TIME Earth AWARDS 2024

From the fashion runway to the rainforest, this year's honorees are using their influence to demonstrate leadership in shaping a more sustainable future.

- Stephanie Zacharek, Cady Lang, Justin Worland

Jane Fonda Along with two Oscars, the ACTOR AND ACTIVIST has five civil-disobedience arrests for climate protests at the U.S. Capitol.

Robert D. Bullard Over the past 45 years, the FATHER OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL-JUSTICE MOVEMENT laid the path for a new generation.

Gabriela Hearst The Uruguayan SUSTAINABLE-FASHION DESIGNER produced the first carbon-neutral runway show and, as of 2019, has an entirely plastic-free company.

John Kerry After playing a key role in shaping global climate policies as the FIRST U.S. SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE, the veteran politician has left the White House to galvanize the private sector in accelerating the cleanenergy transition.

Nemonte Nenquimo Having won an order to halt drilling in Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, the WAORANI LEADER AND CO-FOUNDER OF AMAZON FRONTLINES AND CEIBO ALLIANCE works to see it enforced.

jane Fonda

EVERY GENERATION MUST JOIN THE FIGHT

JANE FONDA, AT 86, is small-boned and elegant, her eyes like soft blue-gray flannel. Yet it's startling how much energy shoots through her via a simple handshake: if a woodland creature could shake your hand, it might feel like this, the will of an entire forest ecosystem pouring through one being. She's physically strong, sitting up straight and tall for more than an hour on a backless ottoman, perched before a cozy sitting-room fireplace in her Los Angeles town house. But the message telegraphed by her handshake is less a matter of muscle tone than of pure urgency. If you could put it into words, it would be this: There's not much time left.