This is a guest post by Northern California Educator Ashel Eldridge.

This past week, the Earth lost one of her most passionate and effective voices. When I first heard that Dr. Wangari Maathai had passed away, I immediately went to tears. I had the honor to meet her a couple of years ago at a symbolic tree planting at a fancy green business event in California. She had inspired this business to take on planting a million trees themselves. I welled up because she, who was born into the most humble beginnings, became the first African Woman Nobel Laureate who literally changed the political and environmental climate in Kenya. When I thought of how she was beaten unconscious while protesting a repressive Kenyan government decision to build a highway through a dense forest and displace hundreds of indigenous families in her land, my tears honored her courage. When I thought of how she never became embittered by this, but became more focused and steadfast to her principles, I became a true disciple.

She thus went on to create the Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries. I sobbed because it became clear to me that a true revolutionary force had just left the planet.

Professor Wangari was full of a wisdom that allowed her work to connect the dots. She was clear that degrading the environment meant a degraded population and that both were at the root of poverty. Even when she went through a heated divorce with her former husband who claimed that she was too powerful and educated and thus “uncontrollable”, she continued to travel the planet working to eradicate poverty by promoting democracy and empowering women, who are usually the farmers and the village caretakers. Thus Maathai’s presence alone exposed the idea the that disrespecting the feminine principle and women gives way to defiling and misusing Earth’s resources and vice versa.

She stated many times over that many conflicts around the world were a direct result of the lack of natural resources or healthy ecosystems that support life. Based on these understandings she became a champion for the climate, witnessing first hand, for example, how the genocidal starvation that is happening is Somalia is because of the extensive droughts in that land AND the moral destitution of political leaders in the region.

May Dr. Wangari Maathai one day be a household name – a heroine that every child learns about in school worldwide. May we follow in her footsteps by planting trees and healthy communities, and by continuing to “speak truth to power” to liberate humanity from the bondage of its own willful ignorance, prejudice, and greed.

Peep this song, Lady Justice, from the album Earth Amplified by AshEL Seasunz and J.Bless that honors powerful women such as Wangari Maathai.