Newcastle environmentalist and climate campaigner Alexa Stuart has been named the Young Environmentalist of the Year on Monday by former Greens Senator and ardent environmental protectionist Bob Brown.
Mr Brown's foundation, set up in his name to promote climate activism and call for action to address climate change, has recognised prominent action campaigns and protestors since 2012.
Ms Stuart, who has been campaigning for action on climate change since she was in high school as an organiser for the student-led Strike 4 Climate school walkouts beginning in 2019, has since joined Rising Tide - the group responsible for organising last year's Newcastle harbour blockade, and which has been fighting in the state's Supreme Court to carry out another blockade later this month.
Rising Tide last year won the Bob Brown Foundation's Community Environment Award for its 32-hour blockade in 2023, for which 109 protestors were arrested. The organisation has since staged similar smaller-scale protests, blocking coal rail links to the harbour on numerous occasions for which its members have been held in custody overnight and fined in June last year.
"I'm honoured to have received young environmentalist of the year this evening and am proud to stand with the thousands of people all around the world who are fighting for climate justice and nature protection," Ms Stuard said in a statement. "I've been fighting for the basic right of a safe future since I was 15, and I know that unless our government starts listening to the science and acting with the urgency commensurate to the crisis we are in, I, like many other young people, will have no choice but to fight this fight for the rest of my life."
Rising Tide, for which Ms Stuart is now the organisation's national organiser, has since brought its case to stage a second harbour blockade to the Supreme Court this month as NSW Police sought legal action to prevent the protest last month.
It was the first time the event had faced such a challenge over 12 previous protests.
Rising Tide organisers had sought legal protection for a 50-hour flotilla blockade of the shipping channel and a festival on Horseshoe Beach featuring 30 live music acts between November 19 and 28.
It is anticipated that 10,000 participants from across the country will attend to support Rising Tide's call to end new coal and gas approvals and a 78 per cent tax on coal and gas exports to fund the energy transition.
Rising Tide, which was relaunched around two years ago, has become an ambitiously active climate action organisation.
"That's what we plan to continue doing," Ms Stuart said. "Keep building and gathering more people who are concerned about the climate crisis and willing to stand up and fight for a better future."
"Now more than ever, we desperately need people with the courage to stand up for our planet, nature, and future generations. We need to be louder than ever, more organised than ever and with more people than ever.
"And that's why I'm involved in Rising Tide and helping to organise the 2024 People's Blockade, to build a mass movement to defend our climate and stand up for what's right."
