Greenpeace is an international environmental organization. It works to change government and industrial policies that threaten the world’s environment or natural resources. Greenpeace calls attention to the dangers to the environment of such actions as whaling, air and water pollution, offshore oil drilling, nuclear weapons testing, and the dumping of radioactive and hazardous wastes. Local chapters of Greenpeace have been established in major cities throughout the world.
Members of Greenpeace use direct and nonviolent methods of protest. They go to the place where an activity is occurring that the group considers harmful. Without using force, they try to stop the activity. For example, to protest whaling, Greenpeace members in boats position themselves between whales and whaling ships.
Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by a group of Canadian environmentalists. It gained international attention for its efforts to save whales and for its opposition to the killing of baby harp seals off the coast of Newfoundland. In 1985, Greenpeace members planned to use their ship Rainbow Warrior to protest French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. But an explosion sank the ship in the harbor of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Greenpeace photographer was killed. French government officials admitted responsibility for the sinking.
