Anyone who thinks Christine Jean got rich by winning a Goldman Environmental Prize in 1992 should take a spin in her antiquated Renault. Most of the windows don't roll down; the passenger-side door opens only from the outside; and the paint is pocked with rust. But Jean doesn't care. All her $60,000 prize money went to Loire Vivante, the umbrella group she has headed since 1987. Its mission: blocking a gargantuan dam-building project that could have destroyed beautiful landscape and fragile ecosystems surrounding Europe's last wild river.
To the 42-year-old woman dubbed "Madame Loire" by the French press, this is...
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