01. Question 1

Our Question: If you could choose anyone in the world to be your special climate hero or role model, who would it be?

02. Question 2

Our Question: Magic Johnson said: “I believe in the power of heroes. What is a hero? There are as many different answers to that question as there are people in the world, and that’s a good thing: we need different kinds of role models for different kinds of people. I personally think a hero is a leader who has a positive impact on people. A hero is someone who acts and through those actions changes the world.” – Tell me your definition of a hero.

03. Question 3

Our Question: A group of students thought it would be great to collect portraits of climate heros from all over the world. That’s what they say: “If we show people that if those local climate heros can make the effort, then anybody can. Let them see that what they are doing is rapidly becoming the norm, not the exception. Your climate heros don’t need to be famous. We’d like to show people just like you and me – with the little difference that they care. The goal is to realize an impressive exhibition of portraits from all over the world.” a) What are the most important things people in your country need to change in order to become climate heros? b) Some participants of this projects don’t like the word “hero”. Which other words could we use instead?

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01. Question 1

Our Answer: Wangari Maathai! She is the founder of the green belt movement and the winner of the nobel peace prize. She is from Kenya!!! She says: I mean caring for the natural world by conserving our wilderness, planting trees, and preserving watersheds, forests, and endangered species, and not despoiling them. But, more than that, I mean cherishing the world as more than a primary source to be exploited without any thought for the future—whether for our species, or the many other species who share the planet with us. Love for the environment has a very practical component in our work as well, since members of the Green Belt Movement receive only a token amount of money, so they have to draw on a love for the environment to keep going. I would also say that love for the environment also means feeling inspired by nature, enjoying its vitality and beauty. So many of us are cut off from the natural world: we need to reconnect with it. Doing so will replenish ourselves as well as help us replenish the earth.

02. Question 2

Our Answer: Mottainai: The Four R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, ...and Repair) Wangari Maathai first learned of the concept mottainai while visiting Japan. One meaning in Japanese is "what a waste!" But it also captures in one term the "Three Rs" that environmentalists have been campaigning on for a number of years: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Maathai is seeking to make mottainai a global campaign, adding one more "R" suggested by Klaus Töpfer, the head of the UN Environment Program: "respect" resources. A hero practices mottainai! you can practice it in rich countries where overconsumption is rampant, and we can do it in regions where environmental devastation is causing the poor to get poorer and the ecosystems on which they depend to be degraded, some beyond repair. Wangari Maathai says: Well, the obvious answer is to use them wisely and not waste them: to be frugal and conserve. I have been very impressed with the Japanese concept of mottainai, which is analogous to the 3Rs in the West: reduce, reuse, recycle. But mottainai also contains a sense of guilt over wasting things—which I fear we’ve forgotten today. Mottainai is a concept that had until recently gone out of fashion in Japan, because it reminded some people of a time when they weren’t rich. I certainly don’t want to encourage the idea that we should all be poor, but I like the idea of returning to the traditions that used to sustain our communities, wherever they were, before the onrush of materialism and waste made them unfashionable. These traditions may not have been directly environmental but in that they held a reverence for some trees, or made sure that food was left aside for passing travelers, for instance, they ensured that our communities always practiced gratitude and respect for what they had been entrusted by the Creator.

03. Question 3

Our Answer: a) On the 10th October 2010 people around the world will be taking part in a Global Day of Doing to protect our planet from climate change. We need to plant many trees - not only on the 10th of October! b) The do-or-die lion heart (-:

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