Goldman Environmental Prize Blog

The Goldman Environmental Prize is happy to announce it will be joining Mill Valley Film Group in co-presenting the film “The New Environmentalists: From Ithaca to the Amazon” as an Active Cinema partner at the 37th Annual Mill Valley Film Festival (Oct. 2 – 12, 2014). Active Cinema highlights films that feature groundbreaking social, environmental, and human…

Last week, Goldman Prize Communications Officer Jenny Park attended the 2014 Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. The most impactful part of the conference for Park was a tour of Louisiana’s “chemical corridor,” in which participants had the opportunity to hear from activists and industry representatives and to see first-hand what…

Following the tragic news that the Brazilian Socialist Party’s (PSB) top presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed in a plane crash last month, Campos’ running mate and 1996 Goldman Prize winner Marina Silva announced that she had accepted PSB’s nomination to take his place in the upcoming election. Born in the Brazilian Amazon, Silva spent…

We recently caught up with Humberto Rios Labrada, who was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2010 for the influential role he played in revitalizing Cuba’s farming industry. By encouraging a return to crop rotation and seed diversity, Rios helped decrease Cuba’s dependence on chemical fertilizers and increased the productivity and sustainability of Cuba’s farms. For…

In the heart of Appalachia, where the coal industry wields enormous power over government and public opinion, lifelong resident and 2009 Goldman Prize winner Maria Gunnoe fights against environmentally-devastating mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations. Her advocacy has led to the closure of mines in the region and stricter regulations for the industry. As…

Earlier this month, over 80 female environmental activists from more than 37 countries gathered in Bali, Indonesia for the “2014 Summit on Women and Climate,” hosted by Global Greengrants Fund, the International Network of Women’s Funds and Greengrants Alliance of Funds. The four day conference, which took place August 3-7, sought to bring women together…

Nothing beats the dog days of summer like a good read, which is why we are pleased to present two new titles from Goldman Prize winners for you to check out: “Optimism: Reflections on a Life of Action,” provides a glimpse into 1990 Goldman Prize winner Bob Brown’s life since retiring from Australian Parliament in…

2013 Goldman Prize winner Jonathan Deal and his team at Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG) are calling for the South African government to place a new moratorium on shale gas exploration in the country. Deal was awarded the Goldman Prize for leading a successful campaign against fracking in South Africa to protect the Karoo,…

In his acceptance speech at the 2014 Goldman Prize ceremony, Prize winner Suren Gazaryan told the story of his colleague Evgeny Vitishko, an environmental activist from Russia who was sentenced to three years in a penal colony for his role in exposing illegal construction in a national forest and speaking openly about the environmental impact…

Government crackdowns on civil society groups have surged in recent years, an alarming trend impacting many Goldman Prize winners around the globe. 2010 Goldman Prize winner Thuli Makama, an environmental attorney from Swaziland, knows first-hand how difficult it is to effectively operate in a country where civil society is repressed. She stopped by the Goldman…