We are on the eve of the beginning of a journey that will change many lives, engage millions of youth, and possibly help end deforestation in the oldest rainforest on Earth, Borneo.  I believe that  moments like this are part of the writing of a new narrative, a narrative of a new generation on the rise,  a generation of change-makers tackling some of the greatest crises of our time. This is what i have come to call The Next Eco-Warriors. But to truly understand the new narrative being written, we must first take a step back and reexamine the past narratives of eco-warriors. 

The term 'Eco-Warrior' has been used by varying generations and is deeply rooted in history. My father, Robert Hunter, had first coined the term "Eco-Warrior" after a Cree Indigenous prophecy called the "Warriors of the Rainbow." There is much we can learn from Indigenous Peoples, but also in this. It is said in this prophecy that there would be a time when the "birds would fall out of the skies (i.e. mysterious animal deaths), the fish would be poisoned in their streams (toxic lakes), the deer would drop in their tracks in the forests (over hunting), and the seas would be blackended (think of the Gulf oil spill)." All the while people would lose their spirits.

But there would come a time when the they would find their spirits again. Soon people of all ethnicities, religions and cultures from around the world would "band together and become the Warriors of the Rainbow," bringing an end to the destruction and desecration of our home, planet Earth.  My father then wrote his own book called just that, the Warriors of the Rainbow (1979), for he believed what he was witnessing in the 1970's was the beginning of this phenomenon. 

Take from it what you will, but I believe that while the rising social force of individuals to change our destructive path may have begun in the 1970's, it is now being realized in this era. For global movements in scales never before seen have come together to fight climate change, protect our forests, people and fellow species we share this world with within this past decade.

So that is why I released my own book called "The Next Eco-Warriors" (2011), a continuation in a way of my father's work. This was the prophecy being realized, as it was a collection of short stories by individuals creating change from all over the world - from Kenya, China, Fiji, Sweden, UK to USA and Canada. Initially, when I started the project I thought the next eco-warriors concept was a pipe dream, my own hopes for the future alone. But the more I researched and collected stories from various young Eco-Warriors between 20-30 years of age, the more I came to realize that what we are witnessing is a generation truly rising up. 

I believe DeforestACTION with the 15 Eco-Warriors and beyond are a continuation of this narrative, a new generation of change.