Eriel Deranger
Unlike the big-name environmental heroes of the last few decades, the people inspiring Elizabeth May and Tzeporah Berman today are largely unknown and without the backing of big NGOs – much like many of the people we’ve profiled in our Heroes issue.
Like David Suzuki, Elizabeth May’s environmental awakening in 1970 can be traced to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – and to the pesticides that killed her pet sheep as a child. But May found it hard to narrow down her present-day inspiration: “there are so many people across Canada who are giving up their own lives to protect something that should never be under threat at all.” Listen to find out who she chose!
Likewise, the people who give Tzeporah Berman “the juice to keep going every day” are younger, lesser-known heroes like Eriel Deranger and Celine Trojan. Tzeporah Berman describes the inspiring “egolessness,” political prowess, ability to balance organizing with family, and graceful leadership of these two powerhouses.
Berman also emphasizes the importance of creating political muscle for the environmental movement and what the Dogwood Initiative‘s Celine Trojan is doing to build it.
Listen to youth heroes at COP19 in the previous A\J podcast, and the Suzuki family podcast to hear from David Suzuki and his daughter Severn.
