I was at a meet up stop In Vienna, Virginia, when a man rolled up and asked what was going on. When he heard that this was a distribution point for riders who had registered to get a free t-shirt, he asked “What do you get if you ride to work everyday?”

I didn’t hear a good answer to that from the group, although they offered him a t-shirt, but the obvious one is health, and the other is wealth. Compared to purchasing, insuring, maintaining and fueling a car, bicycling is a good deal with great side effects.

At the Falls Church stop, a group gathered around one of the city’s four police bike officers. The little bells were tinkling warnings to dog walkers, people with kids and all the folks out on the trail. A few people passed me keeping a faster pace.

Certainly this wonderful Friday was a great day to enjoy the trail. Honey locust trees in blossom perfumed the air. Irises added color to the verge and birdsong cheered me on. The trail into D.C. from Virginia is mostly downhill a lot easier than the way home which climbs out of sea level and up into the hills of the Piedmont.

I paused on the George Washington Bridge over the Potomac River. In the shallows near Roosevelt Island I spied turtles with their heads sticking above the water looking around. Out on the main branch, rowers skimmed over the river gracefully. I overtook the lines of cars moving slowly across the bridge and made my way through the busy campus of GWU. Crowds of people headed into offices along Pennsylvania Avenue and a thousand tourists in various matching t-shirts crowded the gates of the White House.

I sent an email to my Greenpeace colleagues asking if they had biked and if they did so regularly. More than 3 dozen told me they biked just above every day including today. No wonder it’s hard to find a place to park your bike in the office. Occasionally, our facilities department warns on the office intercom that a bike is about to be towed.

Relatively speaking, cars haven’t been around that long. Dec. 1, 2013, will mark 100 years since Henry Ford switched on the first automated assembly line. My grandmothers were born before the age of the automobile and they told me about a very different world without pavement. My parents are in the first American generation to use cars for most of their lives. Born in the 1920s, they walked, biked and rowed boats through the 1930s, but when the 1940s rolled around, so did a lot of cars. I was about 7 when my Dad ran alongside me helping me learn to balance a bike. I kept riding right up through the time I had a driver’s license and well into the 1970s. The late 70s came with Bruce Springsteen solidifying the profile of the automobile in songs like “Born to Run.” I rode a bicycle to work at a gas station for awhile and it was always on the radio. I got a Trek 320 when I was in college which made long distance rides possible. Bikes are fantastic way to see the world.

I have a car and I drive when I have to, but when I’m riding a bike I know I am doing something good for me, and for the planet.

A polar bear family in Svalbard.

One of the most rewarding things about my work is that I get to meet people almost everyday who are inspired by Greenpeace.

I met Pennsylvania fine artist Justin Ballew over twitter a couple of weeks ago. Inspired by our save the Arctic campaign, he tweeted us this illustrated poem. The poem is fun and simple, and I emailed him to ask him what inspired him to do this. Here’s what he said:

“I am a fine artist that does oil portraits and landscapes, mostly by finger painting.  I create works that inspire and connect the viewer with the work. My landscapes have included a lot of mountains and snow, and I have always wanted to travel to the Arctic to document it on canvas. Over the past year I have read articles and seen footage of the disappearing ice. The feeling of doing something to help is strong, so i decided to start with this simple story about a polar bear and her cub.”

Check out his poem below. You can see more of Justin’s work on Pinterest and Twitter.

Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo making opening remarks at the People’s Arctic Council

The Arctic Council meeting in Sweden just wrapped up, and while we were thrilled to deliver photos of 280 global “I Love the Arctic” photos to the delegates including US Secretary of State John Kerry, we were disappointed that the meeting ended with no action to protect the Arctic.

In the next two years the Arctic Council must ban offshore Arctic oil drilling,  take action on marine reserves and decrease carbon emissions in the Arctic. A beacon of hope during the meeting was the participation of Indigenous peoples.

Greenpeace delivers ‘I Love Arctic’ photo-books to two Permanent Participants of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic Council.

At the end of the conference, a range of the participants signed onto a declaration, which was drafted by a group of Russian Indigenous Peoples at the first conference of its kind last August.The declaration now has more than 40 signatories — including two of the six permanent participants at the Arctic Council — calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling and for the Arctic states to respect the rights of the Indigenous Peoples.

Make a call to Secretary Kerry’s office today to tell him to protect the Arctic!

If you were the Koch brothers and you wanted to connect better with Latino and Hispanic voters, after you just dumped millions of your own cash into a presidential election that didn’t go in your favor, you’d probably be annoyed if one of your favorite front groups started undermining your voter outreach.

That’s exactly what’s happening with the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation. Heritage is having a public relations crisis after releasing a contentious report claiming that immigration reform would cost $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years, indebting taxpayers to support people who live in the U.S. illegally. The offensive kicker is that the Heritage report’s freshly-resigned co-author, Jason Richwine, previously published a dissertation claiming that Hispanic and Latino immigrants have lower IQs than White people.

Here’s a helpful meme for Mr. Richwine:

As Heritage Foundation is one of the billionaire Koch brothers’ favorite groups to implement their political agenda–receiving more than $2.7 million from Koch-controlled foundations since 2005–this is a poor start for the Kochs’ new interest in reaching Hispanic and Latino voters in the U.S.

Amid the fiasco, Heritage pulled out of Buzzfeed’s forum on immigration sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute. See infighting over Heritage’s assumptions about how so-called “illegals” contribute to the U.S. economy from the Koch-funded Reason Foundation, of which David Koch is a trustee.

Hispanic & Latino Voter Engagement is Central to the Kochs’ Refined Political Plans:

After coordinating hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat President Obama with the direct help of other billionaires like Sheldon Adelson, Foster Friess, and Philip Anschutz, the Kochs are meticulously refining their methods of controlling U.S. politics from behind the scenes. Some of those methods already involve serious marginalization of U.S. immigrants from Latin-American countries, as I’ve previously written:

It’s worth noting that the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council distributed Arizona’s controversial racial profiling law, SB 1070, to states around the country so private prison companies can rake a profit off the incarceration of immigrants.

At the Kochs’ most recent political strategy and fundraising meeting, the Kochs prioritized outreach to Hispanic voters, according to leaked material published by Mother Jones. Kevin Gentry, a Koch Industries employee and Koch World‘s central fundraiser, explained the new priority in his invitation to “several hundred of America’s top business owners and CEOs” attending last month’s Koch meeting:

Among other topics, in April, we’ll discuss how to more effectively engage growing demographic groups, such as Hispanic and Latino voters, and how to encourage principled and effective advocates of free enterprise to run for office.

Kevin Gentry then offered mild elaboration to invitees of the Koch meeting:

Hispanic, women and youth engagement. Allies will present an approach to more effectively communicate to these growing demographics, all of which will play a critical role in advancing free enterprise.

New Heritage President Jim DeMint’s History with Koch World:

It’s unclear if anyone from the Heritage Foundation attended the recent Koch meeting, although Heritage’s new President and former U.S. Senator James DeMint has repeatedly attended the Kochs’ secretive confabs in the past. In turn, the Kochs were one of the top contributors to Jim DeMint’s political piggy bank while he ran and served in the Senate (2004-2012). Sen. DeMint’s campaign and leadership PACs received a total $76,000 from Koch Industries and the Koch family (see p. 21 of Greenpeace’s 2011 Koch report).

Either Jim DeMint and the Heritage Foundation didn’t heed the notes from the Kochs’ latest gathering, or Heritage staff didn’t realize that calling people stupid isn’t the best way to sell an ideology.

On a human level, the Kochs don’t get it. Even ignoring the offensive work of the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and other Koch front groups, the recent focus on Latino and Hispanic voter outreach is clearly a self-serving political tactic, where broadly-defined groups of people are used as a means to an end.

Koch Industries bid for U.S. Newspapers includes major Spanish outlets:

The Koch brothers could potentially influence U.S. Latino voters through Koch Industries’ controversial bid for a pile of major U.S. newspapers owned by Tribune Company. Tribune Co’s print news in Chicago and Los Angeles isn’t limited to the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times; Tribune Co. owns Hoy, the nation’s second largest daily U.S. newspaper published in Spanish, as well as two major weekly outlets in Florida: El Sentinel de Florida Central and El Sentinel del Sur de la Florida, published in conjunction with two Tribune daily papers written in English, the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Each Saturday, 127,000 copies of El Sentinel is distributed to its reader base, while Hoy‘s weekend edition reaches over one million homes in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Tribune Company’s widely distributed English newspapers also include the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, and the Allentown, PA’s Morning Call and Hampton Road, VA’s Daily Press.

While Koch Industries doesn’t yet own any media, a network of Koch-friendly media has shown it is capable of spreading misinformation on key topics like climate change. Due to the high possibility of warped editorial reporting if Koch buys Tribune, ten public employee unions and groups like Free Press, FAIR, Forecast the Facts, Courage Campaign, Daily Kos, and the Center for Media and Democracy have all urged the public and owners of the Tribune Company to reject an offer from Koch Industries.

Opening remarks at the Peoples’ Arctic Conference in Kiruna, Sweden:

(Not interested in reading all the way through? You can listen to Kumi Naidoo’s speech here).

Greetings my friends, and welcome to the conference, the Peoples’ Arctic: Unified for a Better Tomorrow. My name is Kumi Naidoo and I have the pleasure and honour of welcoming you here today.

First I would like to thank the Sami Peoples of Sweden for welcoming us all here and allowing us to host this meeting on their traditional territory. Ohlo-Keeto!

I would also like to thank the people of the Nordic region, who, through their support of the Swedish Postcode Lottery, have been funding this important conference for the second year in a row. And to the Swedish Postcode Lottery directly, thank you for making this all possible.

Thank you all so much for coming all this way to be here with us for this historic occasion, where Indigenous Peoples from every Arctic state have come together to share experiences, exchange stories, bond over our likenesses and learn from our differences. We at Greenpeace and the Save the Pechora Committee are honoured to be with you all here in Kiruna.

It’s not often that we are able to gather together in this way. We live far apart from each other, in diverse lands, living unique lives — but we come together today bound by a common thread: the story of the changing Arctic — the changing landscape of your homes.

During the next two days you will hear stories from many important voices in this struggle — people like my friend Alice Ukoku, who has been fighting valiantly against the impacts of oil drilling in her native Niger Delta. Aleksei Limanzo from RAIPON will speak to you about the changing situation in Russia and Dene National and Northwest Territories Grand Chief Bill Arasmus will discuss Indigenous rights in a changing Arctic with Laila Susanne Vars, vice-president of the Sami Parliament in Norway, and Pat Pletnikoff, an Alaskan mayor. We’ll hear stories of the pitfalls and potentials of resource extraction from Mikkel Myrup, the Chair of Avataq in Greenland, as well as Francois Paulette, a Dene human rights activist from northern Canada.

I will not try to tell their stories for them. But I do want to talk to you now about other stories: the stories we tell ourselves every day; the stories we pass on to our children; the stories that some try to tell for us; and the stories that we’re changing just by being here today.

Over the last few years, in my position as the executive director of Greenpeace International, I have had the honour and the opportunity to hear stories from many of you directly about the changes you’re experiencing in your daily lives. Your homes, your ancestral lands, are changing rapidly. Everywhere on this planet, from my home in Africa to the north of Alaska, we are all experiencing the impacts of a changing climate firsthand.

And in fact, just two days ago, we hit a terrifying landmark when the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million. Let me repeat this, for this is a tipping point for all of us: For the first time in human history, the concentration of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has passed the milestone level of 400 parts per million. The last time so much greenhouse gas was in the air was several million years ago, when the Arctic was ice-free, savannah spread across the Sahara desert and sea levels were up to 40 metres higher than today.

This is no longer just a theory or something we worry our children will face. We are already seeing climate change in action, all over the world. I’ve seen it where I come from, I’ve seen it in Fort Chipewyan in the Alberta Tar Sands, I’ve seen it in the Amazon where Indigenous Peoples have paid a huge price as well, and I’ve seen it in Greenland (where I had the privilege of spending almost a week’s holiday in prison in Nuuk!).

I’ve also heard from many of you that you see it every day where you live. The weather ischanging. We can no longer deny this. In some places, the rains come less frequently; in others, the snowfall lasts well into spring. Deep trenches of water are appearing where before there was only ice. Reindeer and caribou, deer and moose, fox and polar bears and countless species of birds are migrating away from traditional hunting grounds, changing their patterns, beginning to adapt to a changing climate.

Across the Arctic, amid all this change, we are hearing stories of struggle and seeing signs of trouble — but also signs of emerging crusades for justice and resilience against the corporate powers that for too long have dictated our story.

Shell was forced to cancel its 2013 Arctic drilling plans after a series of failures and accidents plagued its 2012 drilling programme. Similarly, both Statoil and ConocoPhillips have both shelved plans to drill in the Arctic this year.

But beyond the oil companies, this has been a year of heroic stories for the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic. A battle has been brewing with our allies in Russia, where RAIPON, the largest Indigenous organisation representing more than 40 Indigenous groups in Russia and the East, was ordered in November by the Russian Ministry of Justice to close its doors following what they deemed, “irregularities in its organisational statuses.” This stirred exactly the sort of international outrage that it warranted.

As expressed by Aili Kesketalo, the leading Sami politician from Norway, this challenged “the very foundation for international cooperation between Indigenous Peoples.”

In the end, after much outrage and complex politicking, this unjust decision was overturned. This marked a change in the story the Russian government was trying to tell, affirming an important lesson: that the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic are powerful, and when united, represent an unparalleled threat to the current “business as usual” approach to Arctic management. In the words of RAIPON’s former First Vice President:

“There is an extensive hike in the level of industrialization in the north, and the Indigenous Peoples are among the last barriers against the companies’ and state’s development of the resources.”

Reading this, I was reminded of one of my favourite quotes by Ghandi,: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

This is also exactly what is happening in Canada where we saw other evidence of this kind of oppression in late 2012, when Indigenous Peoples were similarly vilified by the Harper government.

After being labeled by the Minister of Natural Resources as “radicals” funded by shadowy government conspirators, Harper went further, introducing bills containing huge, draconian amendments to environmental assessment and protection — and buried in there were changes to many laws that removed tens of thousands of rivers and lakes from federal protection, including bodies of water to which aboriginal groups have registered legitimate claims and declarations of interest.

This spurred an unparalleled uprising, a massive movement called Idle No More, which brought together tens of thousands of people from across Canada, from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, standing together in opposition to this clear undermining of human rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and in clear contrast to their treaty rights.

The story of the Idle No More movement is hugely inspirational but also extremely nuanced — but over the course of the next two days, I encourage you to seek out your Canadian Indigenous allies and ask them about this uprising, about what it means for them, and what it says about the Canadian government that is just this week assuming chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Amid all of this oppression shines an underlying story: a light of resistance, power, and hope. Indigenous Peoples everywhere are fighting back. You are being recognised as the stewards of the land and the powerful force that you are; you are demanding that your treaty rights be honoured, and finally I hope that you are being heard by the governments that first ignored you, then laughed at you, then fought you, and then conceded.

You’re not alone. All over the world, people are joining forces, moved by the stories of what’s happening in the Arctic, and inspired to act to change the power structure, take it away from the big corporations and put it back in the hands of the people.

I see this week as an opportunity for Arctic Indigenous Peoples to have your voices heard. In these big political games, where the story has long been about whoever has the most money and power gets to call the shots, where the people with money get to carve up your land and divide the resources, it is imperative that your story be told, and that the right people be made to listen.

While you lose your right to sustain yourself in a traditional way off the land, they make money. While you are getting hungrier for untainted food and water, they get hungrier for more power and control. This is not a just story. It is not one I want anything to do with. It is not right, it is not equitable, and it is certainly not sustainable. And so we must change it.

We must change the questions that are being asked and the answers that are being given in false justification. These corporations are asking themselves, how much can we consume? How quickly can we extract all this oil? When really the questions they should be asking are, to whom does this land belong? And who should have the right to decide how it’s managed? Who will suffer tomorrow’s consequences of our decisions today?

The authorities will often frame the story as this: oil equals sustainable development and a better quality of life for Indigenous Peoples living here, versus no oil equals no prospects for local communities in the North. This is a false dilemma and tantamount to blackmail. We have learned time and again that access to oil does not mean positive growth for Indigenous and local communities. In fact, coming from Africa, I know that being rich below the ground almost always equals poverty above ground. But your stories do not have to end this way.

In a few decades, oil will be gone. Experts say that we passed peak oil production in 2010. So why should we risk the last pristine ecosystems on the planet in the race for the last drops of oil? And who will take the responsibility for cleaning up the mess these companies will leave behind when they are done sucking everything out of the Arctic? Not the companies, no, we have learned this. And not the Arctic Council either — their new toothless oil spill response plan has proven this. Time and again, we have learned the sad truth that neither governments nor industry can be trusted to do this.

This week Greenpeace and the Save the Pechora Committee are here to learn from your experiences, to listen to what you want, and to help amplify your voice in this struggle. To help tell the stories you want to tell.

It is no secret that historically, Greenpeace hasn’t always done right by Indigenous communities. We made some errors many years ago, but we are learning from past mistakes. So let me be clear on this point — Greenpeace unequivocally supports subsistence whaling and hunting.

However at this critical point in history, it’s important to recognise that there is far more that unites us than divides us, and it’s that unity of purpose that we want to explore.

Last year when I addressed a similar conference we held in Russia, I told some of you that we would not solve all the problems we face with one conference, nor will we solve them with two. But together we made great strides. The attendees of the conference sat together crafting a joint statement of opposition to Arctic drilling. For hours they talked around the table, exchanging ideas, honing the language, fine-tuning the set of demands until there was unanimous agreement. The result of that meeting was a strong statement that other Arctic Indigenous Peoples have continued to sign on to since then. The statement is here, and you’ll be given the opportunity to read through it and sign if you so choose.

These meetings and these collectively crafted agreements are critical steps in forging new and lifelong relationships that I believe will be pivotal in forming our collective future. Together we are consciously creating the sort of stories and the kind of world that we will all live in together, and that we will leave behind for future generations to inherit.

This is no small task. In fact, it is a huge responsibility, and one that I do not take lightly. Just by being here and demonstrating your commitment and willingness to work with your contemporaries around the world, shows me that you all share this burden.

There is an old Cree Proverb that I’m sure many of you know, that says, “Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught — Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”

And you know, this is happening. I truly believe that there is a shift in consciousness happening right now. We stand here today on the precipice of a new world.

It is daunting, and sometimes scary — but it is also a unique and inspiring opportunity. All across this planet I am humbled by what I am witnessing firsthand — a deep commitment, passion and vision of people who see another way forward. Who envision another kind of world for their children — one that respects the earth and honours her fragility; Peoples from north to south, east to west, who have grown tired of an economic paradigm that values profit over people, and greed over green. People who are standing up and standing together, claiming their rights as human beings, and demanding they be heard.

Every day I draw my inspiration and my strength from these people — from people like each of you who stand in this room. I am humbled by your individual vulnerability and your collective strength.

And you are not alone.

Last month, a group of young ambassadors — including Kiera Dawn-Kolson and Josefina Skerk, two Arctic Indigenous representatives and both of whom are here today — embarked on a quest with Greenpeace to the North Pole, to plant the names of three million people on the seabed below the North Pole — three million people from nearly 60 countries on earth, all united in their determination to secure Arctic protection. They all know what we do: that our fates are intertwined with the fate of the Arctic. They left their homes in the Seychelles, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, in the north of Sweden and in New York, to create a new conversation about the future of the Arctic. To tell different stories and to change the narrative from the current paradigm to the new reality we all envision.

On the seabed at the North Pole they planted an indestructible glass time capsule. There it sits now holding the names of 2.7 million people, including some of yours, a testament to our joint commitment. Inscribed around the capsule on a titanium ring is a quote from one of one of the most powerful storytellers from India. Her name is Arundhati Roy. The quote is from one of her novels, The God of Small Things, and it says: “Not only is another world possible, she’s on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

My friends, I believe that right now we are bearing witness to this. I believe the new world we seek is on its way.

Together with you all, we stand here today to affirm our commitment to creating this new world together, to asserting our right to ensure our future, to ensure our very lives, which may sometimes seem far apart, but are in reality wholly connected. With your blessing, I promise we will work to make the governments of the Arctic realise that your voices cannot and will not be ignored. Together we will continue in our battle to protect the Arctic and your rights as the true inhabitants of this unique place.

Over the next two days, I hope we will forge new relationships and strengthen old ones. I encourage you to use the breaks to make friends and speak to each other. I encourage you to ask Kiera and Josefina about the mission they have just returned from, and to share stories with them in return. More than anything at this conference, I look forward to hearing — and learning from — your stories.

These stories we tell each other will form the narrative that we create, block by block, and character by character; do not underestimate their power. These stories will shape our futures, and the future of this planet that we call home.

And history is also our teacher here in terms of our ambitions to address the destruction that is happening in the Arctic. Twenty years ago when Greenpeace and other groups pushed for the Antarctic to be declared a global commons protected from industrial exploitation, everyone said, you’re crazy, you don’t stand a chance, you’ll never win.

But they were wrong. And now more than two decades later, Antarctica is still protected, and this achievement has helped in some way to mitigate runaway climate change.

The irony is that Antarctica, which isn’t even home to human beings, is now protected. So how is it that the Arctic, home to millions of people, including some of the most precious and unique communities in the world, cannot secure the same protection where people need it most?

The answer is that we can, and we must. This reminds me of a quote from the Maori, the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand/Aotearoa — about exactly this point, which I’d like to end on, because I think it perfectly encapsulates why we are all here:

He aha te mea nui o te ao?
He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!