New Environmentalists - Season 1

Profiles 6 individuals: In Belgium a naturalist designed and runs his country's first national park. In Mexico a farm leader helps his people use ancient technology to grow their traditional crop, while preserving water and preventing erosion. In Siberia, a local biologist helps protect Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake. In Ecuador two men force a huge multi-national oil company to clean up 20 years of environmental damage; in Mozambique, a local musician teaches sustainable sanitation practices to the country's poor though his music; in Puerto Rico, a local housewife organized and galvanized her community to fight air pollution.

Profiles 6 individuals: In the USA an Appalachian native battles Mountaintop Removal coal mining. In Indonesia, a woman helped solve Bali's waste management crisis. In Suriname, two indigenous leaders organized their communities against logging on native lands. In Bangladesh; an environmental lawyer won a decisive victory against her country's powerful "ship breaking" industry; in Russia a scientist has created an educational network to help identify and eliminate toxic chemicals in the environment; in Gabon a crusader stood up to the government to help save a majestic waterfall and rainforest from an iron mine.

Profiles 6 individuals: In Michigan a family farmer boldly exposed the polluting practices of livestock factory farms, gaining the attention of the EPA; In Cuba a scientist has shifted from chemical dependence to organic practices of sustainable farming. In Costa Rica, an activist starts a movement to stop shark finning. In Cambodia, a visionary created solutions for protecting both the rural farmer's fields and the endangered Asian elephants who try to eat the crop. In Poland, a young activist successfully led the fight to stop a major highway that would have jeopardized the wildlife and vegetation in the pristine Rospuda Valley; in Swaziland the country's only environmental attorney, is spearheading a 20-year battle between private game park owners and the indigenous people who they have evicted.

Profiles 6 individuals: In Germany community activists respond to the Chernobyl nuclear accident by creating the country's first successful, cooperatively owned, renewable power company. In Texas, an entrepreneur returns home to his environmentally damaged coastal community to fight a major industrial polluter. In Zimbabwe when the rhino population in his homeland is threatened by heavily armed poachers, a visionary bush pilot moves the animals hundreds of miles to safety. In El Salvador courageous farmers are paying with their lives as they stand up against a transnational gold mining corporation to protect their fragile water resources; In Indonesia a charismatic teacher leads the cleanup of the Surabaya River from a flood of industrial chemicals and sewage that are causing severe health issues. In Russia on an island off the coast of Siberia, a dedicated activist fights to protect endangered wildlife and the region's biodiversity from oil and gas development.

Profiles 6 individuals: In Russia an activist is mobilizing her fellow Russian citizens to reroute a highway that would destroy Moscow's Khimki Forest. In Argentina a local women stops the indiscriminate spraying of toxic agrochemicals on the soy fields surrounding her barrio and across the region. In the Arctic Garden an Inupiat indigenous leader takes aim at the threat of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Sea which threatens her people and the region's biodiversity. In the Philippines, a Catholic priest on the Island of Mindoro leads a courageous hunger strike to try to halt construction of a dangerous nickel mine. In Kenya, an activist leads an effort to stop construction on a $60 billion dam that would seriously threaten Lake Turkana and the people whose survival depends on it. In China Ma Jun created a website to mobilize the Chinese citizens to challenge the corporate sources of some of the world's worst air and water pollution.