Although I'm sure many may lament the presentation of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, I'm rather happy with it. Given that the Nobel Peace Prize committee chose an environmentalist for this year's award, Wangari Maathai is a much better choice than I would have expected the committee to make. (The committee would never pick a free-market type or a Bjorn Lomborg.) Maathai's efforts have been largely grassroots efforts to stick up to questionable government policies on forest management in Kenya. Moreover, Maathai plants forests in the hopes that they can be used by the people of Kenya for fuel, building materials, and to reduce poverty; not just for westerners to come hug when they are on vacation.

Her efforts to strengthen the roles of both women and democracy in Kenya are also quite admirable. I wish I'd been smart enough to take a class or two with her when she was teaching briefly at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies when I was there in 2002-2003.

Unfortunately, the selection of Maathai could also lead to a trend in selecting environmentalists who don't share Maathai's ideas of sustainable development, preferring instead preservation over conservation. The last thing we needs is another platform for ideas of that sort.

UPDATE: I should point out that I think Maathai's anti-GMO (genetically-modified organisms) stance is a major hinderance to her goals of reducing poverty.