Introduction
image With the help of the crew of the Arctic Sunrise, artist John Quigley recreates Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch Vitruvian Man, from copper, on the Arctic sea ice © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace
Like that small group of protestors who sailed towards Amchitka, we remain independent. We do not accept funding from any political parties, governments or corporations. Instead, we rely entirely on voluntary donations from individual supporters, and on grant support from foundations. Our independence ensures the credibility and authority that plays a large role in making our campaigns successful. We continue to expose environmental criminals and to challenge governments and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future. We continue to use research, lobbying and quiet diplomacy to pursue our goals, as well as high-profile, non-violent conflict to raise the level and quality of public debate. And we continue to inspire millions of people to join us in taking action every day to preserve the future of our planet. In the year marking Greenpeace’s 40th anniversary, we wanted to bring you a collection of stories and a selection of images that attempt to show you more about what Greenpeace is and what Greenpeace does. We have called this document ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ in tribute to the organisation’s very first newsletter, which was edited by Rex Weyler. Rex was a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation and a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. He was a photographer and reporter on the early Greenpeace whale and seal campaigns and has written one of the best and most comprehensive histories of the organisation, ‘Greenpeace: An Insider’s Account’ (Raincoast, 2004). Rex writes a monthly column - ‘Deep Green’ - for the Greenpeace website, and we reproduce two of his articles on the early history of Greenpeace in this volume.
4 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Also contributing to ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ is John Novis, Greenpeace International’s Head of Photography. John has worked with Greenpeace for over 20 years, and provides us here with his insight into 40 years of Greenpeace’s photoactivism. Mike Townsley looks at the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French secret service agents in New Zealand, 1985, a defining moment in Greenpeace history. And Laura Kenyon - Greenpeace International online activist and a specialist in community network - brings us up to date with the latest technological developments as Greenpeace adds social networking and cyberactivism to its powerful array of campaigning tools. ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ have been 40 years in the making. Join us on a trip through time that will lead you from that group of protesters and environmentalists who set sail to take on a superpower, to Greenpeace’s campaigns and actions around the world today. And discover more about the many ordinary people who have chosen to do extraordinary things in order to save our planet.