Courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize
Twenty-year-old Destiny Watford has won the Goldman Environmental Prize for her campaign to stop the construction of a giant incinerator in her neighborhood.
A woman in Baltimore was just rewarded for her incredible work in stopping the city from becoming even more polluted.
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Destiny Watford began her campaign to stop the construction of a giant incinerator that would burn 4,000 tons of trash and emit 1,240 lead and mercury every year at the age of 17. The incinerator was to be built in Curtis Bay, one of Balitmore’s most polluted areas, but Watford wasn’t having it.
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Now, four years later, the 20-year-old has not only stopped construction of the incinerator, but is being honored with one of the world’s most prestigious environmental awards, a Goldman Environmental Prize. The annual prize is an award given to activists around the world for their work in environmental justice. Watford is the youngest of this year’s recipients.
The people behind the Goldman Prize describe the young activist as holding “unwavering dedication and wisdom beyond her years.” Watford is currently attending Towson University where she is leading a project to turn part of the proposed incinerator’s construction site into a community-owned solar panel farm.
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