‘You can do it’

• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 8, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:25 a.m.

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Lafayette native Ann McBride Norton and her husband, Edward M. Norton, fight for the environment by traveling the world.

In remote jungles of Indonesia, the Nortons tracked how deforestation is leading to thousands of orangutan deaths.

In the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, they worked to bring protections for the fragile ecosystems of Tibet in southwest China.

And at Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge, they offered an encouraging message: “You can save the world, and you can begin right here.”

The Nortons urged the students to see the connection between lifestyle choices and the deterioration or improvement of their own environments.

“What we hope is that they will take this into their lives and act on it,” Ann Norton said. “We hope they will walk into their houses and educate their parents and think about how does greening in this school connect to Indonesia.”

Episcopal High has an Earth Club and the school is partnering with several environmental groups, LSU and the East Baton Rouge city-parish government to potentially develop an irrigation system to recycle rain water for gardening.

 The Nortons’ visit was aimed at helping the students learn to do more.

During a series of assemblies, hundreds of Episcopal School students watched slides of orangutans swinging through the jungles, native islanders hunting for food from potentially the last traditional whaling village in the world, and listened to the couple describe journeys through some of the world’s most remote and beautiful lands in danger of being lost forever.

The Nortons  have lived in China and Indonesia for a combined nine years and have studied the lives of the native men and women, the environment and the animals. They talked of working to create change and bring international awareness about protecting these environments.

Edward M. Norton, 65, native of a small town in western Pennsylvania and father of actor Edward Norton, said his interest in the environment took root in the 1950s and ’60s when problems including trash and litter and air and water pollution were becoming recognized.

“I became interested because I loved these places — public parks and wildlife and I became a lawyer and I thought, ‘why not make the animals my clients,’” he said.

The orangutans are among his largest clientele, he said. He is senior adviser to the Indonesia Orangutan Conservation Support program of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is the former deputy director of the Nature Conservancy’s Asia-Pacific region, founding president of the Grand Canyon Trust and former head of the Wilderness Society.