Planting Peace: An Evening with
2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai
Click here to see an excerpt from Dr. Maathai's speaking program.
Click here
to view photos from the event.
An enthusiastic crowd cheered Nobel Peace
Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai with multiple standing ovations when she
spoke at Faneuil Hall on October 24, 2006 on behalf of Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition’s
Planting Peace program.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino welcomed
Dr. Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and encouraged the Boston Public School
students in attendance to learn from her inspiring message, noting that
“this evening is an extension of your classroom work.”
Menino confessed, “I’m a fanatic for
trees.” He explained that, “Trees do so much for the
way we look at our neighborhoods. Boston is blessed with a
wonderful array in our tree canopy with 29% of the city boasting tree
coverage.
This is a better rate than New York or Baltimore, but it is not good
enough. We can and must do more to retain what we have and expand
for the future,” he added, noting that 1500 new
trees have been planted along city streets in the last three years.
Sherri Brokopp, Chair of Boston’s Urban
Forest Coalition (BUFC), thanked Dr. Maathai for her work and for coming
to Boston to support the Coalition and for her work which earned her the
Nobel in 2004 for “her contribution to sustainable development,
democracy and peace.”
“A healthy environment, including trees,
provides benefits beyond just the physical ones. Healthier neighborhoods
mean healthier people, and healthier people create better communities,”
said Brokopp. “Dr. Maathai has demonstrated the vital connections
between people and trees throughout Africa. As Dr. Maathai and her Green Belt Movement International say,
‘The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the
simple step of digging a hole and planting a tree, we plant hope for
ourselves and for future generations.’ This is the vision of Boston’s
Urban Forest Coalition and we invite the community to join us in this
effort to plant hope for Boston’s future generations.”
Massachusetts Department of Conservation
and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Stephen Burrington introduced Dr.
Maathai to the audience of teachers, community leaders,
environmentalists, students, and the general public. In recognition of
her appearance, he announced that DCR will contribute 100 trees to be
planted in Boston’s public spaces as part of next April’s Arbor Day
celebration.
In wide-ranging remarks, Dr. Maathai
helped the crowd see the connection between the simple act of planting
and protecting trees and the seemingly-impossible task of waging peace.
Taking the microphone at Faneuil Hall,
Dr. Maathai began, “I am honored to be here where we can reflect on the
historic decisions made in this great hall, a cradle of liberty, and the
ways in which we can all play a small part in the future.”
She told about her childhood, when she
gathered firewood from all but the old fig tree near her homestead. In
those days, the healthy stream nearby was teeming with frogs’ eggs, then
tadpoles, and she spent hours trying to catch them. But the old tree
was cut down, its deep roots no longer drew water to the surface, and
the stream dried up. Now the children in the area do not know of frogs’
eggs or tadpoles, and the land is parched. “Because environmental
destruction happens slowly,” Dr. Maathai noted, “we don’t notice it.
The generation that destroys is not the one that pays the price.”
Dr. Maathai suggested that the Nobel
Committee, in selecting an environmentalist for the Peace Prize, is
trying to change our mindset about the causes of peace and security.
She said the Nobel Committee is suggesting that we consider pre-empting
conflict by managing resources more equitably. Africa, she noted, is
rich in natural resources, but “we are among the poorest people because
we don’t nurture the three pillars of a healthy society.” Those
pillars, which she likened to a traditional African 3-legged stool, are:
·
Sustainable management of
limited resources
·
Good governance
·
Peace, deliberately and
consciously nurtured.
Africa and many parts of the world are
awash in war and conflict. “When you remove the camouflage of race,
religion, and tribe, you see that most conflicts are a fight over
resources – water, land, oil.” For example, the Maasai tribe in Kenya has lost
grazing land for its cattle as the Kikuyus have been cutting forests for
income. The shrinking forest-land no longer retains enough rainfall to
keep the grazing lands green. The tribes are in conflict because their
subsistence is threatened. While the conflict may appear tribal, it is
actually a fight over water and grazing and farming ground.
Dr. Maathai told of her heartbreak when astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery reported that
they saw a dark cloud of dust over Africa, and that the rivers were
brown with silt, all the result of deforestation. She’s been working
for 30 years to encourage the planting and protecting of trees, and her
Green Belt Movement International has planted more than 30 million
trees. But she reminds herself that “you must be patient, you must be
persistent.”
She challenged the audience to take steps to improve the situation, both in their own communities and
worldwide. What can individuals do? First, plant trees. Every human
being needs ten trees to absorb our own carbon dioxide, she explained.
“If you don’t plant at least ten trees, you’re living in debt!”
She also urged the audience to buy furniture and wood-products only from sustainably-managed forests,
to discourage deforestation. Dr. Maathai also commended rock-star
Bono’s campaign to encourage the G-8 industrial nations to cancel the
debt incurred by corrupt and irresponsible governments of poor
countries.
Dr. Maathai also urged the audience to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” the global warming documentary by former
Vice President Al Gore. Seeing the images of the loss of the snowcap on
Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro helps people see the reality of climate
change, and the threat it brings to our dwindling resources.
And always, plant and protect trees.
“Whether a tree is in the U.S., Japan, the Congo, or Amazon, every tree
is important for our survival. And every tree must be planted one at a
time. It doesn’t happen overnight,” she warned.
But she does not get discouraged. She told the story of a tiny
hummingbird, fighting a raging forest fire by flitting back and forth to
douse the flames with water, one drop at a time. When the other forest
animals ridiculed the hummingbird for this effort, the bird explained,
“I’m doing the best I can.” Dr. Maathai, who has inspired people across
Africa and throughout the world to plant trees one-at-a-time, urged the
Boston audience to be hummingbirds in their own communities, “by doing
the best we can.”
Click here to view photos from the event.
Click here to see
an excerpt from Dr. Maathai's speaking program.