Goldman Environmental Prize winners share inspiring stories

Turn on the light.

Did you know that by flipping that switch you have a 52 percent chance of harming West Virginia's lush rivers and valleys?

That's because more than half of our electrical energy comes from coal, and most of that coal comes from West Virginia mines, and most of those mines blow up the tops of West Virginia's mountains, sending cascades of toxins and dust into the valleys below.

That's where Maria Gunnoe lives, and that's why she became an environmental activist.

On Monday night, she was honored for her work by the Goldman Environmental Prize, along with six other activists from around the Globe.

Maria lives in the same house her parents lived in, and she's raising another generation on that land. The house sits directly below a 10-story valley fill of toxic mine waste. Since the mine above her home became operational in 2000, Gunnoe's property has flooded seven times, destroying much of her ancestral home and contaminating her water well.

After she testified in a federal lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers — the only community resident to do so — Gunnoe has been harrassed by miners, so often that she's had to put a fence around her property to ensure she and her family remain safe.

Maria's story was one of five that brought tears to my eyes. Each prize winner tells his or her story via a short film commissioned by the Goldman Environmental Prize, then delivers a speech to the audience.

Each time, I was blown away by their tenacity, courage and committment to their cause.

Marc Ona Essangui has been jailed and is often harrassed by government officials for his crusade to save Gabon's Ivindo National Park and its famous waterfalls from deforestation. In fact, the government refused to let him travel to the U.S. to receive his award. Only when the Gabonese Ambassador to the U.S. flew to the central African nation and pressured the government to let him come was he allowed to board the plane.

Yuyun Ismawati, an environmental engineer in Bali, noticed years ago that there was no infrastructure to properly deal with the trash produced by Bali's tourism industry. So she founded Bali Fokus. Through that, she's created solid waste management facilities that help support poor villages. She's also trained more than 500 households how to separate waste and how to compost, reducing waste by 50 percent and giving poor women a way to empower themselves and their communities.

And then there is Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini, natives of Suriname, a small nation in northern South America. Eduards is a Saramaka tribal leader; Jabini is a law student. The two joined forces in 2002 to unite their tribal villages along the Upper Suriname River, whose water and surrounding forests were threatened after logging companies destroyed the tribe's subsistence farms. They went from village to village by boat and on foot, informing people about the problem and also of their rights. In 2008, the Surinamese government publicly declared that it would recognize the rights of all indigenous and tribal peoples and protect their territory.

Again and again, I was humbled and inspired by their stories, by their ability to defy the odds and achieve their noble goals.

This year, for the first time ever, anyone can directly contribute to the prize winners' causes. Multiple donations of $18 can go a long way.

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