Greenpeace
The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, sailing up the St. George's Channel off the west coast of England. Photograph by Noble. Greenpeace. Reproduced by permission.)Founded in 1971, Greenpeace is an international environmental organization dedicated to protecting the global environment through non-violent direct action, public education, and legislative lobbying. With a worldwide membership of over 2.5 million (approximately 250,000 in Greenpeace USA), Greenpeace operates offices in some 30 countries and maintains a scientific base in Antarctica.
Having mounted successful campaigns on a wide variety of environmental issues, Greenpeace is perhaps best known for its direct and often confrontational crusades against nuclear testing and commercial whaling. The group has also garnered wide publicity for protesting various environmental abuses by hanging enormous banners from smokestacks, buildings, bridges, and the scaffolding used in the renovation of the Statue of Liberty.
Greenpeace is presently active in four broadly defined environmental issue areas—Atmosphere and Energy; Ocean Ecology and Forests; Toxins; and Disarmament. In the area of Atmosphere and Energy, Greenpeace works to eliminate widespread dependence upon fossil fuels and lobbies for laws and policies encouraging energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. The group is also working to halt the spread of nuclear power and the dumping of radioactive waste as well as to ban ozone-depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
With regard to Ocean Ecology and Forests, Greenpeace seeks to protect both habitats and threatened species, including whales, harp seals, dolphins, sea turtles, elephants, and birds of prey. It works to discourage overfishing and other wasteful fishing practices, particularly the killing of dolphins in tuna nets. Greenpeace was instrumental in protecting Antarctica by persuading 23 nations to sign an accord banning all mining in Antarctica for at least 50 years. Supporting the principle of biodiversity, the group also works to protect tropical and temperate forests around the world. In 2002, the ships MV Esperanza and Rainbow Warrior stopped illegally logged timber from Africa and the Amazon from being imported.
In the area of Toxins, Greenpeace is especially concerned with stopping the use of unneeded chlorine in the bleaching of paper and with preventing the dumping of hazardous waste in Third World nations. Particularly concerned in recent years with dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), CFCs, and pesticides, the group regularly investigates, publicizes, and lobbies against chemical pollution. Greenpeace also conducts research on the effects of toxic substances on human beings and the environment and encourages recycling as a means of reducing pollution. In 1998, Greenpeace activists prevented a PVC plant from opening in Convent, Louisiana.
Also concerned with Disarmament issues, Greenpeace conducts research into the effects of warfare on human beings and the environment and advocates the global elimination of nuclear weapons. More immediately, the group also urges the cessation of all nuclear and chemical weapons testing and is trying to persuade the major powers to agree to a global ban on naval nuclear propulsion.
In an effort to avoid compromising its goals and activities, Greenpeace does not seek corporate or government funding. Nor does it become directly involved in the electoral process in any of the nations in which it is active. Greenpeace's frequently confrontational tactics have on occasion provoked angry responses from various governmental authorities, including the bombing and sinking of Greenpeace's flagship vessel Rainbow Warrior by agents of the French government in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior had been in New Zealand preparing to protest French nuclear testing in the South Pacific when it was sabotaged. In October 1992 one of Greenpeace's ships was seized by the Russian coast guard while investigating Russian nuclear waste dumping in Arctic waters.
Resources
Organizations
Greenpeace, 702 H Street NW, Washington, D.C. USA 20001 Toll Free: (800) 326-0959, , <http://www.greenpeaceusa.org&#x 003E;
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