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Activist in neighboring state to receive highest international
environmental award
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[APRIL 24, 2006]
SAN FRANCISCO -- Tonight Craig Williams, director
of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, is to be
awarded the prestigious 2006 Goldman Environmental Prize. The
$125,000 prize, created by philanthropist Richard N. Goldman in
1990, is awarded annually to six grass-roots "environmental heroes,"
one from each of six continental regions. Often referred to as the
"Nobel Prize for the Environment," it is the largest award of its
kind in the world.
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Williams, who organized the Chemical Weapons Working Group and has
guided the national citizens' coalition for 15 years, was chosen to
receive the award for North America. He is being honored for his
unprecedented success in effecting environmentally protective
changes in Pentagon decisions concerning destruction of the U.S.
stockpile of chemical weapons. Because of Williams' nonstop
diligence and strategic acuity, he and the Chemical Weapons Working
Group were able to successfully convince the world's biggest
bureaucracy -- the Pentagon -- to stretch far beyond its historic
mindset and to:
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Identify, test and
deploy destruction technologies that are safe for the
environment and residents of affected communities, rather than
the Army's preferred and dangerous option of burning the
weapons.
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Include citizens as
participants in making decisions throughout the destruction
process.
As one of six prize recipients, Williams is among "the most
important people you have never heard of," according to Goldman.
"All of them have fought, often alone and at great personal risk, to
protect the environment in their home countries. Their incredible
achievements are an inspiration to all of us."
Williams said of receiving this year's prize: "It is humbling for
me to be in the presence of my fellow recipients and to learn of
their accomplishments. I know that all the work represented by these
dedicated citizens of the world has made it easier for each of us to
work for healthy environments in our own communities. Tonight, by
awarding a few, the important work of hundreds of thousands of
people worldwide will also be honored."
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 Williams is to be presented with the award in the San Francisco
Opera House at 5 p.m. From California, the prize recipients will
travel to the nation's Capitol on April 26 for a press conference
followed by a second prize ceremony at the National Geographic
Society.
This year's other winners are Anne Kajir from Papua New Guinea;
Olya Melen from Lviv, Ukraine; Silas Siakor from Monrovia, Liberia;
Tarcisio Feitosa Da Silva from Altamira, Brazil; and Yu Xiaogang
from Kunming, China. [Related article]
Additional information about the Goldman Prize is available at
www.goldmanprize.org.
[Chemical Weapons Working Group
news release]
Links to current
and background information on the grass-roots effort to mediate
safer disarmament
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