John Francis is a campaigner, public speaker and educator who advocates for our planet. He spreads the message that our environment includes the other humans in the world and that we must treat both our earth and our fellow humans with kindness. After witnessing an oil spill and the devastation it caused in San Francisco Bay in 1971, he stopped using motorised transport for 22 years and stopped talking for 17 years in protest. Since then, John has founded the environmental awareness organisation, Planetwalk, given a TED talk (he started talking again in 1990) and published two adult books on his journey.

According to John, 'The environment, actually, is about human rights, civil rights, economic equity, gender equality, and all the ways that humans interact with not only the physical environment but also with one another.'