Forces of Nature profiles the inspirational grassroots work of 12 young people recognized with the nation's top environmental prize for young people - the Brower Youth Awards.  Among those profiled in short 4-5 minute segments are articulate young people who are:

- Transforming the food and eating practices at universities across California.
-Leading a group of 200 students advocating a transition to biomass heating in Vermont.
-Launching a company that focuses on energy efficiency projects led by community members.
- Training hundreds of young people to become climate champions.
- Launching a non-profit to create a migratory corridor in the Costa Rican rainforest.
- Educating a community about the dangers of living near dirty coal-fired power plants.

The DVD can be viewed in two 25 minute segments, or in 12 short segments. Teachers who promote service learning and community engagement will find this an inspirational tool for their students.

Order the film today!

            At the age of 22, after finishing her undergraduate theses, naturally the next step for native Angeleno Kesha Ram was to secure a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives, becoming the youngest person and the only person of color to do so.

Well it wasn’t that simple, but considering Kesha’s long history of activism and her participation in student and local governments while an undergrad at the University of Vermont well prepared her for her position. She was endorsed by numerous state senators and representatives, and also the youngest woman to be endorsed by Emily’s List .

On November 17^th, 2008 environmental activists, former coal miners, Navajo tribe members and a Wyoming rancher came together in Charleston, West Virginia to discuss the negative impact that coal has had on their lives and their communities.

These people and many more came together to form the Power Past Coal
initiative, an organization created to unify those working to end the destructive forces of coal mining, spearheaded and organized by Sierra Crane-Murdoch, a student at Vermont’s Middlebury college.

Power past coal initiated the 100 days of action, a movement that connected many different anti-coal events throughout the country: one event each day for the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency. By the end of the campaign there were over 300 hundred events, ranging from lobbying days to protests to rallies to teach-ins and permit hearings. In total there were over 300 actions in 100 days in all fifty states; thirty-five organizations joined the project, and four dozen more that participated; and there were over 500 lobby meetings with Congress.

“Our goal was to collect stories from communities impacted by coal …and convince President Obama, the EPA, the CEQ, and our Congressmen and women to enact the policies that would allow our country to “swiftly and justly” transition away from coal,” said Murdoch.

Among these actions was the March 2nd civil disobedience at the Capitol Coal Plant, which shut down operation for four hours and convinced the district to stop burning coal. Similarly, an April protest in North Carolina lead to 44 arrests for trespassing.

The Power Past Coal project was immensely successful, engaging a nationwide network of communities impacted by coal who had never worked together before. And it seemed the government began to listen: over the course of the project there were five mountaintop removal permits revoked, more than twenty new coal plant permits denied, and commitments from the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide from coal plants and coal ash from slurry ponds.

            At the University of California, Irvine, only 10% of the food bought by the dining system is “real” food, that is, whole fruits, vegetables and grains, not terrible, considering the national average is 2%. The rest is the processed, modified and additive-laden foodstuffs that have been plaguing our country for the past few decades.

If you have been following the youth environmental movement in the past few years, it would be difficult to have missed the name Alec Loorz. Alec has been an environmental activist since seeing the film "An Inconvenient Truth" two years ago. At the time, Alec wanted to become one of the 1000 trained presenters of Al Gore's global warming presentation, but was denied because of his age - which at the time was 12.

Unwilling to give up on his desire to educate the world about global warming, Alec sought out the nearest Inconvenient truth presenter, and learned his own version of the presentation. About a year later he finally met Al Gore and became the youngest official presenter in October of 2008.

Now 14, Alec has given 75 presentations to over 10,000 people, and has been the keynote speaker at events such as the City of Los Angeles' Environmental Youth Conference.

He has also founded the organization Kids vs. Global Warming, which mobilized youth to start fighting global warming, as well as the SLAP (Sea Level Awareness Project) which on June 29th will install poles along the coast of his hometown of Ventura, California which measure sea levels in order to show the community the changes caused by global warming.