Eco warriors who triumphed in David and Goliath battles with mining and petrochemical giants had been amongst these honoured by a prestigious environmental award this week.
The Goldman environmental prize – dubbed the ‘Inexperienced Nobel prize’ – is given to grassroots activists who go above and past to guard the planet.
This yr’s winners had been: Alessandra Korap Munduruku (important picture), who saved Indigenous Amazon land from mining; Chilekwa Mumba, who sued the house owners of a polluting Zambian copper mine; Delima Silalahi, who reclaimed swathes of Indonesia from a paper firm; Zafer Kizilkaya, who expanded Turkey’s marine protected areas; Tero Mustonen, who pioneered peatland restoration in Finland; and US fisherwoman Diane Wilson who “misplaced all of it” taking up ocean polluters (and profitable).
Wilson (pictured) revealed how she had been dismissed as a “hysterical lady” when she started her struggle, which, she stated, price mates, her marriage and her job. “The humorous factor is how you may lose all of it, however you acquire your soul,” she stated.
Picture: Goldman environmental prize