As we turn the page towards 2021, let’s take a look back at those we lost last year that left a lasting impression on the planet.
E. Bruce Harrison
He was born in 1962. Mad Men-Former PR executive at the Chemical Manufacturers Association. He led a relentless attack on the book. Silent SpringRachel Carson, Rachel Carson. It is undoubtedly the greatest environmental book.
He was the father of greenwashing according the enviros, and the father in Green PR according the industry. Harrison died in January at the age of 88
Paul Crutzen
Crutzen was the only survivor of the trio awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in Chemistry for their discoveries linking the stratospheric destruction of the Earth’s ozone layer with the increasing use of chlorofluorocarbon chemical chemicals. He was 87 years old when he died in January.
Sandy West
West, a Pittsburgh Paint & Glass heiresse, spent almost all of her money protecting Georgia’s Ossabaw Island. West was content with her public image as an eccentric and worked to save Ossabaws wild hog population.
Ossabaw’s natural beauty is often trampled or eaten by the hogs. Sandy, who was 108 years old, protected Ossabaw Island’s good and bad aspects until her death in February.
Rush Limbaugh
You can say what you like about Limbaugh but he had a profound effect on the feelings of tens and millions of Americans about the environment. Limbaugh was a major misleader in climate change. His best moment, IMHO was May 2010, when he stated to his audience that the “climate is changing”. Deepwater Horizon Oil spillage It was an inside jobThis was a fundraiser for said wackos. He died in February after a long fight with lung cancer at the age of 70.
George Shultz
Shultz was Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Reagan. He was a late convert to clean and efficient energy and action on climate changes. He was 100 years old when he died in February.
John Warner
The courtly Virginia Senator, who served five terms, died in May at the age of 93. He was a poor environmentalist by one measure. His lifetime voting score from League of Conservation Voters was 22%. But he cosponsored the first Senate climate bill with Joe Lieberman. Warner then spent much of his energy on climate change as an issue of global security.
Prince Phillip
Philip was not only Queen’s wingman but he was also President of the World Wide Fund for Nature for 15 year. His son Prince Charles is still a champion for endangered species and habitats. It is safe to say that both the Queens Consort (and the Crown Prince) are very good fundraisers, given their high visibility. His Highness was 99 at the time of his death in April.
A.Q. Khan
This is the list of all the people on it. A.Q. KhanHe will almost certainly have the longest lasting and most profound impact on the human condition. He is almost certain to be the only physicist in Pakistan who is a national hero. Khan led Pakistan’s efforts to catch up with India in 1974 when it detonated the first atomic bomb. They did so in 1998. Khan was also the world’s most prominent defender of nuclear secrets.
Khans leaked information was a key factor in the launch of nuke weapons programs in Iran and North Korea. The dictator Moammar Khadafy overthrew Libya’s program. Potential nukes in Iran or North Korea’s hands still pose a grave global threat.
Khan, 85 years old, died in October from COVID-19 complications.
Environmental activists
The final numbers won’t be in for quite some time, but 2021 is expected not to be a good year for environmental activists in developing countries. The group Global WitnessLast year, 227 deaths were recorded, mostly from unsolved murders.
The 2021 trial of Berta Cceres, one of the most notorious murders in history, brought a step closer towards justice. Berta Cceres was an opposition leader to a hydroelectric dam in Honduras until her 2016 murder. In 2016, Berta Cceres, the former head for the hydro project, was arrested and convicted in her murder.
Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor/columnist. He can be reached at: [email protected] @pdykstra.
His views are not necessarily those of Environmental Health News or The Daily Climate.
Banner photo by Sandy West. Credit: ossabawisland.org/)