3. Maná

In 1993, Mexican rock quartet Maná released "Vivir Sin Aire," a song that likened not having a loved one to living without air. It was a deliberate parallel that few people got, even when the song became a regionwide hit. "We were already talking about global warming, but no one understood," frontman Fher Olvera says. "Now they understand perfectly." Long before being green was cool, Maná was a tireless advocates for environmental causes through its nonprofit Selva Negra foundation, launched in 1994. Selva Negra's projects range from saving endangered species like the sea turtle to massive reforestation efforts, in tandem with programs that seek to change the way entire communities live and use their land. But the group's most ambitious and potentially far-reaching endeavor is a proposal to make environmental and ethics classes part of the curriculum for all of Mexico's schoolchildren. The project, developed with government officials and Mexico's Universidad Autónoma, was put before Congress last year, and included the development of textbooks and special teacher training. This March, it launched in 5,000 schools with plans to go nationwide by year's end. "This is what's needed to raise a generation that sees things different. That understands that one thing leads to another," Olvera says. –Leila Cobo