The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious annual award for grassroots environmentalists.
“The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.”
The Goldman Prize ceremony (which is held in San Francisco) is one of the best events I attend every year. The recipients are models of courage, and their stories are powerful and inspiring. This year’s six prize winners (one from each of the six inhabited continental regions) are:
Caroline Cannon (Point Hope, AK, USA) – Issue: Oil and gas drilling
Sofia Gatica (Argentina) – Issue: Toxic/lethal pesticides
Ma Jun (China) – Issue: Pollution from manufacturing plants
Ikal Angelei (Kenya) – Issue: Large dam development and water security
Evgenia Chirikova (Russia) – Issue: Highway development in a protected forest
Click on each recipient’s name to read about—or watch a brief video about—their remarkable efforts and achievements.
Here’s the three-minute video about Caroline Cannon, who has been “bringing the voice and perspective of her Inupiat community in Point Hope to the battle to keep Arctic waters safe from offshore oil and gas drilling.” Shell and other oil companies currently have plans to drill in the Arctic.
Last year’s recipient from the U.S. was Hilton Kelley, who has been fighting for environmental justice for communities along the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Take a peek at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily blurbs and links. Anyone can view the page, whether or not you have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, be sure to click on the “Like” button to join our growing online community (if you haven’t already); then you should be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your daily Facebook news feed.
Please visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that are featured. Here’s a sampling of a few of the solutions, efforts, and success stories that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:
the electric DeLorean, coming out in 2013
LEED for Homes Awards: this year’s winning projects
hybrid wind/solar systems
Reinventing Fire, the new book by Amory Lovins
Earthjustice
Global Community Monitor
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing
Silent Spring Institute
Arctic Live
Revenge of the Electric Car (new documentary)
CleanTech Open: this year’s finalists and Forum
Brower Youth Awards: videos and info about this year’s winners
Solar Decathlon home design competition’s winning projects
DIY solar installations in Ypsilanti, Michigan
how to size a solar PV system for charging an electric car
B Corporation legislation passed in California
quotations from Ray Anderson, Buckminster Fuller, Annie Dillard, and others
Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, click on the “Like” button (if you’re not already connected to page); then you will be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your Facebook news feed.
Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts.
Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:
new films, including The Economics of Happiness; Bag It; Flow; and Queen of the Sun
a new environmental news website: This Week in Earth
videos about the achievements of this year’s Goldman Prize winners (from the U.S., El Salvador, Germany, etc.)
video about the NRDC’s Growing Green Awards winners
AIA’s Top Ten Green Projects award-winning buildings
organic gardening tips for weed and pest control
driving tips to save gas and money
a new Green Jobs report, and an interactive map of clean energy companies
online action to oppose uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
a summer tour of organic food and farming in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
dog and cat toys made from natural, renewable materials
new thin-film solar products, and a mobile solar power generator
the story of a North Carolina farm started by a family inspired into action by the film Food, Inc.
the story of two 15-year-old Girl Scouts who are calling Kellogg’s on its use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies and other products
The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious annual award for grassroots environmentalists.
Here’s a description of the Prize from the Goldman Environmental Prize website: “The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.”
The Goldman Prize ceremony (which is held in San Francisco) is one of the best events I attend every year. The recipients are models of courage, and their stories are powerful and inspiring. This year’s six prize winners (one from each of the six inhabited continental regions) are:
Click on each recipient’s name to read about—and watch a brief video about—their remarkable and selfless efforts and achievements.
Here’s the three-minute video about Hilton Kelley, who is leading the battle for environmental justice on the Gulf Coast of Texas:
Last year’s recipient from the U.S. was Lynn Henning, a family farmer in Michigan, who “exposed the egregious polluting practices of livestock factory farms in rural Michigan, gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations.”
The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest award for grassroots environmentalists. This is the 21st year that the prize has been awarded. The winners are models of courage, and their stories are inspiring.
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