Six extraordinary stories, here are the winners of the Goldman environmental prize 2024
Also known as the "Nobel Prize for the Environment," the award is for ordinary people who are dedicated to environmental protection, often going up against industry giants.
"Can the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?" was the title of a lecture by Edward Lorenz, the U.S. mathematician and meteorologist known for coining the phrase "butterfly effect." The concept expresses the difficulty of predicting long-term occurrences because of variables. A butterfly can concur to generate a tornado, the slightest shift of an electron can trigger an avalanche, an ordinary person can hinder the economic and political interests of powerful international entities.
All of us, by more or less voluntary actions, are potential variables in the course of history, and although most of the time we will never know the evolution of our being in the world, in some cases will, determination and passion lead us to see the hoped-for changes in the becoming of a history we imagined was already written.
The Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the "Nobel Prize for the Environment," awards six prizes each year, one for each continent (Africa, Asia, Europe, islands and island nations, North America, Central and South America), choosing as many examples of "ordinary people taking extraordinary action to protect our planet," the site says.
Also for 2024, the Goldman Environmental Prize tells 6 stories of resistance that, like 6 beats of butterfly wings, have spawned 6 tornadoes in the plans of multinational corporations, governments, lobbies, oil companies and mining giants.
Marcel Gomes vs. multinational meat company in Brazil
Marcel Gomes led an investigation into beef produced by JBS, the world's largest meat processor, with a regime of about 35,000 steers slaughtered per day, which also exports to Europe. The activist exposed the relationship between illegally deforested areas of the Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal and the multinational company's farms, prompting six major European chains in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands to pull JBS products off the shelves in 2021.
Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, the Bimblebox and indigenous rights in Australia
The Waratah coal company allegedly mined 40 million tons of coal a year for 35 years, devastating the Bimblebox Nature Reserve in Queensland and pouring 1.58 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, of the Birri Gubba Aboriginal people and co-director of the NGO Youth verdict, has not only prevented this, but her legal battle has set a precedent within the Australian legal system whereby environmental devastation is recognized as infringing on indigenous human and cultural rights.
Alok Shukla and the Lungs of Chhattisgarh in India.
India's Hasdeo Aranya forests, also known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh, are among the oldest and most pristine in India, as well as sites of important mineral deposits. In 2011 the state government decided to put mining concessions up for sale, announcing auctions in 2020 for 21 mines that would destroy 445,000 acres of biodiversity inhabited by thousands of tribes. Alok Shukla united local people's communities, organized protests, social media campaigns, marches, sit-ins, 20 years of battles that, in 2022, led to the cancellation of all mining concessions, thus saving one of India's largest intact forest areas and the communities of indigenous Adivasis.
Teresa Vincente and the Mar Menor in Spain
Teresa Vincente is credited with establishing, in 2022, a European legal unicum granting legal person status to the Mar Menor of Spain's Murcia region, the largest saltwater lagoon in Europe, brought to the brink of collapse by agricultural pollution and excessive urbanization. Through her work in studying, promoting the popular legislative initiative and collecting the more than 600,000 signatures, Teresa, a university professor of Philosophy of Law, has contributed in a decisive way to the establishment of this special form of protection, which is now recognized for the Mar Menor and could be applied to other areas tomorrow.
Andrea Vidaurre and the no to freight pollution in California.
By mobilizing the people of the Inland Empire metropolitan area (where, due to air quality, cases of cancer, premature deaths, and respiratory illnesses exceed the national average), engaging warehouse and trucking unions, and working together with environmental organizations, Andrea Vidaurre has revolutionized the world of freight traffic in California. Through her battles, Andrea, has persuaded the California air resources board to adopt two regulations calling for emission reductions and a pathway to zero-emission truck-only freight sales by 2036.
Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu v. Shell for the Wild Coast in South Africa.
The Wild Coast is a stretch of South African coastline with very high biodiversity, home to several endemic species and migratory cetaceans, a sanctuary for many animals forced by anthropogenic pressures, to leave their home ranges. Here, the oil company Shell had decided to carry out destructive seismic testing to search the seabed for oil and gas reserves. Nonhle and Sinegugu, bringing together the coastal community of Amadiba, organized protests, boycotted the company's refueling stations, and launched an intense legal action, thanks to which the Grahamstown High Court in Makhanda, ordered the Anglo-Dutch company's activities to cease, thus saving whales, dolphins, other wildlife, and the health and identity of coastal residents from the damaging effects of seismic testing.
