#SaveTheArctic – Personal Note from Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace [VIDEO]

My name is Kumi Naidoo. I’m from Africa. I’m the executive director of Greenpeace International.

I am participating in this action to draw attention to the destruction that is already happening in the Arctic, and to draw attention to, if this were to continue, the devastating consequences it will have for the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, for the biodiversity of the Arctic, but also the impact that it will have across the world.

The struggle to defend the Arctic is the defining environmental struggle of our time. We need to recognise that the Arctic is the refrigerator of the planet. What happens in the Arctic will contribute to sea level rise, will take us closer and closer to catastrophic climate change, and that is why the struggle is so important, and that is why I volunteered to participate in this action.