At a speech downtown last night, an environmental activist discussed the influence one individual can make fighting for a cause.

About 40 people assembled in the general room of the State College Borough Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St., to hear environmental activist Diane Wilson's accounts of her personal triumphs and failures while fighting a battle against pollution caused from corporations around the globe.

The World Affairs Forum, sponsored by the International Hospitality Council as part of its Community Outreach Program, invited Wilson to share her past 15 years of experience as an activist.

To understand her story, Wilson said her own context should be explained.

Her small hometown of Seadrift, Texas, with a population of approximately 1,000 people, was the only thing Wilson knew of the world.

"It was isolated. The only thing I knew was the bay," she said. "I did not believe anything else existed outside of Seadrift."

As a fourth-generation fisherwoman, she depended on the bay for her own lively-hood, as did everyone else in the town. When the fishing industry was threatened in Seadrift due to an increase in contaminated fish, Wilson said she decided to take action.

"A fisherman with three kinds of cancer handed me an [Associated Press] article saying that my county was number one in the nation for toxic disposal," she said. "I had never had that kind of information before."

Her activism to stop the pollution was only met by disapproval and negative reactions from city officials.

"I was puzzled by this reaction. The number one most important thing is to talk about the pollution that is affecting your town," she said.

Corruption and the mixed relationships in her town were a few of the reasons Wilson gave for the hostile reactions.

"The editor of the paper was the president of the chamber of commerce, which is in charge of economic development," she said. "When the economy is run by your friends, family and neighbors, it is a very difficult line to cross."

Wilson continued to fight for her cause and broadened her influence to an international level.

At first, she said, her experience was limited. The process was and continues to be the "self-education of Diane," she said.

Her work led her to Bhopal, India, as well as Taiwan, where multinational corporations responsible for mass pollution had set up shop.

Wilson said her moment of clarity and realization of the global impact of environmental pollution came while on a bus trip in India.

"There was a man running after the bus I was in, yelling, 'Testify! Testify!' He shoved a white piece of cloth in the bus window," she said. "The cloth was covered in blood and contained pictures of dead babies. It was my first painful growth."

Despite being jailed numerous times, facing harassment from officials in her hometown and being banished from Washington, D.C., for a protest of the war in Iraq where she climbed over a White House fence, Wilson said she has refused to be silent about her cause and has seen success.

"I got two chemical companies [in Texas] to sign zero-discharge agreements. But it is a continual battle. Plants don't know when to stop expanding," she said.

Longtime friend and Penn State professor of engineering Jack Matson said Wilson is the most dedicated human being in environment and peace activism. "What you hear is who she is," he said.

State College resident Simon Lobdell, who attended the speech last night, said Wilson is inspirational.

"It is a pretty awesome thing to see people take on pollution through direct action like Diane Wilson," he said.

A movie about Wilson's life is in the works. She remains passionate about her work and said people who are willing to fight for a cause can make a difference.

"All you need is that commitment and that intent," she said. "When you take risks, magic happens."