WANG YONGCHEN

WHY HER? Self-proclaimed environmental poet Yongchen rose to fame in 2004 after leading a campaign against the construction of a large dam on the Nu River, one of the country’s last remaining wild water sources. To the surprise of many, she won. Now, the land surrounding a large portion of the river has been preserved as a national park. Yongchen works as a radio broadcaster, freelance journalist and leader of the Green Earth Volunteers, an NGO she founded in 1996. Yongchen is embarking this year on her eighth annual trip up the Yellow River to document the effects of pollution on “China’s Mother River.”