Dr. Wangari Maathai's

speech was very interesting. There were lots of people, actually the whole auditorium was full which was surprising. She spoke about how she began the whole Greenbelt Movement and how it led her to getting the Nobel Peace Prize.

I had an aha! moment after she explained why she was picked for the nobel peace prize when really her movement is about planting trees, I never understood the connection. She says that at the center of most wars and conflicts in the world today is the fight for natural resources (she didn't mention oil but we got it). If there're enough resources in this world to go around for everyone, then there'll be no reason to fight for them, hence PEACE.

All it takes is for us to do our part in saving the environment. Buy a hybrid car, recycle trash, plant a tree, whatever, it doesn't matter what so long as we all do our part. She also mentioned Al Gore's movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, numerous times. The gist from this was that fresh water will eventually become an endangered natural resource as sea levels rise from glaciers melting (seas contain salty water which will infiltrate fresh water lakes).

Final words: Be patient, be persistent, be committed! No matter how tough things seem to be, if you look hard enough, there's a silver lining. Grab a hold of that silver lining and use it to pull yourself up.

Great message all around!