Rebel Girls Climate Warriors: 25 Tales of Women Who Protect the Earth
6 ANGELINA ARORA INVENTOR One day Angelina was at the supermarket when the cashier asked her to pay for a plastic bag The cashier explained that plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose in landfills and that plastic bags often end up in the ocean So Australia had passed laws to help reduce plastic waste When it came time to do her ninth grade science project Angelina thought about what the cashier had said What if I could develop a more natural plastic a bioplastic that didn't harm the Earth she thought Angelina experimented with cornstarch potato starch and even old banana peels Nothing worked Then she went out for fish and chips and had a wild idea Looking down at a pile of shrimp shells tossed in the trash she noticed something The shiny almost see-through shells looked a lot like plastic What are they made of she wondered She soon learned that shrimp shells contain a material called chitin Some scientists were already using chitin to make bioplastics because it's sturdy and doesn't dissolve in water Plus there's a lot of it Australia produces 75,000 tons of seafood waste every year With so much material at hand it seemed silly not to make plastic out of shrimp After a lot of trial and error Angelina cooked up a recipe that combined chitin and a chemical found in silkworm cocoons Her bioplastic is unusually good It's strong flexible and foldable While most plastic takes 400 years to break down Angelina's takes just 33 days And it doesn't release harmful chemicals into the environment When Angelina's plastic breaks down in dirt it gives off a chemical that actually helps plants grow BIRTHDATE UNKNOWN AUSTRALIA
it Do ILLUSTRATION BY KARYN LEE PLEASE JOIN ME IN MY JOURNEYAN PAVING THE WAY TOWARD A GREENER FUTURE BELIEVE ME WE CAN -ANGELINA ARORA
8 ANNE HIDALGO POLITICIAN Before she was the mayor of Paris Anne was a little Spanish girl in San Fernando Spain Born Ana María to a father who was an electrician and a mother who was a seamstress Anne moved to Lyon France with her family when she was two years old But she had trouble fitting in When she was in second grade her teacher told her that little Spanish girls don't make it to the top of the class Anne was ready to prove her wrong At 14 years old Anne became a French citizen Later she began to study social services and law She saw how hard it was for people to get housing or enjoy the outdoors She wanted to work in government so she could help people and change the way cities were structured Anne loved Paris and its ancient monuments and cathedrals But what about its future There were so many congested roads polluted rivers and parks covered in concrete Anne was determined to make the city greener In 2014 Anne became the first-ever woman to be elected mayor of Paris Since then she has transformed the city She banned cars from certain streets and helped build miles of new bike lanes to cut pollution She had thousands of new trees planted and invested in green roofs electric buses and free public transportation She also helped draft the Paris Agreement which is a plan and promise from many nations to fight climate change We've rediscovered quite simple things Anne says about her work simple but amazing like the joy of smelling cherry blossoms in the spring or finding shade on a hot summer day BORN JUNE 19 1959 SPAIN AND FRANCE
MY VISION FOR PARIS IS AS A GREEN CITY WHERE WE CAN ALL BREATHE FRESH AIR SHARE OPEN SPACE AND ENJOY OUR LIVES ANNE HIDALGO ILLUSTRATION BY ALICE PIAGGIO
