“For more than forty years, [Alexey Yabklokov] has been the voice of the environmental movement in Russia and, frankly, in much of the rest of the world,” said Raisa Scriabine, the chairman of the ISAR board of directors, in her opening remarks.
ISAR: Resources for Environmental Activists designed the award to recognize activists in Eurasia who have made significant contributions to the environmental movement in their home countries. Founders of the organization, Harrett Crosby and Nancy Graham, presented the award to Yablokov in recognition of the more than 50 years he dedicated to the environmental movement in Russia.
“I don’t deserve such an award,” said Yablokov. “Alone, I am nothing; only through joint work do we achieve change.”
The founder and president of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yablokov is an author of numerous scientific papers and books and a recipient of various prestigious international awards. He has served as the advisor on ecology and public health to President Boris Yeltsin and as a chair of the Interagency Commission on Environmental Security of the Russian State Security Council.
The award ceremony included a presentation by the president of Earth Policy Institute and the founder of Worldwatch Institute, Lester Brown, who spoke about global environmental policy and environmental issues worldwide.
“The Western economic model of the fossil fuel-based automobile-centered throwaway economy is not going to work for... the three billion people in the developing countries who are also dreaming the American dream,” said Brown. “In increasingly integrated world economy where we are all competing for the same resources, it will not work for [the United States] either.”
The director of Kennan Institute, Blair Ruble, and Steve Kohl of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extended their congratulations to Yablokov.
“It is we who are fortunate to be on this planet, which [Yablokov] so loves, at a time when he is changing the world around us,” said Ruble.
ISAR’s co-director, Alice Hengesbach, acknowledged the honorable guests and spoke about ISAR’s work in the former Soviet Union.
“We see all of our programs as a way to reach out to individuals and local communities,” said Hengesbach. “Dr. Yablokov is such a wonderful inspiration to the ISAR staff and to many in Russia and the rest of the world.”
Yablokov traveled to the United States from Russia to attend the Awards ceremony and to meet with colleagues in Washington and New York.
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