There is not one woman's perspective on the environment - biologically, ideologically or politically. Nor is there one woman's relationship to nature. But woman's bodies and their traditional role as caregivers are markers of environmental crises. Women are often the first to detect problems, responding to new technologies and new policies when they understand the impact on health, food supplies, access to water, and erosion of the land. Women and earth are indisputably life support systems. And it has become clear that damage to the earth, damages women's "carrying capacity."

The 48 women profiled here were chosen to reflect diversity, but they were not chosen because one was a scientist, an activist, a policy maker. These women transcend categories, as women typically do, they are at once scientists and advocates and community organizers. In many cases, these women had to learn and then re-create science and define new scientific and political paradigms.

The 48 women are only snapshots over time. This is neither an exhaustive or complete list. They are the looking glass into the thousands of women building movements, society, and networks of support for each other. Their solidarity, interconnection, and burden is depicted in the pipeline of water, the life support system held by women through time, increasingly heavy with age, knowledge, and contamination.
 
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