Last night, Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died. Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. In reality, her environmental activism was part of a holistic approach to empowering women, advocating for democracy, and protecting the earth. Wangari Maathai was Kenya's foremost environmentalist and women's rights advocate. She contended that women have a unique connection to the environment and that human rights violations against women exacerbate environmental degradation. Throughout Africa, as in much of the world, women are responsible for tilling the fields, deciding what to plant, nurturing the crops, and harvesting the food. They are the first to be aware of environmental damage that harms agricultural production. If the well goes dry, they are the ones who are most concerned about finding new sources of water and the ones who must walk further to fetch it.