Fighting Fire with Fiery Passion: 2026 Goldman Prize Winners

Climate One

News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

The Goldman Environmental Prize is known as the Nobel for grassroots environmental champions, for good reason. Award-winners are earth defenders, often bucking entrenched systems and powerful interests in order to protect and restore the natural environments we all depend on. This week we feature conversations with two of the 2026 Goldman Prize winners: Iroro Tanshi, a tropical conservationist and bat ecologist who rediscovered a species that hadn't been seen in half a century. When climate-amplified wildfire threatened to destroy her new find, she built a community movement to virtually eliminate the wildfire risk. Sarah Finch, a tireless environmental advocate who spent years in English courts using planning law as a defense against the fossil fuel industry. She won a major UK Supreme Court ruling, a ruling that is already constraining oil, gas, and coal development across the country. What can we learn about passion, persistence, and collaboration from these two advocates? Guests: Iroro Tanshi, Tropical Conservationist Sarah Finch, Environmental Campaigner For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit https://climateone.org/podcasts Highlights: 00:00 Intro 03:01 Iroro Tanshi on Warri, Nigeria and the oil industry 05:37 Iroro Tanshi on becoming interested in bats and the forest 09:24 Iroro Tanshi on finding a bat species once thought extinct 14:03 Iroro Tanshi on when a wildfire tore through the research site 19:20 Iroro Tanshi on the wildfire risks of forests in equatorial Africa 20:50 Iroro Tanshi on working with the community to address the wildfires 23:01 Iroro Tanshi how to scale what she’s learned world-wide 24:40 Iroro Tanshi on what bats can teach people about being human 27:17 Sarah Finch on realizing the far reaching implication of her work 30:49 Sarah Finch on why the legal argument finally worked 34:42 Sarah Finch on getting the confidence to go after big oil 44:43 Sarah Finch on how a group of people can make a real difference ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:40.3	I'm Ariana Brocious. I'm Cusha Navadar. And this is Climate One. Every year, the Goldman Environmental Prize recognizes a small group of people who've taken extraordinary action
0:55.2	to protect the planet. Winning the award is a big deal, especially in environmental circles.
1:01.6	Yeah, it's widely known as the Green Nobel, and we, at Climate One, are super proud of our
1:08.0	ongoing relationship with the Goldman Environmental Foundation. We've had the privilege
1:12.6	of talking with a number of past winners, and every single one of them has left us in awe.
1:20.2	And this year's slate is no different. Each one is inspiring. And for the first time in the
1:25.7	prize's history, all six winners are women.
1:29.3	Today, we are talking with two of them.
1:34.1	Later in the episode, we'll hear from Sarah Finch, who spent years in English courts using
1:39.7	planning law as a defense against the fossil fuel industry.
1:43.7	This tireless environmental advocate won a major UK Supreme Court ruling that now bears her name.
	...

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