March 14, 2012
Marking the one year anniversary of Japan’s Fukashima disaster, environmental leaders from around the world are signing on to an open letter issued by Greenpeace, calling for an end to nuclear power. Among the signatories are Goldman Prize winners Robert Brown and Marina Silva.
Brown won the Prize in 1990 for his work to protect the Tasmanian wilderness from development projects. He was elected to the Australian senate in 1996. That same year, Marina Silva won the Prize for her campaign to protect the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. She went on to become Brazil’s Minister of Environment.
An excerpt from the letter reads:
“On behalf of the millions of people in the world who live with the threat of a nuclear disaster ruining their lives, we are writing to ask you to recognize that now is the time to put people ahead of the nuclear industry and hold the industry fully liable for the risks and damages of its disasters. It is time to remove the risks of nuclear from people’s lives and shift our economies to clean, safe energy systems.”
Another Goldman Prize winner working toward a nuclear-free future is Ursula Sladek (2010), whose campaign to provide clean, renewable energy for her German community is inspiring movements all over the world.
