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NVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

Environmental Envoy
Shawna Larson, 28
Chickaloon, Alaska
'In Alaska, we're finding dioxins in fish and seeing tumors in caribou and moose. I don't think we should leave this for future generations,' says Shawna Larson, soon to be a mother of two. Of Athabascan and Aleut heritage, Larson began working for Alaska Community Action on Toxics (www.akaction.net) two years ago, focusing on dioxins and other contaminants, known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), that are slow to break down in the environment. Larson collected resolutions from 50 tribal councils in support of strengthening the Stockholm POPs agreement, a United Nations treaty written in December 2000. Larson joined others insisting that the wording include the 'precautionary principle,' which demands that chemical manufacturers prove their products are safe before putting them on the market. They also called for the U.S. to remember its government-to-government obligation to consult with federally recognized Indian tribes, considered sovereign nations, when negotiating international treaties. 'I'm interested in sovereignty issues,' says Larson, 'and how to always keep our tribe in the forefront of things by pushing the government forward and holding them accountable.'
-Abbie Jarman

Inventor of the Recycled Road
Gina Gallant, 15
Prince George, British Columbia
Driving with her family along Cash Creek, known locally as Trash Creek because of an overflowing landfill site nearby, Gina Gallant had a brainstorm: Why not use garbage to pave roadways? The Canadian teen, who has been inventing since first grade, ambitiously set about developing a new paving material-dubbed PAR for PolyAggreRoad-that mixes discarded plastic bottles with stone material and liquid asphalt. To take the product out of the lab and onto the streets, she tracked down companies willing to grind the plastic to her specifications and mix up enough of the compound to pave an actual road. A test is in the works. -Maria Opitz

Green Beacons
Michele Robbins, 26, and Ocean Robbins, 28
Santa Cruz, California
Organizing protests in his elementary school at age 7, Ocean Robbins, son of Diet for a New America author and environmental activist John Robbins, established Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) in 1990-at age 16. He is now co-president with his wife, Michele, who as a teen worked as a peace activist in Soviet Russia. YES! (www.yesworld.org) introduces ideas about social justice and environmental care at thousands of school assemblies, workshops, and retreats. Young people in 45 nations have been inspired to take action: They organize gang truces, lobby school cafeterias for organic foods, and set up socially responsible businesses. Supported by a board of directors made up of older activists, YES! encourages young people not to abandon the ideals that too often fizzle out with age. The Robbins, parents of identical twins, have one goal: 'We want to put ourselves out of business.'
-Abbie Jarman

Democratic Scientist
Madeleine Scammell, 29
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Madeleine Scammell found her life's calling in a glass of milk. While she was a student at the University of Vermont, she knew researchers there-funded by Monsanto-were taking a national lead in developing recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which intensifies cows' milk production. Simultaneously, she learned that local dairy farmers were struggling because of low commodity prices for their milk, the result of a glut of milk on the market. Things just didn't add up. 'Since then,' Scammell says, 'I've been trying to span the disconnect between people's priorities and how resources are actually used and dedicated.' An expert on the democratization of science, she spent five years at the Loka Institute (www.loka.org), a nonprofit concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of research, science, and technology. Now she's at Boston University's School of Public Health coordinating researchers and community groups working to clean up toxic Superfund sites, at the same time working on a Ph.D. in environmental health sciences.
-Karen Olson

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