Right Livelihood Award | 27 Sep 2019
The Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was recently awarded the Right Livelihood Award-2019, also known as Sweden's alternative Nobel Prize.
- She shares her award with the three other global leaders namely:
- Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa who secured the land rights of the Yanomami people.
- Chinese women's rights lawyer Guo Jianmei.
- Western Sahara human rights defender Aminatou Haidar.
Yanomami Tribe
- The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America.
- The Yanomami people live in large circular and communal houses called Yanos or Shabonos.
- They live in the rainforests and mountainous regions of Northern Brazil and Southern Venezuela.
- The award was founded by the Swedish-German philanthropist and stamp collector Jakob von Uexkull after the Nobel foundation rejected his proposal to establish two new Nobel Prizes, one environmental award and the other award to promote knowledge and perspectives of people in poor countries.
- Because of its founding history and the associated efforts to promote sustainability, social justice, and peace, it came to be known as alternative Nobel Prize.
- She won the award for her inspiring, unending, and amplifying efforts that demanded urgent global action from the world’s political leaders regarding climate change.
- Her FridaysForFuture campaign inspired millions of young people throughout the world to come onto the streets and demand suitable necessary actions from their respective governments.
- Recently, the students within India also protested at several places across the nation in order to be a part of the global protests against climate change.