Destiny Watford is an American environmental activist. She won a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016. [1] [2] [3]
Destiny Watford is an American environmental activist. She won a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016. [1] [2] [3]
Watford was raised in Curtis Bay, Maryland, in an area with significant air pollution. [4] [5] [6] While in high school, she started an advocacy campaign against an incinerator project that had been approved by the city and state, and could burn 4,000 tons of waste per day. [5] Over four years, she led advocacy with other students at Benjamin Franklin High School based on concerns about the health impacts from more air pollution in the area, including the prevalence of asthma already experienced in the local community. [6] [7] Their work included research into land use and zoning policies, as well as lobbying school and government officials. [8] In 2016, the Maryland Department of the Environment canceled the incinerator project. [9] [10]
She studied at Towson University. [11] In 2018, she presented at the Facing Race Conference. [12] At age 16, she co-founded the advocacy group Free Your Voice, [3] [13] which is now part of the human rights organization United Workers. [14]
Watford has received a variety of awards and accolades, including the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016, as well as recognition as a Birdland Community Hero in 2016, [15] Time Next Generation Leader 2016, [16] and Essence Work 100 Woman. [17]
Watford is a regular keynote speaker on environmentalism and environmental justice. Speaking credits include:
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance or energy. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source – that is, a source created by human activities. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. In 2015, pollution killed nine million people worldwide. This remained unchanged in 2019, with little real progress against pollution being identifiable. Air pollution accounted for ¾ of these earlier deaths.
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high-temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas and heat. The ash is mostly formed by the inorganic constituents of the waste and may take the form of solid lumps or particulates carried by the flue gas. The flue gases must be cleaned of gaseous and particulate pollutants before they are dispersed into the atmosphere. In some cases, the heat that is generated by incineration can be used to generate electric power.
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 award is given by the Goldman Environmental Foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is also called the Green Nobel.
Environmental pollution in Japan has accompanied industrialization since the Meiji period. One of the earliest cases was the copper poisoning caused by drainage from the Ashio Copper Mine in Tochigi Prefecture, beginning as early as 1878. Repeated floods occurred in the Watarase River basin, and 1,600 hectares of farmland and towns and villages in Tochigi and Gunma prefectures were damaged by the floodwater, which contained excessive inorganic copper compounds from the Ashio mine. The local breeders led by Shōzō Tanaka, a member of the Lower House from Tochigi appealed to the prefecture and the government to call a halt to the mining operations. Although the mining company paid compensatory money and the government engaged in the embankment works of the Watarase River, no fundamental solution of the problem was achieved.
Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.
Environmental issues in China had risen in tandem with the country's rapid industrialisation, as well as lax environmental oversight especially during the early 2000s. China was ranked 120th out of the 180 countries on the 2020 Environmental Performance Index.
Von Hernandez is a leading environmental activist from the Philippines. He was Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia (GPSEA) from 2008 to 2014, where he led the environmental group's programs and operations in the Southeast Asian region. Prior to that, he served as Campaigns Director for the organization, and was responsible for driving the group's campaigns in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines on a number of issues including climate change, forests, sustainable agriculture and toxics pollution. Currently, he serves as Development Director for Greenpeace International.
Aurora Castillo known as "la doña — a title of respect given to her by her largely Latino community — was an American environmentalist and community activist from Los Angeles, California. She co-founded the Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) in 1984. The MELA organization successfully opposed a planned building of a toxic waste incinerator and state prison in Eastside Los Angeles. Castillo was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995.
Luis Yanza is an environmental activist from Ecuador, of Cofán descent. He serves as president of the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia, an NGO representing the interests of the campesinos and indigenous peoples in Ecuador.
Back River is a tidal estuary in Baltimore County, Maryland, located about 2 miles (3 km) east of the city of Baltimore. The estuary extends from Essex, Maryland, southeast for about 8.8 miles (14.2 km) to the Chesapeake Bay. The watershed area is 39,075 acres (15,813 ha) and includes Essex Skypark Airport and the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant. The river is shared between Essex, MD, Dundalk, MD, and Edgemere, MD
Wheelabrator Baltimore is a waste-to-energy incinerator located in the Westport neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland and is operated by Wheelabrator Technologies, a subsidiary of Energy Capital Partners. It has an electric generation capacity of 64.5 megawatts. On October 2, 2018, ECP announced the agreement to sell Wheelabrator Technologies to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group.
Trashed is an environmental documentary film, written and directed by British film-maker Candida Brady. It follows actor Jeremy Irons as he investigates the global scale and impact of humanity's modern wasteful consumerism and pollution. The film is a call for urgent action to resolve the issue of existing deposits and drastically reduce our consumption towards sustainable levels and zero waste, but also demonstrates how this is already being achieved successfully in many communities around the world.
The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) is a Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit organization that advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws. The organization was founded in 2002 by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attorneys Eric V. Schaeffer and Michele Merkel. EIP is known for its legal and investigative efforts to reduce air and water pollution from coal-fired power plants, oil and gas facilities, factory farms, and other sources including incinerators and waste water treatment plants. The group also focuses on environmental justice and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. EIP is headquartered in Washington, DC, and it has another office in Austin, TX and staff in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Georgia. In 2013, Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator, rated EIP as a four-star charity organization.
Adenike Adebukola Akinsemolu is a Nigerian Environmental sustainability advocate, educator, author and a social entrepreneur. She is a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University. She is known as one of the country's leading experts on environmental sustainability.
The Harrisburg Incinerator, now under private operation as Susquehanna Resource Management Complex (SRMC), is a waste-to-energy incinerator in South Harrisburg, Pennsylvania built and operated by the city from 1972 to 2003, which was an ongoing source of contention due to toxic air emissions and unforeseen costs which greatly contributed to the bankruptcy of the city. Since December 23, 2013, it is now owned by Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) and operated by Covanta.
The anti-incinerator movement in China refers to the series of environmental protests that have occurred in opposition to China's numerous planned and operating industrial waste incinerators. The construction of these waste-to-energy facilities, which has prompted the ensuing protest movement, operates as part of China's ongoing efforts to restructure its waste disposal system in regard to its status as the largest producer of municipal solid waste worldwide since 2004. Described by some as being a new type of NIMBY protest, the roots of the anti-incinerator movement can be traced back to the early 1990s, following the introduction of China's first generation of incinerator plants. The movement, however, began in earnest with the benchmark 2006 Liulitun protest taking place in Beijing.
Carolyn Salminen Konheim was an American environmental activist and consultant, based in New York.
The Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility is a trash incineration plant located in Chester, Pennsylvania. The waste-to-energy plant - which incinerates waste to generate power - was built and operated by Westinghouse from 1991 to 1997. It is currently operated by Covanta and has been criticized for the level of pollution it produces. The plant has the largest capacity of any waste-to-energy plant in the United States.
Fifie Rahardja is an Indonesian environmental activist and businessperson. She is notable for her founding of an activist organization and for her efforts to clean the Citarum River in West Java.