The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of US$150,000 per recipient. Since the Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1990, a total of $13.2 million has been awarded to 139 honorees from 79 countries, as of 2010. The Goldman Environmental Prize is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
The Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1990 by civic leaders and philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his wife, Rhoda H. Goldman. Richard Goldman died at age 90 in 2010 and was predeceased by his wife. Richard Goldman founded Goldman Insurance Services in San Francisco. Rhoda Goldman was a great-grand-niece of Levi Strauss, founder of the worldwide clothing company.
The Goldman Environmental Prize winners are selected by an international jury who receive confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. Prize winners participate in a 10-day tour of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for an awards ceremony and presentation, news conferences, media briefings and meetings with political, public policy, financial and environmental leaders. Amy Lyons is executive director of the foundation that awards the prize in 2010.
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“A perfect personality ... is only possible in a state of society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,—the result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work as a creative force.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)