The passing of Wangari Maathai is a loss to the world, but a personal one, as well. I first met THE Kenyan tree-planter, democracy crusader, and peacemaker in 1991, when I was writing a global TV special on the Earth Summit for Ted Turner. We didn't see each other again until nine years later, at the State of the World Forum in New York, when a scheduled half-hour interview turned into an afternoon heart-to- heart and tete-a-tete.
