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Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mia Mottley Accepts 2025 TIME Earth Award
Mia Mottley on Sept. 27, 2024. Credit - Li Rui—Xinhua/Getty Images Barbados may be a small country in size and population, but Prime Minister Mia Mottley has seen that the Caribbean nation plays a big role in the fight against the climate crisis. In her speech at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23, Mottley pointed to the late Pope Francis, who 'remained forthright in stating what was necessary for us at the personal level, but also the level of the planet Earth: we have to work to save the planet.' 'He said clearly that we need a conversation which includes everyone, not some of us, but everyone, since the environmental challenge that we are undergoing and its human roots concern and affect us all.' Mottley, who became the first female Prime Minister of Barbados in 2018, isn't afraid to pave the way. She has implemented a plan to phase out fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030. Mottley is clear about the contentious political climate that affects environmental action. 'We are at an awkward stage in the world's development,' Mottley said. 'When you hear companies and financial institutions that a year ago were still promoting the importance of climate finance all of a sudden say they don't need it and they don't believe in it anymore, you begin to wonder if this is real.' But she's also clear-eyed about what's at stake, including the fact that the historically largest polluters are often the richest nations yet don't bear the brunt of the climate crisis' impacts. Rather, less developed countries in the Global South, like Barbados, which faces rising sea levels and more frequent storms, often do. Mottley launched the Bridgetown Initiative at COP26 in 2021, as a plan to push rich countries to support developing nations in adapting to climate change by aiming to mobilize trillions of dollars in green investments. 'If we don't get this equation correct, it is going to destabilize our access to food and water, our access to security,' she said. Part of the key, she said, is in finding the 'love language' that makes conversations between opposing sides—climate activists and climate deniers—possible. 'We're not going to win all the battles in the current geopolitical climate, but we can win a battle where there is common purpose.' Mottley implored businesses and individuals to eschew apathy and indifference—and for world leaders to join in on the conversation around the climate crisis, regardless of political differences. 'The truth is that if we look back at history, we know that history doesn't move in a straight line, but it is important that we keep the trajectory and the direction moving in the right way,' Mottley said. 'There are people whose very existence depends on us finding ways of building bridges through this difficult and challenging time.' TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Selassie Atadiika Accepts 2025 TIME Earth Award
Selassie Atadika Credit - Courtesy Selassie Atadika, Photograph by Francis Kokoroko Climate change is impacting the world's food supply: as extreme weather events become more common, the future of crops around the world is at risk. This loss isn't in some distant future, says Selassie Atadika, founder of Midunu, an experimental restaurant in Accra that features what she has dubbed 'New African Cuisine.' 'It is actually happening, quietly, throughout the planet—as the climate shifts, seeds vanish and ancestral knowledge disappears before we actually have a chance to pass it on,' Atadika warned at the TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23. Regions across Asia and Africa are already experiencing higher frequencies of floods and drought—disrupting crop-growing patterns. Midunu uses food to advocate for sustainable agriculture and makes its dishes using local and seasonal ingredients along with traditional grains and proteins. Soon, Atadika plans to launch the Midunu Institute, a space to research, preserve, and teach the principles of African foodways—which she hopes can help offer solutions to many of the world's most pressing issues. Many researchers and farmers are beginning to turn to Africa's indigenous crops—like finger millet and pigeon pea—as a climate resilient solution to the country's growing food demand. It's an approach Atadika believes is the way forward. 'The recipe for what comes next— it's already here,' she said. 'It's in the hands that still remember. It's in the kitchens that still honor the land. It's in communities that nourish without waste, without forgetting.' Atadika insists that prioritizing indigenous knowledge is not about nostalgia. 'It's [a] scalable model [of] climate resilience, cultural preservation, and economic dignity. We're talking about value kept at origin. We're talking about leadership from the Global South—rooted, rigorous, and ready.' TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Write to Simmone Shah at
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill Frist Accepts 2025 TIME Earth Award
Bill Frist on May 10, 2023. Credit - Tom Williams—CQ-Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Senator Bill Frist wants everyone to know that the climate crisis is a health crisis. 'After decades in medicine, in that operating room as a surgeon, and then 12 years in the United States Senate, and then a lot of time as a healthcare entrepreneur, I came to see something fundamental, that the health of our planet and our globe…and the health of the human being himself, we've regarded those as separate, when in truth, they are inseparable,' Frist said at the TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23. Frist began his career as a physician and surgeon before joining the Senate in 1995. Since retiring, he's turned his focus to the climate crisis. Now, he believes that to get people to connect with the climate crisis it has to be made personal. 'No one wants their child to develop asthma from polluted air, no one wants to watch a loved one suffer from a heatwave,' Frist said. 'When we view the Earth's health… through the lens of human health—we touch those individual hearts and minds and move people with that common language.' Frist said his experience advocating—and seeing meaningful change—on big issues like reducing smoking, controlling HIV, and slashing childhood traffic fatalities, has shown him that climate action is possible—as long as people come together with a shared goal. And the will is there: 70% of Americans recognize climate change as a serious concern. He urged doctors and nurses to 'be the messengers' of the climate crisis. 'It's those healers and doctors and nurses who are on the front lines. It's them responding to the health impacts of the natural disasters that we know are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity, the spreading of diseases from deforestation and the changing climates that we know all are occurring, and the repercussions of polluted water and soil on health.' He closed out his speech with a message to 'lead with health.' 'Because in the end, it isn't just about saving the planet.' Frist said. 'It is about saving lives and saving people.' TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Write to Simmone Shah at
