Grassroots ‘Environmental Champions’ honored with goldman prize

San Francisco: Six grassroots activists from around the world were honored this week with the Goldman Environmental Prize for “ordinary people taking extraordinary actions to protect the planet.”

This year’s recipients include Colombia’s Yuvelis Morales Blanco, whose tireless campaigning halted commercial fracking in the country. The UK’s Sarah Finch was also recognized after taking big oil to court — and winning. Her David versus Goliath legal battle rumbled on for years and set a landmark precedent that has since stopped other fossil fuel projects.

Other winners were Iroro Tanshi of Nigeria, who rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat and helped secure its protection; South Korea’s Borim Kim, who won the first youth-led climate litigation case in Asia; Theonila Roka Matbob of Papua New Guinea, who held a mining giant to account over pollution; and Alaska’s Alannah Acaq Hurley, who halted a mega mining project in the US.

“While we continue to fight uphill to protect the environment … true leaders can be found all around us,” said John Goldman, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. “These winners are proof positive that courage, hard work, and hope go a long way toward creating meaningful progress.”