Editing Maya Lin (section)

== Environmental concerns ==
According to Lin, she has been concerned with environmental issues since she was very young, and dedicated much of her time at Yale University to environmental activism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Munro|first=Eleanor C.|title=Originals: American women artists|location=Boulder, CO|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2000}}
</ref> She attributes her interest in the environment to her upbringing in rural Ohio: the nearby [[Hopewell tradition|Hopewell]] and [[Adena culture|Adena]] Native America burial mounds inspired her from an early age.<ref name="Favorite 185–205">{{cite journal|last=Favorite|first=Jennifer K.|date=2016-07-02|title='We Don't Want Another Vietnam': The Wall, the Mall, History, and Memory in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center|journal=Public Art Dialogue|volume=6|issue=2|pages=185–205|doi=10.1080/21502552.2016.1205862|issn=2150-2552|doi-access=free}}</ref> Noting that much of her later work has focused on the relationship people have with their environment, as expressed in her [[Earthworks (engineering)|earthworks]], sculptures, and installations, Lin said, "I'm very much a product of the growing awareness about ecology and the environmental movement...I am very drawn to landscape, and my work is about finding a balance in the landscape, respecting nature not trying to dominate it. Even the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is an earthwork. All of my work is about slipping things in, inserting an order or a structuring, yet making an interface so that in the end, rather than a hierarchy, there is a balance and tension between the man-made and the natural."

According to the scholar Susette Min, Lin's work uncovers "hidden histories" to bring attention to landscapes and environments that would otherwise be inaccessible to viewers and "deploys the concept to discuss the inextricable relationship between nature and the built environment".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Min|first=Susette|title=Entropic Designs: A Review of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes and Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970 at the De Young Museum|magazine=American Quarterly|volume=61|issue=1|year=2009|pages=193–215}}</ref> Lin's focus on this relationship highlights the impact humanity has on the environment, and draws attention to issues such as global warming, endangered bodies of water, and animal extinction/endangerment. She has explored these issues in her recent memorial, called ''What Is Missing?''

According to one commentator, Lin constructs her works to have a minimal effect on the environment by utilizing recycled and sustainable materials, by minimizing [[Greenhouse gas emissions|carbon emissions]], and by attempting to avoid damaging the landscapes/ecosystems where she works.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Mendelsohn|first=Meredith|title=Maya Lin|magazine=[[Art+Auction]]|volume=33|issue=4 (December 2009)|pages=40–90}} ''Art & Architecture Source'', EBSCO''host'' (accessed April 14, 2017).</ref>

In addition to her other activities as an environmentalist, Lin has served on the [[Natural Resources Defense Council]] board of trustees.