Greenpeace and Kumi Naidoo, Changing the World
Greenpeace, the world’s most recognized activists of the “green movement”, just appointed a new director from South Africa, Kumi Naidoo. Naidoo, a veteran environmentalists and anti-apartheid activist, brings vast experience and credibility to Greenpeace’s mission, to “push the world in the right direction.” As one of his first acts as director, Naidoo called for a sustainable, nuclear-free power supply. Greenpeace has been at odds with other environmentalist groups who support nuclear power as a sustainable energy source for years.
It will be interesting to see if Naidoo can carry Greenpeace’s agenda into the Copenhagen Climate Summit with the same peaceful, yet forceful dedication he has shown before. Obama and the world will be there, your voice should be there too, don’t you think?
Greenpeace, and other environmental entities, have never before been such a needed commodity. The world, whether we want to admit it or not, is reaching a real critical mass with regard to not only the environment, but systemic issues associated with the structures which have caused most of our problems – the power structure. Not many want to admit that there are forces at work which set in motion series of events which can have a grave impact on the rest of us. In America in particular, people have been (to a degree) insulated from the most weighty effects of these events. Some would say; “the events which shaped the way things are were obscured from view.” Whether or not our problems are the fault of some sinister power structure, or simply the result of our own apathy, these problems have to be solved – and soon.
Greenpeace activists where rainforrests disappear
Without going into a complete dissertation or idealistic rhetoric, society now faces its most challenging hurdles ever. People like Kumi Naidoo and those at Greenpeace and other foundations, have faced ridicule from what we might consider “main stream” thought. We have to ask ourselves some simple questions in order to get anywhere in solving our most critical problems. The first one should be; “What is the motivation behind the activism?” What motivates a person to go on a hunger strike for 30 days in order to protest people being hungry? The cynic would quip; “Tree huggers are masochists, they love the attention their suffering brings them.”
For Everything PR, meaning everyone on our team, we will commit at this moment to support Greenpeace in their efforts for positive and correct change. This means monetarily, editorially, and via social networking in as far as we are capable. We do not say this for any “buzz value”, but we sincerely want to do our part to help make the necessary changes to the world, so that all our children can enjoy a bright future. We will be contacting Mr. Naidoo and his team, to see what we can offer in the way of support. We urge you to take a stand as well. Whether via Greenpeace, or your own personal conduit for change. As Naidoo mentions in one of his video announcements, “When you think you are helpless to make change, it is then that you truly become helpless.” We all feel this way sometimes. But when we do, we effectively cease to be an integral part of the world we live in. No one can afford that luxury any more.
About the Author
Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.
Debbie, if you do not know why he should retire, I am the least of persons to tell you. While ...
Really? Tiger should retire? That's the dumbest thing I've read by far. What does his personal life have to do ...
Hey Phil,
Its been a while.
Just wanted to know what Veer has achieved so far.
Box office India is saying its below ...
I read this article and i must say you ____. 
I agree wholeheartedly - but what can we do? I only wrote the story to announce the puzzling news - ...
Thanks for helping spread the word about HAPPO Kristen! As you point out "The Internet has made it even easier ...
Comment by David Smith on 21 November 2009:
A “sustainable world” will come when all ignorant ‘green’ people commit suicide. Stupid greeners just get worse and worse. Our “most critical problems” come from the naive TV worshippers who follow the likes of Al Gore.
Follow this link “for positive and correct change.”
http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/
Comment by HMTKSteve on 23 November 2009:
I’m still not buying the whole global Warming myth.
Why is it that GWA discount any research that is funded in part by big energy yet research funded by ‘big green’ is not similarly seen as being tainted?
Comment by Phil Butler on 23 November 2009:
Hi Steve, I agree, I think those melting ice caps are some sort of government conspiracy to get us to buy Honda’s instead of Chevys. All those rainforrests can really disappear and it won’t make any difference, they are just trees. The oceans can heat to boiling and it won’t be our fault, we are only human. My logic also tells me that the world can support unlimited human beings, driving steamboats powered by coal and it won’t matter, it is a big world. Any all those scientists who measure this stuff? Well, they are government conspirators too. Somewhere, in a compound deep under Antarctica, these people are hatching a plan to…. to…. Oh yeah, to clean up an already silvery slick and pristine world. Heck Steve, everyone should know fish wont run out, there are zillions of them, air is plentiful, all those coal burners in China won’t hurt that, radiation wont hard humans, let’s build 500,000 nuclear reactors to heat water.
Tongue in cheek of course my old friend, but not meant to be TOO smart-ass. Thinking that we live in some infinite world where all the crap we throw at it has no effect is tantamount to burying one’s head in the sand and whimpering; “there’s no place like home.” Sure there are those who would take advantage of these situations and blow them out of proportion. But, as a geographer who has been here over half a Century, you should look out your window through my eyes. We all live in little cubicles where everything seems fine, if we want it to. The fact is however, the big cubicle we actually live in is very cluttered and damaged. We just cannot see the other side of it. People’s mental maps of their existence can be quite small. I learned this in doing research dealing with sustainability, urban development, and other geographical studies.
Basically, 9 out of 10 people do not even know enough about the world (other than it is round and big) to make any kind of quantitative analysis of these things. I cannot convince you Steve, you are a super intelligent person with valid questions – but also enbued with a false sense of these things for some reason – or at least I perceive that. I do not say this in criticism, many scientists believe as you do. The problem is, it does not make sense. Water is running out, oil is running out, trees are running out, fish and other wildlife are running out, the ozone has holes in it the size of Texas, in the Pacific their is an Island the size of Texas made of Styrofoam, 40 percent of more of the farm land in the US is dangerously damaged, China has almost 2 billion people and 3 or 4 percent arable land, India is on the threshold of dieing of thirst and hunger if the water table does not improve. I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on……………..but still people would persist in an argument to achieve what?
Doing exactly what the freaking hell we have been doing for 100,000 years, that’s what. I know, let’s just ignore every problem, wait 50 years, then bend over and kiss our own asses goodbye! The Earth is a very large anthill. With some nasty, untidy, hungry, greedy little ants on it. Unfortunately for us ants called human beings, there are no places we can simply move our nest to any more. We have acted like a roving band of lunatics these last 100 years. We have been led by Queen ants with the far reaching intellect of amoeba, either that or having been so power hungry they could care less.
And now, at the advent of a paradigm shift for humanity (not just environmentally but economically) people still want to argue with the garbage collectors. “NO, don’t remove my garbage from the curb! It will cost me money, and I am afraid you have some other devious plan for it!” This all reminds me of some googley eyed mad scientists running out of their labs to do just that. Think of it, Einstein wanna bees rushing headlong to the curb to rescue a crumpled note from the sanitation engineer in his neighborhood.
Hell, I need to write a post about this. I do not want my old friend to think I am picking on him. I am just sick of this wasted time, when doing what is right is in our face. What the hell is it going to hurt to find alternative fuels? How does humanity improve its condition, by continuing as we have? One thing is certain, without smart people like you on the side of any green movement, it is doomed to fail. Just like everything else is failing. People can know for a relative certainty that Wall Street robbed everyone on the planet, and just do nothing about it. This is what some expect us to do, nothing.
Always,
Phil
Comment by HMTKSteve on 23 November 2009:
Phil, careful with that big brush. I did not say I do not believe in ‘global climate change’ I said ‘global warming’. Big difference.
You also did not address my question about so-called tainted research.
Comment by Phil Butler on 23 November 2009:
You are right of course Steve, we cannot afford “tainted” research as you say. The credibility issue is a viable one. I think the term Global Warming is used incorrectly sometimes. For me, it refers to climate change, in this most recent case, the undue warming of the atmosphere and etc. I believe the far reaching effects could go either way, to cooling or warming. Either way, we have to address these things now. I suggested Greenpeace as a conduit for some of the change needed. We have to get behind people who are dedicated rather than standing on our individual stumps and hollering arguments. This is all I am saying. As you can tell, I am pretty damned frustrated at all the rhetoric opposed to taking serious action.
Sorry, just been watching this a long time. I do not have the answers, but I know big business does not offer them – ever.
Always,
Phil
Comment by Wes Hammond on 8 December 2009:
those Greenpeace ads are a bit pretentious on one hand, but then again, to have effective advertising sometimes you gotta make some waves
Pingback by Greenpeace Urges Obama to Earn Peace Prize with Decisiveness in Copenhagen on 11 December 2009:
[...] Impolite, Norwegians Conclude2009/11/28 — China and India Say No On the Environment 2009/11/21 — Greenpeace and Kumi Naidoo, Changing the World2009/11/04 — Why Big Bird Cried Accepting Google Doodle Award2009/10/14 — Global Warming Debate [...]