The first three winners announced October 4, 2010 included Inuit Climate Change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Watt-Cloutier lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and was born into a hunting and fishing family in Kuujjuaq, a coastal Inuit community in Northern Quebec's Nunavik region. She has striven for more than 15 years to connect the health of the Arctic with global well-being. In 2005 she served a landmark petition against the United States to the Inter-American Council on Human Rights linking the devastating effects of climate change to the human rights of her fellow Inuit in the Arctic.

"Today, everybody talks about climate change as a human-rights issue. I think we've been successful in making that connection. The style of leadership that I have is one of bringing people together and understanding that we're all one here. The planet and its people are one. It's interesting that it is our shared troubled atmosphere that is connecting us as a shared humanity," stated Watt-Cloutier.

The other winners announced were: James Orbinski, a physician, humanitarian, scientist and author who received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders; and stem-cell biologist Dr. Gordon Keller.

Nominations close Friday, Nov. 26, 2010; an overview of all 25 will appear in the January 3, 2011 Globe and Mail.