Kumi Naidoo is the new executive director of Greenpeace.
AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
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Greenpeace has a new executive director. Kumi Naidoo, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and a leading advocate in the battle against global poverty, is the first African, and first person from outside the organization, to be selected to head Greenpeace. His background is in defending human rights, particularly those of people made vulnerable by drought and natural disasters. Though his career has not focused solely on environmental activism, he argues that the division between human suffering and environmental degradation has been erased.
"We are seeing every year now, 300,000 more people dying from what can be described as climate-related impacts," Naidoo explained before adding that the human population on earth is "fundamentally under threat." The environmental work of Greenpeace, he argued, was the perfect compliment to the modern problems facing people around the world. He went on to say that connecting the "existing focus on the environment with human concerns, is...the right thing to do."
Climate Change is a Humanitarian Issue
Naidoo's appointment heralds a new direction for Greenpeace. Under his leadership, climate change will be considered a humanitarian issue as well and an ecological one. Naidoo wrote that:
Science tells us that once the increase in global temperature crosses a 2-degree Celsius tipping point it will run away beyond our control. A temperature surge that will bring with it mass starvation, mass migration and mass extinction.
Dealing with this issue however, is not a matter of politics and negotiations, but rather one of survival. As Naidoo wrote, "Either we all get it right together or we all sink. Nature does not negotiate."
Naidoo's Call to Action
Naidoo argues that the action needed to stop this catastrophe must come from politicians, specifically the leaders of the world's wealthiest nations. Unfortunately, with the climate summit in Copenhagen only a month away, these leaders have already started to drag their feet, weaken their words, and hint at indefinite agreements instead of politically binding actions. This, Naidoo eloquently explains, is not the answer we need to avoid a large-scale humanitarian crisis. "The global wake up call [these leaders] need," Naidoo explains, "must come from the public they represent."
Ultimately, the call to action for this complex problem is a simple one: "We can't change the science. The science is clear. We have to change the politics. If we can't change the politics, then we have to put our energies into changing the politicians."
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