1. CLIMATE:
The mother behind kids' long-shot legal crusade
EUGENE, Ore. -- For Julia Olson, it all started with "An Inconvenient Truth." The then-thirtysomething environmental lawyer watched Al Gore's climate change documentary while eight months pregnant with her second child. By her own admission, she "cried through the whole film" and spent several sleepless nights plotting a way to increase public awareness of climate change. Her initial idea was to plan public marches on Washington, D.C., but she ending up launching a national legal campaign aimed at forcing government action on climate change.