Greenpeace International is one of the most renowned environmental organizations in the world. Their campaigns aim to change governmental policies about pollution and biodiversity (Luxon & Wong, 2017). Although Greenpeace lacked structure until 1975, its increased global popularity and financial support helped it become a successful non-governmental organization (Zelko, 2019). This organization is based in Amsterdam and has multiple offices with more than 20 million supporters worldwide (Luxon & Wong, 2017). The primary mission of Greenpeace is to stop nuclear tests, promote non-violence, prevent pollution, and protect biodiversity on the planet (Greenpeace, 2019). This organization manages multiple major and minor campaigns that strive to solve global environmental issues such as climate change, ocean pollution, and toxic air pollution (Luxon & Wong, 2017). The three most prominent movements organized by Greenpeace International were banning nuclear testing, whale protection, and the Southeast Asian campaigns.
The first and most famous campaign initiated by the founders of this organization was opposition to nuclear tests. Greenpeace members used to sail to Amchitka island to organize protests against nuclear power, which became the premise for the official registration of this group as a non-governmental environmental organization (Zelko, 2019). Indeed, the first official campaign by Greenpeace Foundation was directed against nuclear testing conducted by France (Zelko, 2019). The outcomes of their actions were the announcement of the closure of atomic air tests by the French government (Greenpeace, n.d.). The second popular campaign was the save-the-whales movement that started in 1975 (Zelko, 2019). I consider the Greenpeace whale campaign to be the essential step for humanity toward preserving biodiversity because intense commercial whale hunting in the twentieth century could cause these species extinction. Although this problem still exists, Greenpeace’s actions elicited a robust public response (Zelko, 2019). Third, Greenpeace International’s Southeast Asian campaign achieved the reduction of oceanic pollution by the rapidly growing industries in this region (Greenpeace, 2019). These three accomplishments are the most memorable and influential deeds of this organization.
To sum up, Greenpeace International is one of the most influential environmental organizations developed from a small unstructured group of people with a big idea into a movement with multiple offices and supporters worldwide. The mission of this organization is to stop environmental pollution and maintain biodiversity on the planet. The three most prominent Greenpeace campaigns, in my opinion, were banning French nuclear tests, minimizing water pollution near the Southeast Asian region, and the whale protection movement.
References
Greenpeace. (n.d.). France ends atmospheric nuclear tests.
Greenpeace. (2019). Greenpeace International annual report 2019.
Luxon, E. M., & Wong, W. H. (2017). Agenda-setting in Greenpeace and Amnesty: The limits of centralisation in international NGOs. Global Society, 31(4), 479–509.
Zelko, F. (2019). From social movement to environmental behemoth: How Greenpeace got big. In J. Clapperton & L. Piper (Eds.), Activism on the ground (pp. 289-313). University of Calgary Press.