New Generation Revolutionizes Environmental Activism

Internet, social networking help build global movements more quickly

June 20, 2011

Environmental activists have relied on public pressure, boycotts and confrontation to advance their cause over the past few decades. Now, a new generation of eco-warriors is revolutionizing environmental activism.

While traveling the globe campaigning against whaling, Emily Hunter met many innovative eco-warriors.

'The Next Eco-Warriors' shares the stories of a new generation of activists who tackle issues of climate change, marine conservation, the rainforest and other environmental concerns.

“There are people like Jamie Henn who used the Internet with 350.org, to mobilize and connect a global climate movement into being," says Hunter. "People like Tania Field, an African-American woman and single mother in the Bronx, New York, who used urban farming actually as a tool for change."

Field created a natural space for the community where neighbors could come together and build a project to get access to food.

"And a place where other women like herself could get training and workshops and really empower themselves,” says Hunter.

Hunter grew up with environmental activism. Her parents were co-founders of Greenpeace. Her father, Robert Hunter, led the first on-sea protest against whaling and campaigned against nuclear testing and climate change. Time magazine named him one of the Eco-Heroes of the 20th century. His daughter says the 21st century eco-movement is different.