OSLO - An Inuit leader who accuses Washington of doing too little to prevent a rise in global temperatures that is thawing the Arctic icecap won a $100,000 environmental prize in Oslo on Wednesday.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Canada-based chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, won the so-called Sophie Prize for her work to protect the livelihoods of 155,000 people in Greenland, Russia, the United States and Canada.
Award founder Jostein Gaarder, author of the international 1990s bestseller "Sophie's World" which is a teenagers' guide to philosophy, praised Watt-Cloutier's efforts to protect Inuit culture and human rights from a changing climate.
"She represents the Inuit but she's battling for all of us," he told a news conference. The prize will be handed out in Oslo on June 15.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
