By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
On October 8 in Oslo, the Nobel committee announced the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Dr. Wangari Maathai of Kenya.
Her selection as the peace prize laureate says a great deal about our rapidly evolving world. She is the first African woman, and the 12th woman in all, to win the award since it began in 1901. More notably, she is the first environmental activist to be honored.
Ms. Maathai, 64, born in Nyeri, Kenya, founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, to organize poor women in rural Kenya to plant millions of trees to combat deforestation and to replenish the source of fuel for cooking fires in villages.
The announcement surprised many people and stirred opinions pro and con. The criticism did not sprout from the passing muddles over color or gender. (Notably, a woman won the peace prize as early as 1905.) The question raised is how much threat does a crippled environment pose to world peace? Hence, how much does a guardian of the environment help in the cause of peace?
By its decision, the Nobel committee expanded the traditional boundaries of the peace prize that were laid out in 1896 in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite. He decreed the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
But times change: To illustrate, the Nobel Prize for Economics did not exist until 1969.
Nobel committee chairman Dr. Ole Danbolt Mjoes faced the question squarely in his announcement: "It is clear that with this award, we have expanded the term ‘ peace' to encompass environmental questions related to our beloved Earth ... Peace on Earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment."
Dr. Maathai portrayed the new dangers to peace in her own terms. On Norwegian television she said, "People are fighting over water, over food and over other natural resources. When our resources become scarce, we fight over them. In managing our resources and in sustainable development, we plant the seeds of peace."
A careful reader will notice I use two titles for the honoree, Dr. and Ms. The roles involved reflect the environment's connections to many issues. She studied biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Kansas and received a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh, before earning her doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Nairobi. She is divorced with three children and serves as the head of the Veterinary Anatomy Department at the University of Nairobi. With the rise of democracy in Kenya, she won a seat in parliament and serves as assistant minister for environment.
Like the trees she has replenished, the work of Dr./Ms. Maathai yields progress far beyond the natural environment. The concerns, and the benefits, of her work extend to large issues of poverty, women's rights, and human rights. The story in chief is the many ways the environment connects with human problems.
In his announcement, Professor Mjoes explained: "Maathai stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa. She has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development and embraces democracy, human rights and women's rights in particular. She thinks globally and acts locally."
In this time of war, the committee received a record number of nominations for the peace prize, 194 in all. The leading contenders were thought to be those who worked to reduce the spread of nuclear materials and weapons. The nominees included the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, and U.S. senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar.
The United States' congratulations to Dr. Maathai were somewhat tempered. In the past, the U.S. has criticized her claims that AIDS was a biological weapon developed in the West to kill black people.
The State Department said Ms. Maathai's selection reflects well on Kenya and its government. For the honoree and her work: "We think she's been a very prominent and important activist on environmental issues, and we have great respect for that."
Nobel prizes are paid from the income of the $9 million estate Nobel left in 1896. As does the world, money also evolves with time. This year's award of $1.36 million to Dr. Maathai will make her one of the richest people in Kenya. The award of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize speaks in a new way of the natural ties we must better understand and protect in this increasingly connected world.
Column for Oct. 26, 2004