Some of North America’s biggest environmental victories have been achieved this year because of the actions of youth. On October 20, 2009, Earth Island Institute will bestow the 2009 Brower Youth Award to six of North America’s boldest young environmental leaders in recognition of this work.
Actions include: saving one million acres of boreal forest, helping to prevent the permits for twenty new coal plants and five mountaintop removal coal applications, and transforming food purchasing across the University of California system.
The six 2009 prize recipients are:
• Sierra Crane-Murdoch, 21, of Vermont, for uniting the movement to battle coal
• Adarsha Shivakumar, 16, of California, who implemented a biofuel solution in rural India
• Alec Loorz, 15, of California, the youngest presenter of Al Gore’s “The Climate Project”
• Diana Lopez, 20, of Texas, who created an organic food source for San Antonio
• Hai Vo, 22, of California, for helping transform University of California food purchasing
• Robin Bryan, 21, of Manitoba, who helped protect one million acres of forest in Canada
The award recipients will receive a $3,000 cash prize for their achievements, while being recognized at the Brower Youth Awards 10th anniversary gala celebration in San Francisco on October 20. These youth awards are run by Earth Island Institute, which is a non-profit, public interest, membership organization supporting people who are working to protect our planet.
More that 125 people applied, but the six winners were chosen for their creative and effective work tackling problems ranging from food justice to deforestation, global warming to pollution.
The thirteen judges for the award are leaders in business, journalism and the nonprofit sector, including Josh Dorfman of The Sundance Channel’s “Lazy Environmentalist”, Judith Helfand, the director of the global warming film “Everything’s Cool”, and Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International and grandson of Jacques Cousteau.
In the first ten years of the program, the 61 current and past award recipients have raised more than $1.4 million for environmental causes, trained more than 3,000 youth in advocacy, involved more than 32,000 in projects, implemented 20 university-wide environmental policies, passed eight pieces of legislation, organized more than 3,300 events and actions, produced more than 20 documentary films, and held 500 plus lobby meetings with elected officials.
This is quite an achievement illustrating the influence of these awards and the importance of recognizing the role of youth in environmental work.
Editor's note: If you would like to learn more about the recipients and the event, short summaries, videos and photographs are available online.
More cools stuff on Celsias:
Bravo to these amazing young people!
Written in October 2009