Gilding started his career as an activist in his early teens, focusing on South African apartheid and Aboriginal land rights. While serving in the Australian Air Force, he also became involved in the nuclear disarmament movement. According to an interview on AlterNet, Gilding's experience in anti-nuclear politics led to a greater awareness of environmental issues and led him to join Greenpeace in the 1980s, becoming involved in direct actions against corporate polluters.System Failure: We Are Approaching the End of Society As We Know It -- And That May Be a Good Thing, AlterNet, 21 June 2012. Between 1989 and 1994, Gilding served as the executive director of Greenpeace Australia and, later, Greenpeace International.
