Six activists from six countries will receive Goldman Environmental Prizes on Monday, rewarding them for excellence in grassroots environmentalism.
In 1990, philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman began selecting excellent but unheralded environmentalists and thanking them for their work by inviting them to San Francisco, filling up their bank accounts, and encouraging them to use their new money to continue their valuable but often unrecognized work.
The most famous past Goldman Prize recipient is Wangari Maathai, who won her Goldman Prize in 1991, went on to become the most influential environmental voice in Kenya and arguably all of Africa, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
The 2010 recipients, who will each receive $150,000, include an agronomist folk musician that teaches traditional, organic agriculture in Cuba, a Cambodian human-elephant peacemaker, a friend to Costa Rican sharks, a protector of Poland's old growth wilderness, a lawyer from Swaziland that won environmental NGOs a voice in government, and an American corn and soy farmer that fought the factory farm down the road and won.
Click the pictures on the Goldman Prize website for details.
