Faye, aye, sailor

Mumbai girl and environmental activist Faye Lewis believes in a greener tomorrow, whether on the whale trail or to the pole to stop coal export

Mumbai girl and environmental activist Faye Lewis believes in a greener tomorrow, whether on the whale trail or to the pole to stop coal exportu00a0

Faye Lewis could have been your average Joe (or Jane) Mumbai girl next door, doing the local grind from her Bandra (W) home to work. Instead, she chose the unconventional avenueu00a0 of sailing around the world on Greenpeace ships, working for a cause that is as fashionable (often spoken about amidst sips of champagne at a social do) as it is serious - climate change.

Faye is a climate change warrior. As part of a Greenpeace expedition, she recently worked to prevent coal from a mine in Svalbard 1,400 km from the North Pole, from being loaded onto an Europe-bound coal transport ship. Activists are pressurising firms to phase out coal mining as coal burning is a climate threat accounting for over, they say, 40 per cent of all fossil fuel CO2 emissions.

READY, SET, SNOW: Faye Lewis, who with other activists, stoppedu00a0 the export of Arctic coal to power plants in Europe. PIC/GREENPEACE

A couple of years earlier,u00a0 Faye worked on a Greenpeace ship pursuing a fleet of Japanese whaling ships. She was the only Indian on board.

At that time, Faye had said, "I work as a deck hand on the ship. I have a special interest in killer whales and stopping the Japanese was so vital to me that I joined this ship, cutting short my leave too. I know the mission will take weeks, months even before everyone goes home, but it is worth it."u00a0

From ensuring the world's 'whale' being to her goal for coal, Faye Lewis breathes icy life with her North Pole breath into the phrase: environmental activism.u00a0

In history

Joan Of Arc (1412 to 30 May 1431): Military leader, France.

Joan believed God wantedu00a0 her to free her country from the British. She led the French Army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War. But the English claimed she was a witch and burnt her at the stake. Many years later, the Pope declared her a martyr. She is now a patron saint of France.

Mary Wollstonecraft (April 27, 1759 to September 10, 1797): feminist, UK

One of seven children of an abusive father, Mary saw first hand how parents preferred sons over daughters. Mary firmly believed that women should be educated in the same way as men. Through her books, she rejected the restrictions on women and laid the foundation for 20th century feminism.