Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International's new executive director who took up his post on Monday Nov.... 
(Themba Hadebe/AP Photo)Will New Greenpeace Chief's Background Rally Other Human Rights Workers to Climate Cause?
New Greenpeace Chief Brings Experience Fighting Poverty and Racism
An African has taken over as director of Greenpeace, bringing experience honed as a teenage opponent of white rule in South Africa and a network of powerful contacts to the battle against global warming.
Greenpeace was founded 38 years ago by environmental activists who wanted to stop the United States from conducting underground nuclear tests in a region off Alaska that harbored endangered sea otters. Kumi Naidoo, the new director, said Monday he still had much to learn about the group's current agenda, from protecting whales and forests to stopping nuclear tests and toxic dumping. But he has already grasped the issues around global warming, an increasingly overriding concern of Greenpeace and other environmental groups.
"We either get it right and all of humanity comes out on the other side with a new world," Naidoo told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before he took the Greenpeace helm. "Or we get it wrong and all the world is going to sink."
Related
Gerd Leipold, his predecessor at Greenpeace, said Naidoo's appointment is a watershed, both because he is the first African and because he is the first executive director to come from outside the organization.
After battling apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, Naidoo led global campaigns to end poverty and protect human rights. Recently, he has led the Global Campaign for Climate Action, which brings together environmental, aid, religious and human rights groups, labor unions, scientists and others and has organized mass demonstrations around climate negotiations.
"Previously, environmentalism was seen as for the privileged few," said Tasneem Essop, a South African environmentalist who has known Naidoo since their days as student anti-apartheid activists. She said the new Greenpeace chief will help rally other human rights and development workers to the climate cause.
As Naidoo puts it: "If the whole planet is under threat ... what's the point of not addressing that and saying we'll do other development work?"
Watch Video
Slideshows
External links are provided for reference purposes. ABC News is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites. Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures.
