Greta Thunberg awarded $1.15M Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, will donate to weather groups

Teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was just awarded $1.15 million in prize dollars for the 2020 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity – and she’s by now pledged to give all of it away to environmental groups.

“That is a lot more dollars than I can start out to think about, but all the prize money will be donated, by my foundation, to diverse corporations and projects who are performing to assistance people today on the entrance line, influenced by the climate crisis and ecological disaster,” Thunberg mentioned in a online video posted to her Twitter account Monday.

Thunberg was selected from a industry of 136 nominees selected by a panel of “internationally renowned personalities” from a variety of fields of science, tech, politics and society, in accordance to the Portugal-centered Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which administers the prize.

“The way Greta Thunberg has been capable to mobilize young generations for the induce of local weather modify and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists, will make her 1 of the most outstanding figures of our times,” mentioned Jorge Sampaio, chairman of the prize committee.

The very first €200,000 (about $231,000) will be donated to the SOS Amazonia campaign battling COVID-19 in Brazil and to an group called the Cease Ecocide Basis, which aims to make “ecocide,” prevalent hurt or destruction of ecosystems induced by occasions including oil spills, deforestation or air pollution, an global criminal offense.

GRETA THUNBERG NAMED TIME’S 2019 ‘PERSON OF THE YEAR’

Thunberg, born in 2003, swiftly became an worldwide determine owing to her weather advocacy two yrs ago.

She sailed across the Atlantic Ocean past summertime in purchase to talk at the United Nations – where she scolded earth leaders in a greatly viewed speech.

And then she was named Time Journal “Person of the Year” for 2019.

“Thunberg commenced a worldwide movement by skipping faculty: starting in August 2018, she spent her times camped out in entrance of the Swedish Parliament, keeping a indication painted in black letters on a white background that study Skolstrejk för klimatet: ‘School Strike for Climate,’” Time wrote at the time. “In the 16 months due to the fact, she has dealt with heads of state at the U.N., met with the pope, sparred with the president of the United States and influenced 4 million folks to be part of the world wide weather strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest local weather demonstration in human heritage.”

Speaking at a weather strike in New York Metropolis very last yr, Thunberg said that folks on all continents – even Antarctica – were being using section in weather strikes to assist her lead to.

She was honored by Forbes Magazine as a single of the “World’s 100 Most Potent Gals of 2019” and has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to the Gulbenkian Basis. She has also gained Amnesty International’s leading human legal rights award, according to the Guardian.

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According to the basis, the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity aims to acknowledge people, groups or organizations whose contributions toward mitigating local weather modify stand out for “novelty, innovation and affect.” The €1 million prize dollars at this time equates to about $1.15 million.

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.