'I will always be in the shade of the trees I have planted,' says Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, speaking in Stockholm recently in support of Green Cross, Sweden. 

Report by Rachel Aspögård

 

Most active thinking Stockholmers were aware of the local environmental event that was held on 1 April at the town hall, under the sponsorship of a post-code lottery. Wangari Maathai was involved, along with former UK prime minister Tony Blair, and former US President Bill Clinton.

Ms Maathai continued her passion for environmental issues by giving a speech the following day to Green Cross Sweden, at their AGM. 

She began by stressing that we need to continue the trend of emphasising climate awareness and climate change.  Making reference to her 30 years of planting trees in Kenya, and her action at the first ‘Women’s Conference’ of 1973 – as well in China in 1995 – she noted how this past decade has seen a lot of changes for those women active within NGOs that have worked hard to stress environmental issues.  It was following the Beijing conference in 1995 that many women planted many trees; and in turn many scientists began to take seriously the issues of our planet, and what needs to be protected and changed.

Due to her protective activities for the forests in Kenya, and her attempts to raise awareness in African governments and people, Wangari Maathai was finally recognised by the Nobel Committee in Sweden. 

"However," she said, “there is still much work to be done.  We are now nearly 7 billion people on the Earth, and those extra people also need more land and especially water to continue to survive. With the current trend of mass consumerism and greed, it will be us and not the planet that is going to be extinct if we don’t change our attitudes. The positive side however, is that environmental issues are creating a global humanistic unity.”

“It is also important that we as people stay strong and re-organise our political laws, especially those that divide the rich and the poor.  When people’s basic rights are being violated, then there will be riots.” 

Citing her own experiences in Kenya, the unrest there last year was basically due to the strong division between those with and those without basic human rights, and provisions that we in Europe take for granted.  Tribal factions can erupt due to the basic needs for farming spaces and water. ‘Tribal conflicts can spiral out of control, and cause even bigger conflicts; this is now magnified in countries such as DRC in Africa,’ she said.

She mentioned the activities of Green Cross and their peace projects in Kenya in 2006, where 2,000 trees were planted by the Green Belt movement to promote peace initiatives within local communities.  The project was suspended when conflict erupted between the Kikuyu and Masaai tribes, but in recent months has re-emerged with new peacebuilding councils and a football team, all overseen by Ms Mathaai . 

Talking about the future, she emphasised that, “Forests need rehabilitation. Internal unrest is just a reflection of land imbalance. The mountains in Africa are feeling the affects, and so are the mountains in Tibet and Nepal.”

“If there is no rainfall or moving rivers, then we can look forward to starvation and death.  East Africa is in great danger of this being a reality in the future. 

Malaria has also become an even bigger problem in Kenya.  When she was born in 1940, malaria was never known in the highlands of Kenya, her birthplace.  But people are now getting an illness known as ‘Highland Malaria’ in these and other highland regions of Africa, due to the temperature change.

Ms Maathai made reference to Dr James Lovelock’s books and predictions on climate changes.  “The outlook he writes about may to many people sound pessimistic,” she said, as he has stated that the planet will be fine; but will we, the human beings, be able to adapt or change in time? She very amusingly stressed in the same breath, ‘the mosquitoes have adapted - are people able to do the same?’

Referring back to her own experiences in Africa, she pointed out that “The rivers are disappearing, the vegetation is also disappearing, and the Sahara is expanding as well.  Crop failures in Kenya alone are a serious cause for concern.  Water is now more expensive than Coca-Cola in Kenya, the wetlands climate has now drastically changed, and carbon dioxide is also trapped underneath these areas.  This is also, therefore, very dangerous.”

She was adamant that everyone needs to also stay positive in our work to improve our environmental issues, and talked about what had given her great hope and inspiration - her exposure to Buddhist philosophy, which he she heard mainly from ordinary people while visiting Japan after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

She emphasised the concept of 're-use, reduce, and re-cycle', and said that in Japan she had learned the attitude of showing respect, and of having gratitude for all things to do with daily living.  Gratitude is key for developing the right attitude, she said, and that “It is also important we all find something to live for.”

Wangari Maathai’s speech at the GC AGM continued to echo what all environmentalists have been saying for the past two decades – we have to also find way to create a low carbon economy.  Reflecting on the recent banking crisis and the destruction left in its wake, she remarked, “What can we learn from mismanagement of the banking system?  Does it not show how we are in some way all interconnected?"

Her philosophy is also this: “When you upset the balance in Africa, then the ripples will go out to Europe.  This is inevitable.  So please work every day towards doing something to protect the planet. Do the best you can - and that is all you can do.”

Rachel Aspögård has been a member of Soka Gaakai International since 1986, and writes for SGI Sweden. Additionally, she is a supporter and member of the Green Cross (Sweden branch).

Rachel has been a freelance writer and editor for over a decade and is a co-author of the book, Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine.  Her current work is focused on the effects of war on ordinary people, and writing war poetry.