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Goldman environmental prize winners.

Article Excerpt
In 1988 U.S. philanthropist Richard N. Goldman was inspired to create an honor recognizing six grassroots environmentalists each year--"among the most important people you have not heard of before," as Goldman has put it. "All of them have fought, often alone and at great personal risk, to protect the environment in their home countries." Goldman and his late wife Rhoda envisioned the prize as a way to demonstrate the international nature of environmental problems, draw attention to critical global issues, and inspire others to emulate the examples set by Prize recipients. Since 1990, 119 individuals from 70 countries have been rewarded with US$125,000 and a 10-day media and publicity tour. An international jury bases their selections on confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.

This year's prize winners shared their stories with World Watch staff writer Ben Block during their visit to Washington, D.C. Additional information about current and past winners can be found at www.goldmanprize.org.

North American

Maria Gunnoe, United States

Maria Gunnoe raises her children in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Her grandfather toiled in the coal mines for 32 years to buy the property where she lives. She helped build the house that her son and daughter call home.

Five years ago, a spring rain turned the docile creek that transects Gunnoe's yard into a barrage of black water. "There is nothing more intimidating than a 60-foot-wide, 20-foot-tall wall of water coming at you," said Gunnoe, whose property has flooded seven times in the past nine years. She blames the 486-hectare mountaintop removal mine that has been leveling the ridge above her home.

Now one of the most fearless opponents of mountaintop removal in her state, Gunnoe has helped attract international attention to the damaging practice. During mountaintop removal, miners blast away ridges to expose coal seams deemed too costly to reach via traditional subsurface mine-shafts. Bulldozers push the rubble into adjacent valleys, which can fill with rain and trigger flooding. Holding ponds at the sites often contain high levels of heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, and selenium.

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Gunnoe is a medical technician who now works...

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