October 23, 2012
The Goldman Environmental Prize and Amazon Watch recently hosted a Roundtable and Reception in honor of 1996 Goldman Prize recipient Marina Silva. Nearly 30 guests from the Bay Area’s environmental community attended the event at the Goldman Prize office in San Francisco for the unique opportunity to discuss some of today’s most pressing environmental issues with the internationally recognized leader.
Silva was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting millions of hectares in the Brazilian Amazon. She went on to become a National Senator, the Brazilian Minister of the Environment, and a 2010 Presidential candidate obtaining nearly 20% of the vote. Silva was visiting the Bay Area to present at the 2012 Bioneers conference.
Before opening the floor to questions, Silva briefly discussed the mission of the new Marina Silva Institute. She hopes the institute will do for sustainable development what the Jane Goodall Institute did for wildlife conservation, offering new perspectives and fresh solutions for the future of sustainability.
Silva commented that a paradigm shift is necessary for our society to begin moving in the right direction, saying, “It is not enough to question our inadequate ways of doing things, we must question our inadequate way of being, because sustainable development is not just a way of doing things, it is a way of living.”
When asked about the future, Silva responded “I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic, I’m persistent.”
