"Today, we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system," said the first African woman and first environmental activist to win the peace prize.
Maathai, 64, warned that the world remained under attack from disease, deforestation and war.
"We are called to assist the earth to heal her wounds, and in the process heal our own – indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder," she told the crowd of dignitaries, including the Norwegian royal family and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey.
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"This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process," said Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement. She received a gold medal and diploma along with the $1.5 million prize.
Before she took the stage, the usually stodgy ceremony lit up with color and sound as three African dancers and accompanying drummers pounded out a brief piece of African music that echoed off the walls of the large auditorium. Maathai herself wore a brilliant orange traditional dress.
In neighboring Sweden, the other Nobel prizes – for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics – were awarded.
Bengt Samuelsson, chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, addressed the frequently heard criticism that too few women have received the Nobel Prize over the years.
Although only 31 of the 705 Nobel Prizes handed out since 1901 have gone to women, Samuelsson pointed out that there were three this year.
Afterward, more than 1,300 guests, including the laureates’ relatives, Sweden’s royal family, government officials, ambassadors, scientists and business leaders, attended the Nobel banquet.
Absent from Stockholm was the literature prize winner, Elfriede Jelinek of Austria, who cited a social phobia. Although she sent a prerecorded video lecture, she did not send any prepared remarks.
Presenting her award, Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said she has "given new currency to a heretical feminine tradition and … expanded the art of literature."