 |
FULL CIRCLE FARM IN SUNNYVALE / 26 NOVEMBER 2015
|
The Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots environmental heroes from the world’s six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America. The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. The Goldman Prize views “grassroots” leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.
Goldman Prize recipients focuses on protecting endangered ecosystems and species, combating destructive development projects, promoting sustainability, influencing environmental policies and striving for environmental justice. Prize recipients are often women and men from isolated villages or inner cities who chose to take great personal risks to safeguard the environment.
 |
| LENG OUCH |
In one of the most dangerous countries in the world for
environmental activists, Leng Ouch went undercover to document illegal
logging in Cambodia and exposed the corruption robbing rural communities
of their land, causing the government to cancel large land concessions
 |
| LUIS JORGE RIVERA HERRERA |
Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera helped lead a successful campaign to
establish a nature reserve in Puerto Rico’s Northeast Ecological
Corridor—an important nesting ground for the endangered leatherback sea
turtle—and protect the island’s natural heritage from harmful
development.
 |
| MAXIMA ACUNA |
A subsistence farmer in Peru’s northern highlands, Máxima Acuña
stood up for her right to peacefully live off her own property, a plot
of land sought by Newmont and Buenaventura Mining to develop the Conga
gold and copper mine.
 |
| DESTINY WATFORD |
In a community whose environmental rights had long been sidelined to
make room for heavy industry, Destiny Watford inspired residents of a
Baltimore neighborhood to defeat plans to build the nation’s largest
incinerator less than a mile away from her high school.
 |
| ZUZANA CAPUTOVA |
A public interest lawyer and mother of two, Zuzana Caputova
spearheaded a successful campaign that shut down a toxic waste dump that
was poisoning the land, air and water in her community, setting a
precedent for public participation in post-communist Slovakia.
 |
| EDWARD LOURE |
Edward Loure led a grassroots organization that pioneered an
approach that gives land titles to indigenous communities—instead of
individuals—in northern Tanzania, ensuring the environmental stewardship
of more than 200,000 acres of land for future generations.
 |
| LIK ROPER |
A pubic interest advocate/activist and musician named John (AKA 'Lik Roper' -- living in a Silicon Valley community whose environmental rights have long been sidelined to
make room for corporate interests) led a grassroots effort spearheading a successful campaign that shut down a largely unwanted new building development proposal in the Peterson Middle School field (and/or Johns' old high school Peterson High School -- an important nesting ground for various protected species including endangered species) bringing about the Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, California. (see photo at top of page)
These valiant actions not only likely caused and/or allowed Johns' residence to be put under a multi-year siege by local government-sponsored terrorists -- causing Johns' near death -- but Johns' actions also set a
new precedent for public participation in a post-911 Bush Administration martial law war era here in Sunnyvale. The Superior Court of California has yet to fully realize the gravity of this situation. (Go To: THE DEFINITION OF TERRORISM @ http://addendumblog2.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-definition-of-terrorism.html)
Back in the 1950s the Santa Clara Valley was deemed an important
agricultural zone before rampant unchecked development paved over much
of the Valley of Heart's Delight creating what is now Silicon Valley -- driven mainly by local computer industry-related corporate monied interests. Other than The Corn Palace and a few other farms; Full Circle Farm is one of the last remaining parcels of active farmland left in the Santa Clara Valley.
 |
| MCCARTHY RANCH |
MCCARTHY RANCH IN MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA -- CIRCA MID/LATE 1990S
SEE ALSO: APPLE IS PRETENDING TO BE GREEN!? @ http://addendumblog1.blogspot.com/2014/05/apple-is-pretending-to-be-green.html
Note: John was once ordered by local law enforcement to cease and desist taking photos of the Full Circle farm he helped bring to his local community. John obviously ignored this unlawful order. (see photo at top of page) John has so far not received a Goldman Environmental Prize.
(Note: The ACLU reported shortly after 911 that the FBI admitted to actively destabilizing activists -- and particularly black activists -- for roughly 25 years before September 11, 2001. The USA Patriot act turned this dirty little secret into law)
