SA’s Greenpeace crusader fights on

Durban - “Like many other non-governmental organisations, we are winning the battles, but losing the war.”

Durban-born Kumi Naidoo, who heads one of the largest environmental organisations in the world, Greenpeace, speaking from a Mandela Day event last week, said the power and influence of the oil, coal and gas industries was “overwhelming”, but he was up for the challenge.

“We need change and fast. Even though it might seem like there is no point, we can make the changes to a cleaner environment,” he said.

In fact, Naidoo, whose term at the NGO started in November 2009, has to decide by October whether to continue for another five years.

“I’m always asked if I would go into government at some point and make the changes that we talk about, but I want to stay in civil society, as this is where we can make changes too,” he said.

At Greenpeace, said Naidoo, members did not just talk.

“We believe our actions speak louder than words, and in civil society you need people to undertake the hard slog, risk death and getting arrested in trying to make a contribution,” he said.

In June 2011, Naidoo and fellow activist Ulvar Arnkvaern were arrested after breaching an exclusion zone and trespassing on to a controversial oil rig 120km off the Greenland coast.

They had scaled an oil platform owned by Cairn Energy, and as part of Greenpeace’s “Go Beyond Oil” campaign, demanded that the company make its oil-spill response plan public.

The two activists spent four days in a Greenlandic prison and were deported to Denmark, where he spent a short time in custody, before being released in Amsterdam.

Cairn Energy finally made its oil-spill response plan public.

“We are winning some important battles, but those victories need to be judged within the context of the challenge, and the world and governments are not making the changes fast enough,” he said, adding that southern Africa had the capability to join the energy revolution and change the world, by investing in clean energy such as solar, wind and biomass.

“The more we delay these plans, the more we compromise the environment,” he said.

Of his home in Amsterdam, Naidoo said he enjoyed cycling to wherever he needed to go, and even walking to work.

“However, I miss home, and I try to visit at least four times a year,” he said.

Independent on Saturday

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