Sierra Club Chooses Al Gore for Top '07 Award

Winners of the Sierra Club's 2007 National Awards range from former vice president Al Gore and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman to a Wisconsin Website developer and an Argentinian advocating for environmental protection and human rights, according to news from the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club, a conservation organization founded by naturalist John Muir in 1892, plans to recognize its award winners during its annual dinner in San Francisco on Saturday, Sept. 29.

The former vice president and author of "An Inconvenient Truth" won the organization's top honor, the John Muir Award, for his long-time efforts to alert the world to the dangers of global warming.

"Al Gore is the embodiment of the principles for which John Muir passionately devoted his life: to protect a place for its own sake, for our sake, and even in spite of us; a place we call Earth," said Robbie Cox, president of the Sierra Club.

Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, was chosen as the club's David R. Brower Award winner. The award each year recognizes a journalist for environmental news coverage. Friedman has focused on global warming in many of his columns over the past year.

Other Sierra Club award winners this year include California Assembly speaker Fabian Núñez, for his efforts to enact the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006; California Congressman Mike Thompson, for helping to pass legislation protection 431 square miles of wilderness in Northern California; Wilbur Mills, for his photographs of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the Center for Human Rights and Environment in Argentina, for its fight against a polluting pulp mill; and Lacinda Athen, for developing the Website "Solve Global Warming in Wisconsin."

The organization is also recognizing members Rochelle Becker, for raising awareness of nuclear power issues; Leslie March, for her efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; The Sierra Nevada Group, for fund-raising excellence; Tyler Dawson, for organizing the Campus Climate Challenge in Ohio; Larry Volpe, for his work with 5th-grade students and the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings program; the newsletter produced by the Cumberland chapter of the Sierra Club; and Don de Fremery, for 35 years of leading Sierra Club outings; Paul Carlton, for encouraging training and certification to enhance conservation programs.

Other members receiving awards include Harriet Sayuri Iwamoto, for publishing "A Kids' Guide to the Outdoors"; Susan Reske, for chairing the Greater Charlotte Harbor Group; and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, for its efforts to win new state regulations on mercury pollution. Additional special awards are going to Anna Holden, Wallace McMullen, Lynne Plambeck, Dean Amel, Ted Snyder, Jan O'Connell and Richard Duncan.

Sierra Club, "Sierra Club Announces 2007 National Awards." URL: (http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2007-09-24.asp)