Karen Hadden: Dedicated activist for a safer, healthier planet
by Vicki Wolf

When you drive by the state capital in Austin, Texas and you see a rally on the capitol steps about mercury or against coal-fired power plants, you can be sure Karen Hadden is one of the people who made it happen. Hadden is the executive director for Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, and has been working with the organization advocating for clean air and clean energy, since 2000. She has been instrumental in creating public awareness about the health effects of mercury and the dangerous levels of mercury in fish. She also leads efforts to clean up power plant emissions and is an advocate for renewable energy and energy conservation. Currently she is working with a coalition to stop the building of 17 additional coal-fired power plants in Texas.

For the past 20 years, Hadden has been an activist working on a variety of environmental issues. Her projects span preventing a nuclear waste dump near Sierra Blanco to environmental cleanup of the Bergstrom Air Force Base. When the air force base was being converted into an airport, Hadden worked with a housing group to save and move 40 houses that were scheduled for demolition. “This effort enabled people to have low-cost homes –it was a recycling success,” Hadden says.

Hadden’s efforts to promote clean air and clean energy include her ideas and leadership in the Solar Austin coalition. SEED Coalition is a founding member of Solar Austin, with Public Citizen and Virtus Energy. Their work has resulted in significant solar and renewable energy commitments from the Austin City Council, including rebates for consumers who install solar panels. Solar Austin has received a Vision Award from Liveable City and one of five national 2004 Interstate Renewable Energy Council Innovation Awards.

A passion for protecting the environment began during Hadden’s formative years in Hawaii, where her father, who was in the military, was stationed and her family lived for three years. “I fell in love with the plant world while living in Hawaii,” Hadden says. “I spent time hiking and learning about orchids, palms and mangoes. Some of the vines had perfume so rich, it would almost knock you over,” she recalls.

Hadden channeled her love of plants into getting a B.A. in Botany and a secondary science teaching certification from The University of Texas at Austin. She taught middle and high school science in the public schools for 14 years.

Hadden says the transition from teacher to activist was easy. “I gained incredible skills in the classroom and was looking for ways to develop new skills when the job at SEED Coalition came along,” she says. “I get to speak, which I love, and develop materials. In addition, I have learned how to work with the media.”

When Hadden joined SEED Coalition, she was asked by the executive director at the time, Peter Altman, to look into mercury as an air pollution issue. Hadden says initially there was very little interest in mercury and its impact in Texas. “When I started working on this issue, it was hard to get fellow activists involved,” Hadden says. “We were working in conjunction with a national organization for power plant cleanup, and others were looking mostly at global warming and other pollutants.”

Hadden says doing the research on mercury was an eye-opening experience for her, and she was surprised at the impact of mercury and the seriousness of health effects: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that mercury is the most hazardous pollutant emitted from coal-fired plants and that 600,000 newborns are at risk of high blood mercury levels each year. Even low levels of mercury exposure can cause severe neurological and developmental problems that include poor attention span and delayed language development, impaired memory and vision, problems processing information, and impaired fine motor coordination. It takes only 1/70th teaspoon of mercury to poison a 20-acre lake.

Hadden’s successes working with SEED include a hand in the introduction of eight Texas bills last year addressing mercury, including one she wrote. She also led the grassroots effort to get Texas to test more fish for mercury and to improve public notice of state mercury fish consumption advisories. In collaboration with Texas Black Bass Unlimited, Hadden was able to convince Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to include fish consumption advisories in the Outdoor Annual that is distributed when fishing licenses are sold.

“When I went on the road talking about fish consumption advisories, the reaction was strong,” Hadden says. “There was a gut reaction. People felt that their food had been poisoned, and they cared about it.”

Awareness about mercury continues to grow, according to Hadden. “Now when we go into hearings at the state capital, people listen to us, and our testimony is taken seriously.”

In addition to her work on mercury and other environmental issues, Karen passionately works for peace. She co-chaired Peace Action Texas for several years and has been active at Crawford Peace House events in support of Cindy Sheehan and opposing the war in Iraq. She says she is very concerned about nuclear power because it is so closely linked to nuclear weapons. “Waste from nuclear power plants can be reprocessed and turned into weapons,” she says.

Recently Hadden attended The International Physicians’ Conference for Preventing Nuclear War in Helsinki, Finland. “I met people from all over the world,” Hadden says, “wonderful people from North Korea, Iran and other countries – people from all over the globe working for peace.”

Hadden says there is no time to waste and that everyone can do something to prevent environmental catastrophes and war. “People think others have better skills than they do. But you can do anything you decide to do – just don’t take no for an answer,” she says. “We can’t afford complacency in this day and age, there is too much at risk.”

Hadden has a 21 year old son, Garrett, who lives in Austin. She lives with Smitty (Tom Smith), director for Public Citizen, in “a small apartment with great neighbors in Westlake.”

“We are fortunate to live in a beautiful place where we can canoe and swim in Bee Creek behind the apartments. Hadden and Smitty work together on many environmental projects. “It’s fun to collaborate and share ideas, but sometimes we have to make sure we take breaks and get away from it all,” she says.

In her free time, Hadden likes to swim, hike and she passionately loves music and dancing.

Photo by Maisie Crow

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