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Al Gore Honors Climate Activists With Climate Reality’s Green Ring Award

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Washington, DC (July 26, 2020) – Former US Vice President Al Gore presented the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award to four climate activists at the 44th Climate Reality Leadership Corps Global Training, a virtual event to train attendees with practical skills and knowledge to build an equitable and inclusive movement for climate action and climate justice.

The award honors Climate Reality Leaders who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to their roles as climate communicators and activists. The latest honorees – Nana Firman, Tim Guinee, Gloria Kasang Bulus, and Ximena Loría – have led efforts to educate their communities about the climate crisis, worked to build support for critical solutions, and collectively mentored hundreds of trainees through the process of becoming a Climate Reality Leader.

Previously called the Green Ring Award, the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award was recently renamed to honor the life and legacy of former Brazil Branch Director and climate champion Alfredo Sirkis, who passed away earlier this year. His family honored his request that he go to his final rest wearing his Climate Reality green ring.

“Nana, Gloria, Ximena, and Tim exemplify the purpose and heart of what it means to be a Climate Reality Leader,” said Al Gore. “Their tireless dedication to educating and mobilizing people around urgent climate action is exactly the kind of inclusive, community-based leadership we need to solve the climate crisis and create a better future for ourselves and future generations.”

  • Nana Firman is the Muslim outreach director for GreenFaith, an international multi-faith partnership that engages faith communities in environmental leadership and action. Since training as a Climate Reality Leader in Melbourne in 2009, she has worked with various organizations to raise awareness of the climate crisis and advocate for improving urban sustainability and building a green economy. After earthquakes and tsunamis impacted her native home of Indonesia, Nana worked with the World Wildlife Fund to direct green recovery efforts in the country. In 2015, she was named a White House Champion of Change for Climate Faith Leaders by former President Barack Obama.  
  • Tim Guinee is a professional actor and trained Climate Reality Leader, who has been active in the Climate Reality Leadership Corps program since 2017. Tim has given hundreds of educational presentations about the climate crisis, often reaching oppositional and underserved audiences, including oil and gas industry executives and inmates in maximum-security prisons.
  • Gloria Kasang Bulus trained as a Climate Reality Leader in Washington State in 2017. She lives in Kaduna, Nigeria and directs Bridge that Gap, an NGO working on the climate crisis, and a variety of other humanitarian issues, furthering the education of women and children.
  • Ximena Loría trained as a Climate Reality Leader in Houston, Texas in 2016, but is based in San José, Costa Rica. She is a trained biologist and focuses her work on sustainable development, the creation of innovative spaces for public participation, and youth. Ximena combines her passion for education and the environment by teaching students at the college and university levels, as well as organizing talks, lectures, and workshops with local communities, companies, and public institutions.

The Climate Reality Leadership Corps Global Training is the 44th Climate Reality Leadership Corps training, and the first to be held entirely in a virtual format. In response to COVID-19, Climate Reality moved programming online to ensure that climate activists around the world could participate in the movement for climate solutions safely and effectively. More than 10,000 people signed up for the virtual training, which included educational panel discussions, keynotes, and presentations from world-class scientists, NGO and business leaders, and grassroots organizers.

Upon completion of the program, participants joined a network of more than 21,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 154 countries around the world. These activists work together to build public awareness of global climate challenges, share the good news about the practical solutions in our hands today, and strengthen public support for leaders at all levels of society, who are committed to climate action.

Climate Reality will hold its next virtual training from August 28–September 3, 2020. For more information about the Climate Reality Leadership Corps program, and to learn how to participate in the next training, please visit: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/training.

ABOUT THE CLIMATE REALITY PROJECT

Founded by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore, The Climate Reality Project is working to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every sector of society. With a global movement more than 5 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Reality Leader activists, we are spreading the truth about the climate crisis and building popular support for clean energy solutions. For more information, visit www.climaterealityproject.org or follow us on Twitter at @ClimateReality.