TreeHugger.com is a green website dedicated to the promotion of sustainability and giving its visitors the latest in eco- news, solutions and product information. We here at The Greenery are big fans of their site and are really impressed with the work they do.
So it’s exciting news to hear that after compiling a list of contenders for the site’s 2010 Person of the Year, TreeHugger has announced a winner. Everyone on the shortlist was deserving of recognition and it must’ve been difficult for voters to choose just one but the results are in and it appears that the honour goes to Sylvia Earle.
The Person of the Year shortlist and voting system is an attempt to honour an individual based on their past contributions to environmentalism, as well as their significant and specific accomplishments during the award year.
Sylvia Earle’s accomplishments range from setting diving records to ocean engineering innovations and from scientific discoveries to administrative leadership. She led the first female aquanaut team, set the human depth record of 1250 feet in a JIM suit and holds the female record of 3,280 feet for a solo dive in a submersible.
She served as Chief Scientist to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between 1990 and 1992, and has worked to design and create unique equipment which enables deeper-water exploration.
Over the course of Earle’s deep water career she has spent more than 7,000 hours submerged while she conducting research in the United States National Marine Sanctuary and on the impact of oil spills.
She won the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Prize in 2009 and made a wish that the TED community “would use all means at [its] disposal…to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected area, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet”.
In 2010 she had the opportunity to see her dream come true with the launch of Mission Blue. With the oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico for a good few months of the year her skills, knowledge and vision were never more needed.
You can also read up on who voters chose as their TreeHugger Reader’s Choice Person of the Year.
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
