Kristal Ambrose. Photo Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize
Kristal Ambrose of The Bahamas has won the Goldman Environmental Prize for Islands & Island Nations in 2020. The award, handed out annually to grassroots environmental activists, is sometimes called “the green Nobel”. Ambrose received the award during a virtual ceremony earlier this year.
A trip in 2012 to study the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of garbage in the northern Pacific Ocean, opened Ambrose’s eyes. She saw in the debris, “… things that I was using at home plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic cutlery, straws. … And it was then when I had the realization that I was a huge part of the problem. I was the biggest plastic offender that I knew, and equally so I could be a part of the solution.”