Environmental Activist Jarid Manos Talks Why He Cares

Restoring Communities: Environmental Activist Leads Ecological
Health Movement
by VERGE Staff | Influence and Culture | Monday, February 24, 2014

Acclaimed American author, environmental activist, national speaker and ecological educator Jarid Manos, President of the Fort Worth and Houston-based Great Plains Restoration Council, is a leading American voice in the Ecological Health movement.

Jarid Manos is on a life-mission to help others understand their personal connection to the environment. He brings more than a decade of experience to motivating and inspiring young people to care for themselves and the living land.

“To our great peril, we treat the Earth like it’s ‘just there,’ much like how - if we are honest - we treat our own bodies and lives,” says Manos.

As a national speaker Manos shares his story of how he came to care – from being an angry devastated youth and drug dealer to becoming a vegan athlete plainsman – all while actively engaging others to connect on a deeper personal level with the ecological issues facing their communities and lives.

“My entire adult life and work has been guided by the realization that the violence we do to the Earth mirrors the violence we do to each other and often accept into ourselves,” explains Manos. “In training ourselves to become unbreakable, we can have the most exhilarating life by getting healthy and giving back.”

Manos is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction book, Ghetto Plainsman (2010, Tembla House Press) and the upcoming novel Her Blue Watered Streets. He is also the founder and CEO of Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC), a Texas-based non-profit organization that has developed the Ecological Health movement and the three programs, Plains Youth InterACTION™, Restoration Not Incarceration™, and Your Health Outdoors™. GPRC projects are based in Texas, New Mexico and South Dakota. He is a nationally recognized speaker at universities, businesses, conferences, churches, jails and more.

Photo caption: Jarid Manos, CEO, Great Plains Restoration Council.

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