New Year’s Eve! Woohoo. I’m in Boston, so the day is barely getting started but in Australia it’s already 2010. Isn’t that weird, how time zones work? Here, we’re still in one decade, but over there, they get to be in the next decade at the same time!
A good portion of my blogs this year have focused on Change Agent activity that’s happening around the world and off of this website. Today I thought I’d bring the focus back in a bit and highlight some of the sweetest stuff from the Changents community.
[change agent stories that blew us away]
Swim until it hurts...then swim some more: On April 22, Christopher Swain dove off a dock in Marblehead, Massachusetts into the cold, dirty Atlantic Ocean to begin a 1,000+ mile swim to Washington DC. Is Swain insane?! Possibly, but as he described the first strokes of his Swim For A Healthy World, "the waves looked green (and blue and violet and gray and black and gold)...and I knew I was ready to meet them." Join the adventure.
Be the changer or be the change: In red-hot July, eco-designer Nate Bastien spent three days and nights on the hard streets of Boston without any money, food, water, shelter - nada. WTF was he thinking? Had to test out his "Street Pack," a multi-purpose backpack for homeless people made entirely from recycled materials that would otherwise be landfill-fodder. These three days changed his life...and his story sparked a fiery discussion on Changents.com. Check it out.
Cruelty to the kind: It's hard enough to be a Change Agent but when nature decides to hammer a do-gooder, you gotta ask, "Could it have happened to a nicer person?" On September 21, Denise Russo lost her house in Austell, Georgia to a flash flood. Ironically, Denise works to raise awareness about the global water crisis. Change Agents take care of their own and her moving story got people motivated. We are incredibly proud that the Changents community rallied behind Denise with amazing offers of assistance and supportive comments.
Reclaiming life in Rwanda: Cambodia, Kosovo...and Rwanda...are seared in our memories as scenes of genocidal horror in the last quarter of the 20th century. But heroes on the ground are fighting to nurture life in these places that are so closely tied with death. Elie Nduwayesu taught us what "Nkundabana" means in a blog that describes why he's dedicating his life to orphans in Rwanda.
Step aside, backpack farm coming through: Agri-preneur Rachel Zedeck is in Kenya working with individual farmers to address the perennial food crisis. Rachel's solution is simple and powerful: she's enabling farmers to triple their crop growth with a sustainable farming system that literally shows up in a backpack! See for yourself how she's working wonders. 
What's stuck to my shoe?: Eco-photographer Andrea Bakacs revealed (with great photos and scary facts) the #1 cause of litter in New York City - and it isn't what you'd think!
[pictures & videos that screamed louder than words]
Scott Harrison stunned us with a beautiful slide show about "The End of the World," a village in Central African Republic. Scott's org, charity: water, changed lives in an instant - as they have done so many times before - when they drilled a clean water well for the village. Click here to see all the pictures.
Christine Destrempes' exhibit "13,699" stands for the number of people who die each day from water related diseases. Each person is represented by a bottle cap - captured before heading to the landfill and suspended from fishing line.
This looks like paradise, right? Erland Howden may have captured a gorgeous beach scene in Papua, New Guinea, but if you look closer you can see that the sand is disappearing from the base of the palm tree. The culprit? Erosion caused by global warming.
"What happens when a baby turtle gets caught in a plastic milk jug ring?" Anna Cummins shows that the answer is not pretty and reminds us that plastics are forever.
Dorothee Royal-Hedinger has been traveling all around the US, capturing our best organic hot spots on camera. Micro brew enthusiasts will enjoy this primer on the craft of creating organic beer - shot behind the scenes at one of Portland, Oregon's treasures: Laurelwood Brewing Company.
Last summer Chad Caster & his team from Global Rebirth brought advanced nutrition to a gypsy camp in Romania. I bet you can't watch these three 30 sec videos and not smile!
[the fresh faces of Changents]
A bunch of new Change Agents jumped onto our radar in 2009. Here's the scoop on a just couple on the front end of the age curve that we'll be following closely...and you should too!
Tino Chow: This summer TED Fellow Tino biked across America and built affordable housing at stops along the way. Up next? This RISD grad's new design consultancy called Big New Ideas (of which Tino has tons!) where he helps start-ups and non profits realize their, well, big new ideas.
The Green Guerrillas: Hailing from Ithaca, New York, the GGs are young, media-savvy storytellers who are hellbent on spreading the word about sustainability. Watch their great videos on veggie oil, or read up on their next big hurdle: tackling the natural gas fight which threatens to wreak havoc on their home state.
Dylan of the Lil' MDGs: After an eye opening trip to India, Dylan founded the Lil' MDGs to educate, inspire, and empower the youth of our world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. He's gearing up for a crazy 2010. Oh yeah, did we mention that he hasn't even graduated high school yet?
Atlas & Jason Caproni: This brotherly duo is on a mission to film all forty of Florida's endangered animals in one year. Biologists say it can't be done, but as true young Change Agents they are determined to prove the old guard wrong! See what they've already caught on tape and be on the look out for more.
I want to say thank you to all the amazing Change Agents and Backers out there who made 2009 an amazing year. Lot's ahead in 2010 :) Cheers everyone!
