Origins of Vancouver's Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a world recognized non-governmental environmental organization that began in Vancouver BC. In the 1970s, Vancouver journalist Bob Hunter brought a group of environmental supporters together to discuss global environmental problems.
At this time, several Vancouverites including lawyers, journalists, ecologists and other scientists, worked together to advocate against nuclear testing, toxic waste, seal hunting and whaling.
They did this by bringing their activist projects front and center with pictures, articles and film footage for the world to see.
There were three main media campaigns that made Greenpeace in Vancouver such a well known environmental organization:
› 1971-72 The first initiative of Greenpeace: A small group of activists went to the island of Amchitka, located west of Alaska, to prevent further nuclear testing. Greenpeace feared that detonating a nuclear bombs would cause earthquakes, tsunamis and destroy the wildlife refuge on the island. A large group of Vancouver supporters rallied behind the efforts of these Greenpeace activists.
› 1975 Advocating against French Nuclear Testing in Mururoa Atoll: Greenpeace activists decided to stop this nuclear testing by venturing out to French Polynesia on a ship named the Vega. The French army rammed and eventually bombed the Vega; on a later occasion French sailors assaulted Greenpeace activist David McTaggart. Alarming footage of these incidents circulated in the media. As a result, the French government ended atmospheric testing in Mururoa Atoll.
› 1975 Anti-whaling Campaign: In their zodiacs, Greenpeace activist pursued the Russian whaling boat, the Vlastny, which was hunting whales. After a long chase, they were able to end this Russian whale hunt. Greenpeace news of the event was transmitted to the International Whaling Commission in London. An activist, Fred Easton, also filmed a harpoon exploding into the side of a whale- this footage was broadcast on the CBS news almost immediately after the activist landed their zodiacs in San Francisco.
Greenpeace Goes Global
As a result of the photographs and film footage that emerged from early 1970's activist expeditions, Vancouver's Greenpeace was all over the news and gained massive support on a global level.
In 1979, Greenpeace International was formed with financial and public support all over Europe. Now based in Amsterdam, Greenpeace International is one of the most media-exposed environmental organizations in the world. This non-profit global campaigning organization has groups in more than 40 countries, with close to 3 million members and an annual budget that is over 250 million dollars.
Greenpeace's Mission
As stated on their website, Greenpeace's mission is to use "non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems and their causes." They do this by challenging government and industry "to halt harmful practices by negotiating solutions, conducting scientific research, introducing clean alternatives, carrying out peaceful acts of civil disobedience and educating and engaging the public".Evolution of Greenpeace
Greenpeace started as a grassroots organization which thrived from their direct action approach. In the 1980s, Greenpeace began to work more consultatively with governments and organizations. By the 1990s, Greenpeace was transforming from an organization of confrontational environmental activism to a group striving to build better consensus with governments, other environmental organizations and corporations.
Now their work leans more towards collaboration. In 2010, they were involved in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which was formed between 9 other environmental organizations and private forest companies. Through this project, logging practices were banned for 28 million hectares of Boreal Forest.
Greenpeace Projects
Greenpeace's reputation as an environmental organization has allowed them to move forward on a diversity of ecological concerns including:
› Preventing Climate Change: In 2010, Greenpeace published a book entitled Energy [Re]volution, in collaboration with the European Renewable Energy Council. This book presents technologies and tactics to help reduce global warming pollution in Canada.
› Promoting Forest Conservation: Since 1999, Greenpeace has been working with logging companies, the BC government and First Nations to help conserve the Great Bear Rainforest of the Pacific Northwest Coast. As of 2009, the BC government is legally protecting over 2 million hectares of forest from logging - this is an area close to the size of Belgium !
› Supporting Sustainable Agriculture: In 2006, Greenpeace published the report "Eating up the Amazon" which discusses how the Amazon rainforest is cleared and destroyed to harvest soya . That same year, MacDonalds agreed to stop selling chicken that had been fed soya on cleared land in the Amazon rainforest.
› Protecting Whales and Marine Ecosystems: Greenpeace encouraged the public to advocate against Japanese whaling through letters and emails. After an outpouring of written support, Nissui, the parent company of Gorton's and Sealord seafood suppliers, divested its shares in all Japanese whaling initiatives in 2006. Nissui did not want to lose business from consumers- this was bad publicity for their seafood company.
Controversy Surrounding Greenpeace
Throughout the history of Greenpeace, this environmental organization has experienced a variety of controversial issues. Greenpeace was the first environmental group to use a door-to-door fundraising approach, which many people do not support. Greenpeace has also spread some very forceful visual messages that have destroyed the reputations of major corporations and government bodies. Even some former Greenpeace members have regarded their actions as distasteful and unethical.
With all the controversy surrounding Greenpeace, it has only brought them more media exposure. Whether people support them or not, Greenpeace has made their messages loud and clear, and remain a leading international organization that helps bring important environmental issues forward.
To emerging environmental organizations, Greenpeace is a notable example of how environmental activism can make a tremendous impact on the actions of world leaders and global corporations.
