am only now starting to think of my future and have not quite figured out what I want to do with my life and how I will contribute to making our planet a better place for not only myself but others and future generations to live in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEf65L-DUrA

https://theyearsproject.com/correspondent/gisele-bundchen/

Wangari Muta Maatha is a woman I have never heard of before in my life but her impact for the Kenyan deforestation issues was so significant that I taught that she should be known more by all of us. She was born April 4th, 1940 in Kenya with a family of 6 children where she happened to be the eldest. In Kenya, the woman are the one suppose to go collect fire wood for their family but Wangari realized growing up how much wood was exploited and that the forests of her country might disappear if no actions were taken. She studied hard and acquired a baccalaureate in 1959. In 1960 she received a scholarship allowing her to pursuit her studies in an american university. In 1964 she became the first woman in West Africa to receive a biology licence at “Mount Saint Scolastica college” in Kansas. In 1971, she acquired her PhD at the Nairobi university where she then started to teach veterinary medicine. Even if she worked in the veterinarian field, she didn’t forgot about the deforestation issues Kenya was

facing and she was scared. Driven by her fear, she funded the green belt movement which consist of empowering Kenyan communities (especially their women ) to conserve the environment by planting trees and taking a better care of the soil to prevent deforestation. The organization also tries to fight against big corporation construction or development that might affect the environment and the forests. Deforestation is a direct cause of climate change and its affect not only affect the earth but also the living condition of the citizens affected by those cuts. The movement planted more than 30 millions trees in 16 years. Shes not only a environmentalist but also a member of the “Maendeleo ya wanawake” (The national woman council of kenya ). She also started her career in politic by founding the “Mazingira” ( the green party ) which later became affiliated to he federation of green part of Africa. In 2003 she becomes the deputy minister of the environment and was the first African woman to win the Nobel prize. She also became a member of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Red Cross society, and became the director in 1973. Me and Wangari Maatha, we may not have explicit resemblances but the simple fact that she is form Africa like me make me so proud even if I am not from Kenya. I really wish that in Algeria ( where I’m from ) , women will one day be recognize a for the impact some of us made on our community. She’s different from me since she is much more older and lived in a very different era than mine, so I would have a lot to learn from her. I chose Wangari because it’s the end of black history month and I didn’t want to have only an influencing woman but more specifically an influencing black woman. I found inspirational that she made the most with the resources she had. She was the definition of a strong independent woman and she really made a difference for the women and the ecosystem of Kenya. For me, the definition of inspirational is someone who motivates me to do better thing or more significant thing of my life to help the world get better.

sources :

• http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_Muta_Maathai
• https://www.liberation.fr/terre/2004/10/09/wangari-maathai-la-voix-des-forets_495485

The inspirational women that I have chosen is called Leah Namugerwa. She is considered Ugandan’s Greta Thunberg. Originally from the Mukono district, she is initially helpless and sorry for the deforestation of her region due to the expansion of Kampala, the neighboring Ugandan capital. Then inspired by the Swedish initiator of the Fridays For Future movement, she, in turn, launched out at the age of 14 in a fight for the planet. Therefore, she organized her first demonstration for the defense of the environment on a Friday in February, in a suburb of Kampala. “People have criticized me. They say that at my age, on Friday, I should be in class and not on the streets to go on strike, says the teenager. It’s good that my parents told me supported and encouraged “. Leah’s father, who runs a building supplies company, accompanies him regularly for his weekly service.

When the young Ugandan Leah Namugerwa turned 15 in August, instead of celebrating her birthday with her family and friends, she decided to plant 200 trees, to warn of the damage caused to the environment in her country. Juggling between school, demonstrations, speeches she gives in the capitals of the region to call to save the planet, she is one of those young people inspired by the now-famous Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, aged 16. Leah is behind a campaign to encourage the city of Kampala to ban the use of plastic bags and to warn of the risks of deforestation and the prolonged droughts and floods attributed to climate change.

Namugerwa has been a witness to many of the negative effects that climate change has led to. Her country, like many others in Africa, is at risk of desertification – that means fertile farming land turning dry and barren. Experts say it’s caused by droughts and raised temperatures – two factors linked to climate change which is affecting Ugandan people in all aspects of life. Moreover, according to Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the problems are accumulating :

Droughts collectively affected 2.4 million people from 2004 to 2013. Moreover, between 2010 and 2011, droughts caused an estimated damage value of about $1.2 billion. That’s equivalent to roughly 7.5% of Uganda’s GDP in 2010. 
Besides, climate change will lead to a 1.5-degree increase in Uganda’s average temperature by 2030. With the increasing temperature, Uganda is susceptible to environmental degradation, which has already begun. Furthermore, all these factors are causing the agricultural sector of Uganda to falter.

To be inspiring is to bring something to others through your life, your daily life, your goals, your motivation or your personality. Mostly someone who has achieved something extraordinary. Someone inspiring knows how to sublimate themselves and make the best of themselves to prove to everyone that what was claimed to be impossible, was well achievable. Inspirational people have shown that if you believe in your ideas and your dreams, whatever the obstacle, it is possible. I believe that Leah Namurgeva is an inspiration because of how she has demonstrated how much of an impact one individual can have in our world and how she had also opened the eyes of many young Ugandans to the environmental crises in Uganda, which shows how much of an inspiration she is.
“Before, the message on climate and environment was not clear to some of us, but Leah simplified it for us, telling us that it is real and that it is a danger for all of us. . “- Jérome Mukasa, 15, one of the young people who joined her in her fight.
Striking every Friday for greater action on climate change and plastic pollution is inspirational!

• 

Striking every Friday for greater action on climate change and plastic pollution is inspirational !

Video:

References:
https://yourstory.com/herstory/2019/10/5-young-climate-change-activists-autumn-peltier-ridhima-pandey

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/climate-change-leah-namugerwa-greta-thunburg-activism-protest-uganda-a9261326.html

https://therising.co/2020/01/02/leah-namugerwa-climate-activism/

https://therising.co/2020/01/02/leah-namugerwa-climate-activism/

The inspirational women that I have chosen is named Katharine Wilkinson, she was born on January 5th, 1983 which, makes her 37 years old today. There isn’t much information about her personal life since she isn’t very well known however, she is an author of a book called  “Between God & Green: How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change” which makes a link between spirituality and climate change. She is also the Vice President of Communication & Engagement at the nonprofit Project Drawdown and was the lead writer of Drawdown, the New York Times bestseller on climate solutions. Katharine holds a doctorate in Geography & Environment from Oxford University. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, and is happiest on a mountain or a horse. 

This women is like me in the way that she is very in tune with nature and her surroundings, she has a famous quote saying “My purpose here is to be part of earth’s healing. As a member in the community of life, yours is too.” Which is very inspirational to me since, its quite refreshing seeing someone so passionate about nature and the earth we live in because we tend to take these little things for granted. What I find inspirational about her is that when she does her talks or conferences she always tries to bring humanity together by inviting us to be more aware of our surroundings and to be more educated about the world we live in.

Katharine is different from me in a sense where we come from different ethical backgrounds for instance, I’m half Armenian and Filipino from Canada, while she was born and raised in the United States. Therefore, we do have some difference regarding background however, our ideals and the way we look at life is quite similar which I also find very inspiring. I still decided I would pick her as my inspirational women because of such differences yet similarities when it comes to views and it also makes you realize that no matter where a person comes from for instance different ethical backgrounds that doesn’t stop them from having a similar outlook in life or in this case on climate change and women empowerment.

Moreover, what I find the most inspirational about this women is that she tends to relate science and spirituality which is quite rare when it comes to climate change. I love the way she brings something new to the table when it comes to fighting the issues of climate change. In this video, which I find truly inspiring she relates the subjects of if we help empower women we could stop climate change. Furthermore, when it comes to defining inspirational, for someone to inspire me they would have to be someone I aspire to be one day or someone that I could take an example off of. In this case, Wilkinson would be someone that I definitely aspire to be one day, spreading awareness about a certain cause and always relating it back to our human nature and to not forget that we are one with nature.

 

References:

-https://www.ted.com/speakers/katharine_wilkinson

-http://www.kkwilkinson.com/

-https://g.co/kgs/vjfVKy

-https://sternspeakers.com/speakers/katharine-wilkinson/

The woman of my oral presentation is Wang Yong Chen.

She is born in Anhui province, China, in 1954 and graduated from Peking University. While working as a journalist, she founded two radio programs: “Classroom on Wednesday” and “Journalists’ Salon” with the goal to raise awaireness on environnmental issues that are caused by humans. She is one of the winners of the Prize for Environmental News in 1994 and Earth Award in 2001, which is one of the most praised awards in China for environmentalists. One of Wang’s many involements to protect the ecosystem is her dedication to conserve the Nu River. Located in south of China, the Nu River is one of the two major rivers that does not have any dam (source from 2018). Many propositions of dam construction has been proposed since then, with the purporse to gain electricity and to free the population of the area from poverty. The proposition souds tempting, but the Nu River is the home of half of the country’s animal species, 7000 plants species and wihout taking acount of 22 ethnicity groups living around the river. If a dam was to be constructed, the ecosystem and the people living near the Nu River would be greatly affected. She states that women will be the most affected by the construction of the dam: “They [women] lose the land, their cultural tradition and their livelihood, particularly those who are part of ethnic minorities. Their lives are urbanized, and they shoulder more of the burdens after the men have gone to work in cities.” In 2003, Wang distributed pamplets and organized a petition in response to a plan to construct multiple hydrostations on Nu. Her work was fruitful: the project was postponed until further scientific research was made on the impact of those hydrostations have on the environment. She sees her involement more as environmental rather than political, since she thinks that we can influence politics by keeping the river clean. I think that she is not wrong; if enough people involved themselves into protecting the envirnment and taking actions agaist pollution, then politicians would and must also react and take actions against activities that harm the planet.

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yongchen

Off the Cuff: Wang Yongchen, Chinese environmental activist and reporter

https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/wang-yongchen-a-warrior-for-china%E2%80%99s-free-flowing-rivers-1684

 

Rachel McAdams, born on November 17 1978, is a canadian actress. She is known for her roles on many canadian movies such as : perfect pie, my name is Tanino and the comedy serie Sling and arrows. Rachel McAdams is also an activist, she is involved in many environmental causes. She directed an environmental lifestyle habits website called Greenisexy.org with her two friends for 5 years. She also believes that cars pollute the environment, which is why she doesn’t own one, she travels around Toronto with her bike. She volunteered in Biloxi, Missipi and Louisana, in 2005, to clean up the cities after the Hurricane Katrina. In 2013, she filmed two videos on the First Food & Water movement in order to preserve prime agricultural land and spring water in Ontario.

Rachel McAdams is an inspiring women and I chose her because I share some common traits with her. First of all, she is Canadian just like me. She also used to play volleyball back in High school, and I’ve always been a fan of this sport, I used to be on the Volleyball team in high school as well. I also see myself in her because she’s an environmental activist and this is what I like about her. She is so motivated to change the world in a better place and that’s what I want to do, I want to be like her and open people’s eyes about the environmental issues around us. Rachel McAdams is a brave women, she doesn’t fear anytime. Although, unlike her, I am scared to get more involved in environmental causes because I know some people will react in a bad way during conferences or even protests and I’m scared of the consequences. I don’t have the courage that she has. Rachel is an inspiring women to me because she’s really involved in the environment and by looking at her hard work, you can see that she wants change. What I love about her is that she use her popularity to promote climate change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_McAdams

Winona LaDuke is an American environmentalist, writer, and economist. LaDuke was born in 1959 and grew up in Los Angeles, California. Her mother was a Jewish art professor and her father was an actor as well as an Indigenous activist.  She graduated from Harvard university in 1982 with a degree in Native economic development. After graduating from Harvard, Winona moved to northern Minnesota in a white earth reservation, that was located in a rural part of Minnesota that was known for its residents having low socio-economic status. 

            LaDuke is a program director of Honor the Earth which consists of a group of people that fight for the rights of Native peoples as well as raise money for any financial or political resources. This group is also working globally and locally on the issue of climate change as well as sources of renewable energy. Along with fighting climate change, she is an advocate for Indigenous rights, a strong spokesperson for human rights around the world, supports gender and homosexuality rights among more. 

            Laduke and myself are alike in some ways because she is very determined and has a persevering personality like I do. At the moment Laduke is working on fighting against oil companies located in Minnesota to help mitigate the consequences of climate change. She has told The New York Times how “If the government issues the permit for Line 3 work, then I will be on the ground with my people. And if they don’t, either way she says, I’m going to plant my field.” This shows how persistent she is which is something that I can relate to. She is a very accomplished woman who is able to manage her projects in such a way that a lot of her successes have occurred simultaneously. This is something that I struggle with and is where we differ. She is in a group called Honor the Earth, she is fighting for Indigenous and gender rights not only locally but worldwide as well, she is rebuilding her house that she lost to a fire, all while raising three children. Winona LaDuke can handle many obstacles thrown at her and fight for all the important causes that matter to her which makes her a multi-tasker. I, on the other hand, am the type of person that is more successful in my tasks when there is a smaller number of things to accomplish.

            An important aspect of Winona LaDuke, which influenced me to choose her, was how she is capable of multi-tasking several duties so successfully. I find Winona LaDuke very inspirational because she never gives up on fighting for environmental rights not only for indigenous peoples but for non-native people as well. In my opinion, an inspirational person is someone who motivates people to want to better themselves and make them act in a way that improves their well-being. Winona LaDuke is considered to be an inspirational person because she advocates for causes that are important to her, she does many good deeds, and she fights for those who may not be able to do so for themselves, all of which results in people wanting to be more like her.

sources

: https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/winona-laduke/https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_19b23370-5bb8-11e9-b1a2-e73ac1d92409.htmlhttps://www.wuwm.com/post/environmental-activist-winona-laduke-we-have-choose-upon-which-path-embark#stream/0

Kate Marvel is a climate scientist at Columbia University, an associate research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for space studies, a teacher and a writer. She majored in physics and astronomy and has a PhD in theoretical physics. Near the end of her graduate school and the beginning of her career as a scientist, she realized she wasn’t satisfied with the field of work she was going towards. She wanted to work with science in a way that would bring more of an importance to people’s lives and make more of a difference in society and the way they view science in relation to the climate issue. This is where she found her love for climate science. She is a passionate spokesperson for climate science and focuses on spreading the right information about the dangers and effects of climate change from a scientific point of view, at a time where it is very misunderstood and where we need it the most. 

Since I had never heard of climate science, let alone Kate Marvel herself, I found her journey into the science world very intriguing and inspiring. There have always been barriers between men and women in the work force; especially when it comes to science. Since the majority of people assume scientists are dominated by men, it created a lot of doubt on her from others. In an interview she explained how people expected her to fail in her line of work: “You get a lot of people calling you stupid and uninformed in ways that they wouldn’t say to somebody who looks more like the stereotypical view of a scientist.”. Regardless of all the negativity being put on her, it never stopped her from pursuing her passion and only gave her strength to be better at a time where it would’ve been so easy to give up. This is one of the many reasons why I admire her and consider her an inspiration, especially in the science world. She has also been able to use her knowledge and platform as a respected scientist to not only publish journals on her work but teach students at universities and adults at the annual TED Talks or other major conferences to expand peoples understanding on this growing issue.

What I find inspirational about Kate Marvel is how she doesn’t accept the stereotypical views about men and women in science. She’s realized and spoken on the issue that women have always had a specific role of expanding the family and being home when that shouldn’t be the only option young girls have to hear when thinking about their future.  

References:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/328/kate-marvel/

By: Alexa Vacante