3 Women, Ages 72-78, Take On Asia's Biggest Polluter

At 78 years old, Diane Wilson has spent four decades fighting the same company that tried to destroy her Texas fishing town, and she just crossed 13 time zones to tell them she's still not done.

The retired shrimper joined forces with two other grandmother activists to travel to Taiwan and confront Formosa Plastics Corp. at its own shareholder meeting. Together, the three women represent a combined 150 years of coastal living and environmental activism against one of the world's largest polluters.

Wilson earned the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023 after winning a $50 million settlement against Formosa for polluting the Gulf Coast. Sharon Lavigne, 76, won the same prize for stopping Formosa from building a massive plant in her Louisiana community. Nancy Bui, 72, a Vietnamese refugee, is currently suing Formosa over a 2016 environmental disaster in Vietnam.

On a dock in Yunlin County, Wilson met Lin Chun Lan, a gray-haired oysterman who's been fighting Formosa in Taiwan for 30 years. Through a translator, they discovered they had almost everything in common: a love for fishing, stubborn persistence, and enemies in local politics who thought they could be bought off.

"The local politicians hate him," the translator told Wilson about Lin. "He also hates the politicians." Wilson laughed because she understood perfectly.

Lin told stories of facing down criminal organizations who threatened him with guns when gifts and bribes couldn't silence his opposition to Formosa's plans for a steel mill. His response was simple: "If you want to shoot me, just shoot."

Why This Inspires

The three American women didn't expect to change Formosa's board members' minds during one shareholder meeting. That wasn't why they traveled halfway around the world during one of the hottest weeks in Taiwanese history.

They came to show Formosa that grassroots activists are building global networks. They came to prove that winning one battle doesn't mean going home. Most importantly, they came to inspire local Taiwanese activists who've been fighting the same exhausting fight for decades, often without support from civic leaders or environmental groups.

Wilson believes the key is staying in their face, never letting corporations forget that communities are watching. At 78, she's proving that age doesn't diminish determination, and that coastal fishing communities from Texas to Taiwan speak the same language when it comes to protecting their waters.

The three grandmothers are building something bigger than any single lawsuit or protest: a worldwide coalition of ordinary people refusing to let billion-dollar companies destroy their homes.