A self-educated yak herdsman in Mongolia has won an international environmental award for forcing the closure of destructive mining operations along a river in the landlocked country.
Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is one of six winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, the largest award of its kind in the world. The winners, selected from six regions of the world, will be announced in San Francisco today. Each receives a prize of US$125,000.
Munkhbayar created the Onggi River Movement, which helped convince the government to tighten and better enforce mining regulations, leading to the revival of once dried-up lakes and rivers.
"I spent my childhood by the banks of the Onggi River and I think of myself as one with the river," Munkhbayar said.
He set up the movement in 2001 to pressure the government to better regulate the mining industry after seeing the impact outdated mining methods were having on the river. At first his appeals to the government were ignored, then he organized protest marches.
His group also appealed to candidates during a 2004 national election, who after they won helped form a parliamentary lobby group for the protection of the Onggi River.
"Munkhbayar was chosen because of the huge impact he has had on the issue of responsible mining and water protection in Mongolia," said Richard Goldman, the founder of the prize.
"Not only has he worked with governmental leaders in crafting appropriate legislation, but he has also made it a point to continue educating the public about their water resources," Goldman said in an e-mail.
Munkhbayar said one of his goals was to educate the public about the environment and their rights.
"They do not realize that these mining operations lead to irreversible ecological damage," he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS