Home
Donate Sign up for e-network
CENTER for BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Because life is good
ABOUT ACTION PROGRAMS SPECIES NEWSROOM PUBLICATIONS SUPPORT

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player

AcTIVIST SPOTLIGHT


An Activist for a Divine Planet

You don’t hear about many former nuns — not to mention 83-year-old women — getting big-time results in the struggle to curb global warming.

That is, until you hear about Lupe Anguiano.

This 83-year-old, former-nun activist showed her passion for the divinity of Earth, its climate and all its inhabitants (humans, animals and plants alike) when she led the charge to make Oxnard, Calif. one of the Center’s Clean Air Cities — cities that have passed formal resolutions calling on the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.

Founder of the nonprofit Stewards of the Earth — whose goal is stewardship of our environment, indigenous people and our collective history — Anguiano is dedicated to leading her community in helping to save the world from climate catastrophe. Reaching out for “a strong, creditable, effective national organization” that she could network with to continue working to protect clean-air national policy, she decided the Center was the group to work with. “I was — and continue to be — impressed with the accomplishments of the Center and am delighted to support those efforts,” she says.

Our Clean Air Cities Campaign is especially close to Anguiano’s heart because the Clean Air Act is the reason why Oxnard, a coastal community, won a five-year battle against a proposal by Australia’s BHP Billion and Exxon-Mobile to import liquefied natural gas through an offshore “disgasification” station close to the beautiful Channel Islands. Anguiano spearheaded a project to organize a town hall meeting to inform Oxnard’s residents of the dangerous impact of the proposal — helping lead to its ultimate defeat.

Anguiano helped organize another town hall meeting — attended by the Center’s Climate Campaign organizer Rose Braz — to get Oxnard’s Clean Air Cities resolution passed in January 2012.

A former Catholic nun with the Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters (who also support the Clean Air Cities campaign), Anguiano has always deeply loved what she calls “Mother Earth” and has been passionately devoted to protecting it, particularly the area in which she grew up, and its birds, plants, whales, sea lions and dolphins.

“I was raised in our beautiful coastal Oxnard community,” she says. “As a child, my mom and dad took us to the beach often…I am blessed to live in this lovely place and know that I have to work hard to protect this, my resting place.”

Learn more about The Stewards of the Earth and the Center’s Clean Air Cities campaign.

Want to share your story in our Activist Spotlight?
A sea change can begin with an 83-year-old former nun — or maybe, it can begin with you. If you or someone you know has found a creative way to turn concern for the planet — and for endangered plants and animals — into change for the better, we'd like to share your story with the world. Send us your spotlight idea here.

And check out other activists we've honored here.

SIGN UP FOR OUR E-NETWORK

ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT ARCHIVE

CURRENT ACTION ALERTS

TELL-A-FRIEND

TAKE-ACTION TOOLBOX

EVENTS

SUPPORT THE CENTER

Bookmark and Share

Banner photo © Robin Silver