Greenpeace is among the most famous environmental organizations in the world, which is the result of more than 50 years of tactics of protests that catch their heads.
His activists face the Kitol’s open sea ships. They hung a banner from Eiffel Tower. They took oil devices. (Fictional) activist even sailed with Greenpeace in the “Seinfeld” episode, hoping to catch Elaa’s heart.
Now only the existence of Greenpeace is threatened: The lawsuit is looking for at least $ 300 million in harm. Greenpeace said that such a loss in court could force him to turn off his US offices. In the coming days, the jury is expected to make its judgment.
The lawsuit is through Greenpeace’s role in protests about ten years ago against the pipeline near the Stang Rock Sioux reservation In northern Dakota. The owner of the pipeline, Energy transfer, says Greenpeace has enabled illegal attacks on the project and led a “huge, malicious public campaign” that cost the company’s money.
Greenpeace says that she played only a small, peaceful role in protest under the guidance of the natives and that the actual goal of the lawsuit is to limit the freedom of speech not only in the organization, but also throughout America, by raising a spectrum of expensive judicial fights.
The lawsuit comes at a time of huge challenges for the whole ecological movement. Climate changes make storms, floods and fires more often and more dangerous. Trump’s administration has begun the historical effort to cancel the decade of environmental protection. Many of the most significant achievements of movement in the last half centuries have been in danger.
And in recent years, the potential costs of protests have already increased.
The International Non -Profit Law Center has followed the wave of account He has suggested since 2017 to tighten penalties against protesters. Many have become a law by a demonstration against pipelines in the center of Greenpeace (Dakota Access Pipeline), as well as the Black Lives Matters movement, which increased the Minnesota police officer after the murder of George Floyd. More recently Trump’s administration has moved deport international students who protested in the war in Gaza.
Sushma Raman, a temporary director of Greenpeace USA, called the trial in northern Dakota the “critical test of the future of the first amendment”.
Energy transfer, one of the largest companies for pipelines in the country, said the lawsuit was due to illegal behavior, not free speech. “It’s about not following the law,” the statement said.
Founded in Vancouver in 1971, Greenpeace was extremely successful early on what is called “branding” today, with his striking name and Daredevil cascade. But he also faced great challenges: conflicts, wrong steps, legal battles and questions about how to expand his base and remain relevant because she became an institution.
The bigger movement for the environment has grown, but he also struggled to attract attention in an increasingly broken media landscape, and as it turned to climate change, which may be less tangible than previous objectives of activism, such as opposition to writing or drilling oil at certain places.
“What they gave the name was the media spectacle, especially the ability to carry out a high action that requires an incredible tactical organization,” said Frank Zelko, a professor of history at the University of Hawaii at Mānoi and the author “Make it a green peace! The increase in the counter -cultural environment.” This has become “less effective,” he said, ” No, they are rich.
Greenpeace was founded as the exit of the Sierra club on the basis of the principles of ecology and anti-militarism. But the withdrawal of bold cascades in search of these principles, and at the same time acting as a worldwide professional network, has always been a sensitive act of balance.
After the friction and struggle to control the organization in the late 1970s, Greenpeace International was founded in the Netherlands as a headquarters, coordinating the activities of the Greenpeace Independent Office around the world, including Greenpeace USA.
The activities of his American branch are located in the center of the lawsuit. Greenpeace International says his role was limited to signing an open letter. Greenpeace International also opposed the transmission of energy in the Netherlands, Wanting to make up for their legal costs under European laws This basically allows him to challenge a lawsuit for energy transfer as a form of harassment.
In the Greenpeace Washington office, the energy transmission has contributed to the turbulence at the highest levels of the group.
At the beginning of 2023. Organization celebrated the meeting Ebony Twilley Martin as the only executive director, he called Mrs. Twilley Martin the first brunette to be the only director of the inherited American non -profit organization. But she left the role only 16 months later, the development for which two people were introduced to this question said it was partly due to disagreements about whether to agree to a settlement with energy transmission.
Born the 60’s turnaround
Greenpeace was born from the moment of fear and turnaround, in the midst of the Vietnam war, the races of nuclear weapons, the acid rain and the cities of the smog cover. Rex Weyler, 77, an early member, chronicled history in his book “Greenpeace: How a group of ecologists, journalists and visionaries changed the world.”
In Vancouver, Mr. Weyler met Bob Hunter, a sun columnist in Vancouver, and Dorothy and Irving Stow, the older quakers who left the United States in protest due to war tax and weapons testing. They met with like -minded people who saw the need for an ecological movement that would use non -violently direct action, following examples of Mohandas K. Gandhi in India and Civic Rights Movement in the United States.
They would soon become a deviation of the more traditional ecological group, Sierra Club, after disagreement over protest tactics.
Their first campaign was the mission to block American nuclear weapons tests on Amchitka, the volcanic island in Alaska. The idea that this group hovered at the Sierra Club “To sail a boat to stop the bomb,” he was reported in the sun in Vancouver, although the headquarters of the Sierra club in San Francisco did not approve of that plan.
“The Sierra Club did not have fun when they saw this story, because they said,” You know, many of our members are just the hugs of trees and they don’t care about nuclear disarmament, “said Robert Stowy, son Dorothy and Irving and neurologist.” If Sierra Club agreed to it, Greenpeace probably could never be founded. “
The name Greenpeace appeared during the planning meeting, when Irving Stowa said “peace” at the end of the gathering, and another activist, Bill Darnell, replied, “Do it with green peace.”
“Greenpeace” is decorated on the fishing ship they used. Irving Stowe organized a concert by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs to raise travel money.
The boat sailed in September 1971. The coast guard intercepted him and the ship never reached Amchitka. But Stros has attracted significant public attention, which is a fundamental part of the group strategy in years since then.
‘Save the whales’ the age
The next Greenpeace campaign may be the most famous: the rescue of whales.
The idea came from Paul Spong, who studied the whales Orca and claimed that highly intelligent creatures were being hunted for extinction. This has led to profusely documented, dramatic sailboats to face Soviet Kitolov ships.
The world moratorium on commercial shin has existed since 1986. Greenpeace and other groups that worked on the matter claimed this as a great victory.
The group also tried to stop the stamp hunt in North Canada, which is a controversial move that has alienated a large population, including indigenous communities. Greenpeace Canada apologized to inuit people for the influence of the campaign In 2014, and the organization said she was not opposed to a small scope hunt.
Ship Rainbow Warrior, a key vessel in the campaign against the whale, was added to the fleet in 1978. The ship protested in French nuclear testing on the Pacific in 1985, when it was bombed by the agents of the French spy agency DGSE, killing Fernando pereira, and ignoring international supervision.
France later apologized and ordered to pay $ 8 million in damages Greenpeacea and reached a separate settlement with Mr. Pereira’s family.
The new Rainbow Warrior is now one of the three Greenpeace vessels in work. This month he sails on Marshall’s islands to “raise calls on nuclear and climate justice,” said the group, supporting a study on the effects of a past nuclear weapon test.
Growing pain
Until the 1990s, Greenpeace’s environment that attracts attention caught the imagination of a new generation of people like Valentina Stackl, 39, who learned of his features as a girl in Europe. She worked with Greenpeace USA from 2019 to 2023.
“The idea of Greenpeace is delivered and saved whales and hangs from the bridge or something, it was truly magical,” she said. “And in the best days of Greenpeace, he was really like that. Of course, there is a syllable of everyday, which is less glittering.”
One constant concern was the collection of funds: Greenpeace USA is largely funded by individual donations, which they can fluctuate. Tax files show that its income has been stable in recent years.
The priorities of the group have switched to the climate and how to involve what is known as “environmental justice”, the fact that pollution and other danger of environment often disproportionately affect the poor and minority areas. Historically, mostly the organization dominated by white and men had to face how to work more and more with a diverse range of other groups. And it had to be understood with historical tensions with indigenous communities because of the campaigns of whales and sealing, as well as other misconceptions.
One of these mistakes happened in Peru in 2014, when there was a restlessness The Greenpeace action that damaged the lines of the nazcaForms created by an ancient man engraved in the wilderness. Greenpeace’s activists have entered the limited area to set a protest message about renewable energy. The Peruvian Cultural Minister called him the act of “Nonsense”, which “co -opted part of the identity of our heritage.”
The organization apologized, and the episode encouraged Greenpeace USA to adopt a formal policy on interactions with indigenous communities, said Rolf Skar, director of the group campaign. In short, Greenpeace would not be involved in the struggles led by the natives unless he asked for it.
This policy appeared at the trial of this month in northern Dakota. Greenpeace claimed that he had offered support in the Dakota Professional Postaire only after they had requested it by indigenous leaders and did not seek any major role in demonstrations.
On Monday, in the court in the small town of Mandan, ND, the jury is expected to start listening to the final arguments, after which they will consider Greenpeace’s fate.
