Photo: PA MEDIA / copyright
Two best friends who grow coral in the Bahamas, the city of Milan for its food distribution plan and Costa Rica for its tree planting program are among the winners of the first Earthshot awards
The annual awards were created by the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, to reward to those who try to save the planet.
The five winners were announced this Sunday in London and each of them received 1 million British pounds, representing about US $ 1.3 million.
Prince William was accompanied by artists such as Emma Watson, Emma Thompson and David Oyelowo for the ceremony at Alexandra Palace.
British singer Ed Sheeran and the band Coldplay were among those who gave presentations and, in tune with the ecological message of the awards, electricity u sada for music was powered by 60 cyclists pedaling.
No celebrities flew to London for the ceremony, no plastic was used to build the stage and guests were asked to “consider the environment” when choosing an outfit, with Watson wearing a dress made from 10 different dresses from the Oxfam organization.
The name of the Earthshot award is a reference to the ambition “Moonshot ”From the United States of the decade of 1960, in which then-President John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon in a decade.
Every year, and for the next decade a , the £ 1 million prize will be awarded to each of the five chosen projects that are working to find solutions to the planet’s environmental problems.
These first winners were selected from five different categories and chosen by 15 judges that included environmentalist David Attenborough, actress Cate Blanchett and singer Shakira.
Winners
Category “protect and restore nature”: Republic of Costa Rica.
- In the past , Costa Rica eliminated most of its forests, but now has doubled the number of trees and is seen as a role model for others. The winning project is a scheme that pays local citizens to restore natural ecosystems, which is contributing to a renaissance of the rainforest.
Category “clean our air: Takachar, India.
- Is about a portable machine created to turn agricultural waste into fertilizer so that farmers do not burn their fields and pollute the air.
Category “revive our oceans”: Coral Vita, Bahamas.
- It is a project led by two best friends who grow coral in the Bahamas, designed to restore the coral reefs that they are dying in the world. Using special tanks, the friends developed a way to grow coral up to 26 times faster than it normally takes in nature.
Category “build a world free of waste”: the food waste centers of the city of Milan, Italy.
- Another challenge is waste and the city of Milan in Italy won the award for collecting unused food and giving it to the people who need it most. The initiative drastically reduced waste while fighting hunger.
Category “solve our climate”: AEM Electrolyser, Thailand / Germany / Italy.
- This is a smart design in Thailand that uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a clean gas, but it is generally produced by burning fossil fuels.
In a recorded message reproduced at the ceremony, Prince William said that the next 10 years will be a “decisive decade” for the planet.
” Time is running out ”, he said. “A decade doesn’t seem long enough, but humanity has an outstanding track record of being able to solve the unsolvable.”
Earlier this year week, the Duke suggested that instead of the world’s top minds set their sights on space tourism, they should focus on saving Earth.
Analysis by David Shukman, BBC Science editor
With stars from the world of football and the music walking on a green carpet, the message was that environmental challenges deserve the same kind of attention as the Oscars.
And the winning teams were obviously delighted to get such outstanding recognition.
Now it will be necessary to see if their projects will expand in a way that makes a difference around the world.
Whether restoring corals and forests or reducing waste and carbon emissions, the plan is for reputable companies to support these programs, in mostly small-scale, and help them go global.
It may take years before we see how well it works in practice, and inevitably some projects may be more effective than others.
In any case, in the countdown to the COP climate summit 26 in Glasgow next month, the winners offer something to has been in short supply recently: a sense of optimism.
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