In 1996, Senior Policy Analyst at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, visited South Africa with an environmental delegation from the Gore-Mbeki Commission, a Clinton-administration programme to support newly independent South Africa. She soon discovered that a US chemical company was harming the environment and human health through unsafe practices in its operations to mine highly toxic vanadium.

Coleman-Adebayo reported the case to the EPA, but was ignored, so she took the issue to non-government interest groups – and found her career stalling as a result. She was dismissed from the Gore-Mbeki Commission, her performance evaluations worsened, and colleagues with less experience rose above her pay grade, while her requests for promotion were denied. Her efforts to investigate the vanadium mining were stifled and she suffered racial and personal abuse, while the toxic mining continued uninterrupted.

In response, she sued the EPA, and after a confrontational court battle, won a historic lawsuit in 2000 against the US government for discrimination on the basis of race, sex and a hostile work environment. She was awarded US$600,000, the largest-ever settlement for government discrimination.

Despite the historic verdict, the EPA continued its retaliation, moving Coleman-Adebayo to lower-grade posts and pressuring her to resign. She refused, working from home while suffering stress-induced hypertension. “They want me to make a choice between my life and my job,” she said later, when forced to work from the office, despite her ill health.

Defiant, she contacted numerous potential allies and founded the No FEAR Coalition, a group of civil rights and whistleblower organisations that fought for increased legislative protection for federal employees blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, discrimination or abuse.

During her campaign against whistleblower retaliation at the EPA, she testified before Congress twice and worked with lawmakers to introduce the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act (No FEAR). The Act became law in 2002, protecting US federal employees who raise the alarm when they see misconduct, so they don’t have to choose between the moral duty to speak up, and safeguarding their livelihoods.

The Act supports the crucial role of whistleblowers in exposing abuses and protecting the environment – but implementation is key. In 2004, two years after its passage, the EPA’s Director of Civil Rights admitted that the agency still lacked procedures to discipline discriminatory managers. Almost a decade on, some environmental experts are still being silenced by those in power. US scientist Maria Caffrey filed a whistleblower complaint in July 2019 after she lost her job for defending her research findings into the effects of climate change on US national parks. Officials had told her to remove all references to changes being attributable to human actions. In 2021, scientists previously stifled are speaking up over how California’s water supplies are divided between farmers and river ecosystems, posing risks to local wildlife.

With countless cases worldwide showing the vital role of whistleblowers in safeguarding the planet, it’s vital that laws like No FEAR give them comprehensive support and protection.

• Countries need a firm legal framework ensuring everyone can speak up confidentially and securely when they encounter possible environmental malpractice.
• Laws on their own won’t work. Strong implementation is key. Agencies, companies and organisations need strong oversight mechanisms to ensure their reporting mechanisms are robust.
• A wider culture supportive of whistleblowing is also essential, so people feel safe and supported to speak up against wrongdoing.
• Like-minded allies are a source of powerful support. Grassroots networks with wide-ranging interests can drive legal change, even at national and global levels.