The Goldman Environmental Prize is known as the Nobel for grassroots environmental champions, for good reason. Award-winners are earth defenders, often bucking entrenched systems and powerful interests in order to protect and restore the natural environments we all depend on. This week we feature conversations with two of the 2026 Goldman Prize winners:
Iroro Tanshi, a tropical conservationist and bat ecologist who rediscovered a species that hadn't been seen in half a century. When climate-amplified wildfire threatened to destroy her new find, she built a community movement to virtually eliminate the wildfire risk.
Sarah Finch, a tireless environmental advocate who spent years in English courts using planning law as a defense against the fossil fuel industry. She won a major UK Supreme Court ruling, a ruling that is already constraining oil, gas, and coal development across the country.
What can we learn about passion, persistence, and collaboration from these two advocates?
Guests:
Iroro Tanshi, Tropical Conservationist
Sarah Finch, Environmental Campaigner
For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit https://climateone.org/podcasts
Highlights:
00:00 Intro
03:01 Iroro Tanshi on Warri, Nigeria and the oil industry
05:37 Iroro Tanshi on becoming interested in bats and the forest
09:24 Iroro Tanshi on finding a bat species once thought extinct
14:03 Iroro Tanshi on when a wildfire tore through the research site
19:20 Iroro Tanshi on the wildfire risks of forests in equatorial Africa
20:50 Iroro Tanshi on working with the community to address the wildfires
23:01 Iroro Tanshi how to scale what she’s learned world-wide
24:40 Iroro Tanshi on what bats can teach people about being human
27:17 Sarah Finch on realizing the far reaching implication of her work
30:49 Sarah Finch on why the legal argument finally worked
34:42 Sarah Finch on getting the confidence to go after big oil
44:43 Sarah Finch on how a group of people can make a real difference
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