Copyright � 1986 The Harvard Law Review Association. Harvard Law Review NOTE: EXCLUSION OF SHIPS FROM NONTERRITORIAL WEAPONS TESTING ZONES. MARCH, 1986 99 Harv. L. Rev. 1040 Excerpt On July 10, 1985, two bombs exploded in Auckland Harbor, New Zealand. The blasts sank the Rainbow Warrior, a ship owned by the international organization Greenpeace, and killed a Portuguese photographer on board. Greenpeace had been preparing the Rainbow Warrior to lead a protest flotilla to the French nuclear testing site at Mururoa incident, French officials admitted their government's responsibility for destroying the Rainbow Warrior. 1 Officials of the United States also were concerned about the Rainbow Warrior's presence in the Pacific: Greenpeace had protested against American missile testing in Canada less than six months earlier, 2 and the United States conducts a major missile testing program at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The Marshall Islands tests, while not currently involving nuclear explosions, still present serious hazards for ships navigating near missile targets. Frequently, these hazards extend into ocean areas outside United States territorial waters.

If a vessel like the Rainbow Warrior entered such waters at the time of a planned test, the United States would probably have to postpone the test -- at considerable cost 3 -- or remove the ship, an action that might violate international law. This Note addresses this potential dilemma and explores the conflict between two policies of the United States: acceptance of the international principle of freedom of the seas and use of those seas for exclusive purposes. The aggressive political activities of organizations such as Greenpeace suggest that this conflict may have more than academic import. The principle of ... France Admits Greenpeace Ship Bombing - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections France Admits Greenpeace Ship Bombing September 23, 1985 |STANLEY MEISLER | Times Staff Writer PARIS — Premier Laurent Fabius, contradicting previous official claims of innocence, admitted Sunday night that French intelligence agents, acting under authorization, blew up the anti-nuclear protest ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 10 weeks ago.

However, Fabius said that the agents who carried out the attack must be "exempted from blame" because they "only obeyed orders." In reading an official statement to reporters in his office, the 39-year-old premier left unanswered the key political question of who in the government was responsible for ordering the attack on the ship, owned by the Greenpeace organization. He refused to answer reporters' questions. In New Zealand, Prime Minister David Lange called Fabius' statement exempting the agents from blame "quite absurd." But he added that France's official admission of responsibility for the attack vindicated New Zealand's position in the affair. The Fabius statement appeared to contradict the position taken by President Francois Mitterrand who, in ordering an inquiry into the sinking last month, declared: "If (French) responsibility is proven, the guilty parties, at whatever level they are found, will be severely punished." However, Fabius proposed the creation of a special parliamentary commission to investigate the affair, which has shaken the Socialist administration of President Francois Mitterrand.

Speaking in measured tones, the premier said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the truth about this affair is cruel, but, as I have pledged, it must be clearly and completely established." The admission of the government's guilt, after weeks of insistence that France had sent agents to spy on the ship but not to bomb it, was portrayed by Fabius as the first results of the work of the new minister of defense, Paul Quiles. Quiles, who stood by Fabius' side in the Hotel Matignon, the premier's office, was appointed Friday after Mitterrand and Fabius forced the resignation of Minister of Defense Charles Hernu and dismissed Adm. Pierre Lacoste as director of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), as the French intelligence agency is known. Press Investigations The ouster of Hernu and Lacoste came after the French press, in a series of investigative stories, published more and more evidence that discredited the official claims of innocence.

From the beginning, suspicion of responsibility for the July 10 explosion, which killed a Greenpeace photographer aboard the ship, fell on the French, since the bombing prevented the Rainbow Warrior from leading a protest flotilla into the French nuclear testing site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. In his statement, Fabius said that Quiles' preliminary inquiries had produced three grave conclusions: "It was agents of the DGSE who sank this boat. They acted under orders. The truth was hidden from Councilor of State Tricot." When the first news reports of French involvement were published, the Mitterrand government asked Bernard Tricot, a member of the semi-juridical Council of State and a former chief of staff for President Charles de Gaulle, to investigate the affair. Tricot, basing his conclusions mostly on interviews in the Ministry of Defense and the intelligence agency, reported Aug. 26 that two French agents under arrest in New Zealand and three others sought by New Zealand police had gone to the South Pacific to spy on the Rainbow Warrior but not to damage it. Fabius also said Sunday that he and Mitterrand have agreed that a new director of intelligence will be named at the next Cabinet meeting, scheduled for Wednesday.

The new director will be asked to overhaul the agency. No Punishment for Agents The premier stressed that the government does not intend to punish the agents who carried out the attack. "The people who merely carried out the act," Fabius said, "must, of course, be exempted from blame as it would be unacceptable to expose members of the military who only obeyed orders and who, in the past, have sometimes carried out very dangerous missions on behalf of our country." Lange, according to a report from Wellington, the New Zealand capital, said that the exemption was a remarkable interpretation of international law. "The idea that acting under the orders of a foreign power gives anyone license to execute criminal acts in a foreign country with immunity is, of course, quite absurd," Lange said. The two agents in jail, Maj. Alan Mafart and Capt. Dominique Prieur, who posed as a Swiss couple touring New Zealand, face charges in the New Zealand courts of murder, arson and conspiracy. The Tricot report identified three other agents, now in France, as frogmen who are known to have been on a sailing yacht in Auckland harbor a few hours before two mines blasted the Rainbow Warrior.

MINISTER'S DENIAL OVER GREENPEACE - NYTimes.com MINISTER'S DENIAL OVER GREENPEACE By RICHARD BERNSTEIN, Special to the New York Times Published: September 19, 1985 PARIS, Sept. 18— Defense Minister Charles Hernu maintained his innocence today in the face of press reports here suggesting that he had ordered the sabotage July 10 of a ship owned by the anti-nuclear and environmentalist group Greenpeace. He did, however, acknowledge that he had authorized a team of five agents to go to New Zealand to monitor Greenpeace's plans for protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Mr. Hernu, appearing before reporters at the Defense Ministry today, said he would be ''intransigent'' in his search for the truth about the affair and ''pitiless'' if it turned out that any member of the French Government had taken part in a cover-up. He added that reports that the vessel had been sunk by French military frogmen constituted a slur on French military officers, who he said were being victimized by a campaign of ''rumor, insinuation and calumny.'' Affair Raised at Cabinet Meeting Mr.

Hernu's statement today seemed to signal a Government decision to ride out the criticism and to maintain earlier denials of official involvement or responsibility in the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in which one person was killed. The Defense Minister's appearance before reporters this afternoon came several hours after a regularly scheduled meeting of the French Cabinet at which the Rainbow Warrior affair was the subject of ''a brief exchange of views,'' according to the Government's spokesman, Georgina Dufoix. Mr. Hernu spoke amid a mounting furor here over a report in Le Monde Tuesday that the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand, was carried out by the French intelligence service, apparently with the the approval of Mr. Hernu. A Portuguese photographer aboard the ship was killed when two explosions, apparently caused by mines attached to the hull, sank the vessel as it lay berthed in Auckland harbor. Shortly after the attack, two people, later identified as French intelligence agents, were arrested and charged in connection with the crime.

'Only Doing Their Duty' The front-page Le Monde account, quoting sources in the intelligence service as well as Government and other officials, said senior French military and intelligence officials appear to have concealed French responsibility in the affair from a special Government investigator, Bernard Tricot. Mr. Tricot was appointed at the behest of President Francois Mitterrand to look into reported official French involvement in the affair. ''Yes, I knew it and I gave the order,'' Mr. Hernu said of the mission of agents of the French intelligence agency, known as the D.G.S.E., to collect information on Greenpeace. ''I affirm that they were only doing their duty in defending the interests of France. ''Let there be no mistake, however, that there is an abyss between getting information and the attack that has been mistakenly imputed to them.'' He specifically denied the assertion by Le Monde Tuesday that the actual bombing of the Greenpeace vessel had been carried out by the ''third team'' of two military frogmen, aided by the other French agents. The team escaped undetected from New Zealand the morning after the attack, the article said.

The report spurred new criticisms of the Government by the opposition and, in raising the prospect of an official cover-up, posed an acute embarrassment to the Socialist Government, which faces key legislative elections six months from now. Political Storm Renewed In his statement today, Mr. Hernu said that ''no service, no organization belonging to my ministry received an order to carry out an attack against the Rainbow Warrior.'' Press reports here for the last two months have persistently named the French intelligence agency, a branch of the Defense Ministry, as being behind the sabotage operation. The Le Monde account Tuesday provoked a renewed political storm over an affair that had begun to recede somewhat from the public view. Banner headlines in two major newspapers today, Liberation and France-Soir, read simply ''Lies,'' referring to the purported cover-up of the affair by French officials. A former Gaullist Prime Minister, Pierre Messmer, said Mr. Hernu should resign. Speaking in a radio interview, Mr.

Messmer, an opposition member of the French Parliament, said, ''This affair no longer simply concerns Greenpeace, but a second matter, that of the functioning of the Government, of its lies and dissimulations and its refusal to take responsibility.'' Commentators here said that with Le Monde's account the Greenpeace affair had taken on a new dimension, presenting the Government with the problem of responding to unambiguous accusations, made in the country's most prestigious newspaper, of concealing the truth. Lack of Proof Noted It seemed likely that as long as the Government was unable to furnish a convincing explanation of the attack against the ship, its denials of official responsibility in the matter would be greeted with public skepticism. It their comments today, Government spokesmen stressed the absence in Le Monde's account of hard proof or clearly identified sources of information. The newspaper, while piecing together a highly plausible reconstruction of the Rainbow Warrior affair, was unable to identify the members of the so-called third team of French agents. The presence in New Zealand of two other ''teams'' of agents had already been acknowledged in Mr. Tricot's report, which was made public last month. But Mr.

Tricot concluded that the agents were on a mission to collect information about Greenpeace and that they did not blow up the Rainbow Warrior. Moreover, new press reports today, while also asserting that the operation took place with Mr. Hernu's knowledge, contained details that varied from the Le Monde account. The newsmagazine VSD, one of two to originally disclose French official involvement in the affair last month, said the ''third team'' was made up of three men, rather than the two claimed by Le Monde. Reports in the New Zealand press today said that one member of the team was Louis-Philippe Dillais, the commander of a French frogmen's training center in Corsica. The Le Monde account said Mr. Dillais had remained in New Caledonia to supervise the operation. In his statement today, Mr. Hernu said: ''I have promised to establish the truth. If my orders have been contravened or I have been lied to, I will be pitiless in my sanctions, and this in the interest of the credibility of our system of defense.'' zoom Two Greenpeace activists aboard Belize flagged Chinese bottom trawler Chang Xing in Port Nelson, New Zealand.

The two activists along with one other attached to the mooring line stopped the vessel from leaving port. The trawler was the notorious Chang Xing - one of the high seas bottom trawlers that we happen know a lot about. We know that she has been operating in several oceans, and we know that she destroys deep-sea life wherever she goes. In June 2004, the Rainbow Warrior headed into the international waters of the Tasman Sea to document the activities of high seas bottom trawlers fishing for slimehead (or, as it has been renamed to sound more appealing for marketing purposes: Orange Roughy). And you guessed it - there it was - the Chang Xing busily scouring the seafloor with huge weighted nets hauling up everything and anything unlucky enough to be in their way. In the Chang Xing's wake, the Rainbow Warrior's crew picked up all manner of weird and wonderful deep-sea creatures including a delicate branch of endangered black coral that is protected under CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species). All were thrown over the side as unwanted 'by-catch". Meanwhile, back on land, we did a bit of extra research to determine the history and ownership of the Chang Xing.

The Chang Xing flies the flag of Belize, but is owned by a Chinese company with connections to New Zealand and Fijian companies. Belize does not regulate the activities of its high seas vessels and is one of the four main 'flag of convenience' countries. Belize (a small Caribbean nation) does not regulate the activities of its high seas vessels. It is one country counted in the top four 'flag-of-convenience' countries in a 2005 report funded by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In terms that Greenpeace uses, what the Chang Xing does, is pirate fishing. When the Rainbow Warrior observed the Chang Xing fishing, she was bottom trawling for orange roughy oin the NW Challenger Plateau in the Tasman Sea - within 20 miles of six licensed, New Zealand- flagged bottom trawlers.

In September 2005, the New Zealand government announced that they "would be prepared to support in principle, the concept of an interim global moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas if such a proposal had sufficient support to be a practical and enforceable option for improving biodiversity protection on the high seas." That's a very long-winded way of saying that they would support a moratorium if all other countries do too. Since then, we've heard a whole lot of reasons why New Zealand won't support a moratorium. One of the most important has been that it is only vessels flagged to 'responsible' states (like New Zealand and Australia) that are bottom trawling on the high seas and so it is not a big problem - because they regulate their vessels. The Chang Xing shows that is not the case. The presence of New Zealand flagged bottom trawlers fishing nearby underlines the fact that so-called 'responsible' vessels do the same terrible damage to a sensitive and vulnerable deep-sea ecosystem. These bottom trawlers all use the same fishing gear.

Nets weighing tens of tons that are dragged over the delicate and ancient eco-systems destroying all in their path before scientists even get a chance to see what is down there. In June 2005, the Rainbow Warrior went back to the Tasman Sea and recorded the New Zealand flagged bottom trawler Waipori fishing for Orange Roughy. The Rainbow Warrior crew recorded the Waipori hauling a huge 400 year old Gorgonian coral in its nets. It took 2 men to throw the huge piece over the side, dead. New Zealand is certainly responsible for the damage caused by its vessel and is now also responsible for supplying a known flag- of- convenience vessel. But because there are no rules in place for most of the international waters of the high seas when it comes to bottom trawling, New Zealand can say that they have done nothing wrong. Doing nothing can sometimes have huge consequences. On July 30, 2006 a New Zealand TV3 report quotes a spokesperson for the New Zealand Fisheries Minister as saying that "while the government supported a worldwide moratorium it doubted it would happen because of a lack of political will from other countries." What is New Zealand waiting for?

It is a country known for its sheep but not for acting like one. When it came to the issue of defending the Pacific from nuclear testing, New Zealand didn't say there was a lack of political will and sit back and watch. New Zealand led the way to a nuclear- free Pacific. Back in 1989/90, New Zealand led the successful political push for a global moratorium on high seas 'walls of death' driftnet fishing, without hesitation or wavering over whether Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other driftnet fishing countries would go along with it. And earlier this year, New Zealand didn't argue there was a lack of political will when it came to the issue of defending the whales on the high seas from countries like Japan and Iceland. On the high seas bottom trawling issue, there are already a number of countries leading the way and they come from all corners of the world: Brazil in Latin America, Sweden and the United Kingdom in Europe, and Palau and Tuvalu in the Pacific. Isn't it time that New Zealand found its mettle once again and stepped out in front like they so often do, instead of hiding like sheep behind excuses like "lack of political will"?

New Zealand, the trawl is in your court! Russia Charges Greenpeace Activists With Piracy Over Protest - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Russia Charges Greenpeace Activists With Piracy Over Protest Henry Meyer Russia charged 14 Greenpeace activists with piracy over the boarding of an oil platform to protest Arctic drilling in what the group described as its worst crisis since the 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. The 14 campaigners, who include citizens of the U.K., U.S., Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Finland and Russia, are among 30 Greenpeace activists who were detained last month over the incident, the organization’s press service said in a text message today. They’re under investigation for piracy, a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

“This is now the most serious threat to Greenpeace’s peaceful environmental activism since agents of the French secret service bombed the Rainbow Warrior” during an attempted protest over France’s nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, the organization’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo, said by e-mail. The 30 activists “could now face the prospect of long periods in a Russian jail.” Investigators opened a criminal case last week against the campaigners from 18 countries for piracy and remanded them in custody for two months in the port city of Murmansk. The Investigative Committee will make an announcement once charges are filed against all 30 activists, according to the office of the law-enforcement agency’s spokesman, Vladimir Markin. Gazprom Rig Greenpeace protesters scaled an OAO Gazprom rig in the Pechora Sea on Sept. 18. The state-owned company has accused the environmental organization of endangering the lives of workers on the rig who were underwater at the time of the protest. Russia’s Coast Guard boarded Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship in international waters on Sept. 19, a day after two protesters scaled the rig, and towed the vessel to Murmansk.

Gazprom plans to become the first Russian company to start producing oil in Arctic waters at the Prirazlomnoye deposit as soon as this year. Greenpeace activists scaled the same drilling platform in 2012. Protesters today occupied gasoline stations in Germany operated by Gazprom, according to the Twitter Inc. account of Grennpeace’s Russian branch. The group staged demonstrations last week outside Russian diplomatic missions and offices of Gazprom in 38 locations in 30 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, France and the U.K. The detained activists include citizens of the U.S., Finland, Argentina, Switzerland, the U.K., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, France, Italy, Turkey, Poland and Sweden, according to Greenpeace. ‘Unlawful Acts’ Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev today called for tougher penalties for illegal incursions into oil and gas facilities. “Concern for the environment shouldn’t lead to unlawful acts,” he said at a meeting in the Astrakhan region. President Vladimir Putin said Sept. 25 that while the Greenpeace campaigners “clearly” aren’t pirates, they violated international law by trying to seize the platform.

The Russian leader has come under increasing criticism in Europe and the U.S for a crackdown on civil society since he won a third Kremlin term last year. The captain of the Arctic Sunrise, American Peter Wilcox, was in charge of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in 1985, when agents from France’s DGSE intelligence service planted a bomb on the ship in the port of Auckland to prevent it from sailing toward a nuclear-testing site. A photographer for the environmental organization died in the explosion that sank the vessel. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. U.S. Greenpeace captain is jailed in Russia - The Washington Post U.S. Greenpeace captain is jailed in Russia The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set!

By Kathy Lally and Will Englund By Kathy Lally and Will Englund September 27, 2013 MOSCOW — Nearly 30 years ago, Peter Willcox was captain of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior when it was blown up by French agents. Today, the American is in a Russian jail, accused of piracy after members of his latest Greenpeace crew tried to board an offshore oil platform in the Arctic in a protest against drilling. Willcox, now the 60-year-old captain of the Arctic Sunrise, was among 22 Greenpeace activists from around the world who were ordered detained for two months this week by a court in Murmansk, a Russian port above the Arctic Circle. After a hearing that began early Thursday morning and concluded at 2 a.m. Friday, the court delayed a decision on eight other detainees. They include the group’s spokesman, Dima Litvinov, who has dual Swedish American citizenship. Russia detained two activists on the rig Sept. 19 and seized the ship in the Pechora Sea on Sept. 20, towing it to Murmansk, where it arrived Tuesday. Conviction on piracy charges could bring up to 15 years in jail.

“Our ship was seized in international waters, and that was a mistake,” Daniel Simons, a Greenpeace lawyer, said Friday, addressing a Moscow news conference via Skype from Murmansk. The only legal grounds for seizing a ship in those waters, Simons said, are illegal fishing, illegal broadcasting, causing serious pollution or piracy. The Arctic Sunrise was guilty of none of those crimes, he said, and piracy requires two ships. “There is a clear difference in international law between a ship and a fixed platform,” he said. Even President Vladimir Putin, who was attending an Arctic Forum in a town near the Arctic Circle earlier this week, said the Greenpeace environmentalists were not pirates. However, in attempting to board the platform, he said, “they violated international laws.” Last year, Greenpeace carried off a similar protest on the same rig, said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, who took part. No one accused those activists of piracy. Willcox would have followed the same kind of maneuver, Naidoo told reporters in Washington on Friday.

He would have kept the Arctic Sunrise about 500 yards away from the Prirazlomnaya rig — which is owned by a subsidiary of Gazprom, the giant energy corporation controlled by the Russian government — and is not yet operational. Activists in small inflatable boats would have approached and tossed a rope over a protrusion on the rig. Last year, they unfurled a banner, set up a small tent and stayed there 12 hours. This year, the two who climbed aboard were quickly detained, Naidoo said, and 11 warning shots were fired into the water around the inflatable boats. When Willcox refused to sail away the next day, Russian coast guard members dropped onto the ship from helicopters, he said. It was the stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, said Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA. The Rainbow Warrior was on a mission to protest French nuclear testing when it was blown up while docked in New Zealand. One crew member died. Greenpeace officials said Willcox cares deeply about the environment and has spent years fighting to protect it.

“He’s cool, calm and collected,” said Naidoo, who sailed with him last year. “The people of the United States should be proud one of their fellow citizens is involved in this fight.” Greenpeace wants the world to designate the upper Arctic a “global common place,” protecting the fragile environment from drilling and threats of spills. Earlier this week, a spokesman for Russia’s main investigative body said the Greenpeace activity was clearly suspicious. “When a foreign vessel full of electronic technical equipment of unknown purpose and a group of people calling themselves members of an environmental rights organization try nothing less than to take a drilling platform by storm, logical doubts arise about their intentions,” Vladimir Markin said. A Russian freelance photographer, Denis Sinyakov, and a British videographer, Kieron Bryan, were also ordered held for two months, even though they were journalists documenting the voyage. In protest, a half-dozen or more Russian news Web sites replaced their usual photographs with blacked-out spaces Friday. Dmitri Artamanov, a Greenpeace representative in Murmansk, said the organization had been given no information about the Arctic Sunrise until Thursday. “There were illegal searches of the ship,” he said Friday.

“Our activists were locked up, and all their belongings, computers, phones, everything, were taken away.” U.S. Embassy officials in Moscow said they had met with Willcox and Litvinov. “We are following their cases with great concern,” the embassy said in a statement. “We are also in close touch with Russian authorities to ensure the well-being of these individuals, and their continued access to legal counsel while in detention.” Englund reported from Washington. Greenpeace International | Article about Greenpeace International by The Free Dictionary Greenpeace International | Article about Greenpeace International by The Free Dictionary Related to Greenpeace International: Amnesty International Greenpeace, international organization that promotes environmental awareness and addresses environmental abuse through direct, nonviolent confrontations with governments and companies. Founded in 1971 to oppose U.S. nuclear testing in Alaska, the organization has fought to protect endangered species, stop the dumping of hazardous waste, and strengthen national and international laws that regulate environmental affairs. A small organization largely dependent on voluntary funding, it has used wide media exposure to draw attention to its causes.

Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship scheduled to protest French atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, was blown up in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, on July 10, 1985, by French intelligence agents. The resulting scandal caused the resignation of France's minister of defense and the firing of the head of France's intelligence service. Greenpeace A nonprofit organization, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. As a global organization, Greenpeace focuses on the most crucial worldwide threats to the Earth’s biodiversity and environment. GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN FOR GREEN PEACE Greenpeace are a proactive group working hard to draw attention to serious environmental issues, which views I share in broad terms. We all have our way of contributing to society, mine is to try to do something to show world leaders and future generations that alternative energy can be practical. I'm doing this by building a solar powered boat featured elsewhere on this website, with which I hope to circumnavigate the globe. The Solar Navigator uses existing technology to achieve clean transport today. If we were to use the same technology today for our homes and factories we could call a halt to global warming . Nelson Kruschandl - well done chaps!

I am a firm believer in fair treatment, fair trade and equal opportunities. I'm also an engineer and an environmentalist, a strange combination I know. I think we should adopt a common sense approach to energy reserves, where the constant fighting to take control of oil and other natural resources, and the power struggles by different political groups, is wasteful and simply throwing human effort and lives away. Once energy is available to all at sensible cost, we will have taken a giant step toward global peace . For all the above reasons I applaud the sterling efforts of all those who work for Greenpeace, for they are working for our precious blue planet and all those who inhabit it. NK Greenpeace is an international environmental organization founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1971. It is best known for its campaigns against nuclear weapons and campaigning against whaling . In later years, the focus of the organization turned to other environmental issues, including bottom trawling, global warming , ancient forest destruction, nuclear power, and genetic engineering. Greenpeace has national and regional offices in 42 countries worldwide, all of which are affiliated to the Amsterdam -based Greenpeace International.

The global organization receives its income through the individual contributions of an estimated 2.8 million financial supporters, as well as from grants from charitable foundations , but does not accept funding from governments or corporations. It is often the subject of criticism and ridicule for supposedly over-the-top protesting. Greenpeace's official mission statement describes the organization and its aims thus: Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization which uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions for a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace's goal is to ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity. Structure Greenpeace is a global environmental organisation, consisting of Greenpeace International (Stichting Greenpeace Council) in Amsterdam, and 27 national and regional offices around the world, providing a presence in 41 countries. These national and regional offices are largely autonomous in carrying out jointly agreed global campaign strategies within the local context they operate in, and in seeking the necessary financial support from donors to fund this work. National and regional offices support a network of volunteer-run local groups. Local groups participate in campaigns in their area, and mobilise for larger protests and activities elsewhere.

Millions of supporters who are not organised into local groups support Greenpeace by making financial donations and participating in campaigns as citizens and consumers. Greenpeace is present in the following countries and regions, as of March 2007: Argentina, Australia-Pacific region ( Australia , Fiji, Papua New-Guinea, Solomon Islands), Belgium , Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greenpeace Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Greece, Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe (Austria, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia (no permanent campaign presence in the latter five states)) India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Greenpeace Mediterranean (Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon, Malta, Tunisia, Turkey), Mexico, the Netherlands, Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand (New Zealand), Russia, South -East Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand), Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. Priorities and campaigns Greenpeace runs campaigns and projects which fit into the "Issues" (as campaign areas are called within Greenpeace) categories below.

Besides exposing problems such as over-fishing or threats linked to nuclear energy such as harmful radiation and proliferation, Greenpeace campaigns for alternative solutions such as marine reserves and renewable energy . The organisation currently addresses many environmental issues with a primary focus on efforts to stop global warming and the preservation of the world's oceans and ancient forests. In addition to conventional environmental organisation methods, such as lobbying businesses and politicians, and participating in international conferences, Greenpeace uses nonviolent direct action in many of its campaigns. Greenpeace uses direct action to attract attention to particular environmental problems. For example, activists place themselves between the whaler's harpoon and their prey, or invade nuclear facilities dressed as barrels of radioactive waste. Other initiatives include the development of a fuel-efficient car, the SmILE. Origins The origins of Greenpeace lie in the Peace movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament generally and particularly in the Don't Make A Wave Committee co-founded by Jim and Marie Bohlen and formed by an assortment of Canadian and expatriate American peace activists in Vancouver in 1970. Taking its name from a slogan used during protests against United States nuclear testing in late 1969, the Committee had come together with the objective of stopping a U.S.

nuclear bomb test codenamed Cannikin beneath the Aleutian island of Amchitka, Alaska . Many of the founding members were members of the Society of Friends. The committee was affiliated with the Sierra Club but it withdrew its support when Jim Bohlen, a member of the committee, told journalists that the committee would send a boat to Amchitka to protest the nuclear test without it having been approved by the Sierra Club. The first ship expedition, inspired by the voyages of the Golden Rule, Phoenix and Everyman in 1958, was on the chartered trawler, Phyllis McCormack, was called the Greenpeace I; the second expedition was nicknamed Greenpeace Too!. The test was not prevented, but the voyage laid the groundwork for Greenpeace's later activities. Greenpeace protest in Brasï¿½lia, Brazil Early influential people Bill Darnell has received the credit for combining the words "green" and "peace", thereby giving the organization its future name. Irving Stowe a member of the Society of Friends can probably be described as the father of Greenpeace and introduced the concepts of nonviolence and bearing witness. Robert Hunter was a media guru and spiritual and organisational leader.

Ben Metcalfe became the first Chairman of the Greenpeace Foundation and with wife Dorothy managed the media for the first few years. Dr Patrick Moore was the ecologist of note and served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada, as well as seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. Rod Marining's campaign saved the entrance to Vancouver's Stanley Park, he was on the first voyage to Amchitka and was a board member during the 1970's. Paul Watson was involved in the very early days of Greenpeace, but later founded Sea Shepherd and sank the whaler Sierra in 1979. Lyle Thurston was medical doctor on the first voyage and served on the board during the 1970s. Campaigns On 4 May 1972, following Dorothy Stowe's departure from the chairmanship of the Don't Make A Wave Committee, the fledgling environmental group officially changed its name to the "Greenpeace Foundation".

In 1972 the yacht Vega a 12.5-metre ketch owned by David McTaggart, (an eventual spokesman for Greenpeace International 1979-1991), was renamed Greenpeace III and sailed in an anti nuclear protest into the exclusion zone at Mururoa in French Polynesia to attempt to disrupt French atmospheric nuclear testing. This voyage was sponsored and organised by the New Zealand branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. CNDNZ and the NZ Peace media had been lobying the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand public to place pressure on Britain and France to agree to enforce a nuclear test ban in the South Pacific since the mid 1950s. This pressure through civil disobedience protests in French Polynesia and public education at home, eventually resulted in New Zealand declaring itself a nuclear-free zone by legislation in 1987. (New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987).

In 1974 La Flor, from Melbourne, Australia, skippered by Rolf Heimann, a childrens' author set out for Mururoa via New Zealand as Greenpeace IV but arrived after the final nuclear test for the year. The French Military conducted more than 200 nuclear tests , (40 of them atmospheric), at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls over a thirty year period ending 1996. In 1974 the Vancouver based Greenpeace Foundation mounted an anti-whaling campaign that encountered Soviet whalers over the Seamounts off Mendocino, California. This campaign had been influenced by the work of Paul Spong and Farley Mowat and Robert Hunter's encounter with the Orca Skana. In 1976 a campaign was launched against the killing and skinning of seal pups in Newfoundland for the high fashion fur trade, targeting Norwegian ships engaged in the trade after receiving a hostile welcome from the Newfie fishermen involved in the hunt. Greenpeace used helicopters to move people and supplies to a base camp at Belle Isle. Brigitte Bardot later involved herself in this campaign to great effect.

In the same year a another anti-whaling expedition using the James Bay as Greenpeace VII disrupted the Soviet fleet again, but this time with the assistance of a "deep throat" source and extra funding from Ed Daly of World Airways. At about the same time visits to Japan were arranged to persuade the Japanese people that whaling should be ended. By the late 1970s, spurred by the global reach of what Robert Hunter called "mind bombs", in which images of confrontation on the high seas converted diffuse and complex issues into considerably more media-friendly David versus Goliath-style narratives, more than 20 groups across North America , Europe , New Zealand and Australia had adopted the name "Greenpeace". Greenpeace also engaged with their opponents through the courts both in Canada (defending a loitering charge for failing to leave a fisheries office) and in France (David McTaggart's Law of the Sea case to recover repair costs after his yacht Vega was damaged by the French navy). Similarly, Greenpeace became involved with lobbying elected officials and various bodies such as the United Nations through events such as the Conference on the Human Environment and with the International Whaling Commission .

Formation of formal global organisation In 1979, however, the original Vancouver-based Greenpeace Foundation encountered financial difficulties, and disputes between offices over fund-raising and organisational direction split the global movement. David McTaggart lobbied the Canadian Greenpeace Foundation to accept a new structure which would bring the scattered Greenpeace offices under the auspices of a single global organisation, and on October 14, 1979, Greenpeace International came into existence. Under the new structure, the local offices would contribute a percentage of their income to the international organisation, which would take responsibility for setting the overall direction of the movement. Greenpeace's transformation from a loose international network to a global organisation enabled it to apply the full force of its resources to a small number of environmental issues deemed of global significance, owed much to McTaggart's personal vision. McTaggart summed up his approach in a 1994 memo: "No campaign should be begun without clear goals; no campaign should be begun unless there is a possibility that it can be won; no campaign should be begun unless you intend to finish it off". McTaggart's own assessment of what could and couldn't be won, and how, frequently caused controversy.

In re-shaping Greenpeace as a centrally coordinated, hierarchical organisation, McTaggart went against the anti-authoritarian ethos that prevailed in other environmental organisations that came of age in the 1970s. While this pragmatic structure granted Greenpeace the persistence and narrow focus necessary to match forces with government and industry, it would lead to the recurrent criticism that Greenpeace had adopted the same methods of governance as its chief foes ï¿½ the multinational corporations. Its current Executive Director is Gerd Leipold. For smaller actions, and continuous local promotion and activism, Greenpeace has networks of active supporters that coordinate their efforts through national offices. The United Kingdom has some 6,000 Greenpeace activists. 30th Anniversary In celebration of the 30th anniversary of its founding, Greenpeace presented a photohistory of its achievements from 1971 to 2001. Since Greenpeace was founded, seagoing ships have played a vital role in its campaigns. In 1978, Greenpeace launched the original Rainbow Warrior, a 40-metre, former fishing trawler named for the Cree legend that inspired early activist Robert Hunter on the first voyage to Amchitka.

Greenpeace purchased the Rainbow Warrior (originally launched as the Sir William Hardy in 1955) at a cost of ï¿½40,000, and volunteers restored and refitted her over a period of four months. First deployed to disrupt the hunt of the Icelandic whaling fleet, the Rainbow Warrior would quickly become a mainstay of Greenpeace campaigns. Between 1978 and 1985, crew members also engaged in non-violent direct action against the ocean-dumping of toxic and radioactive waste, the Grey Seal hunt in Orkney and nuclear testing in the Pacific. Japan's Fisheries Agency has labeled Greenpeace ships as "anti-whaling vessels" and "environmental terrorists". Rainbow Warrior, Auckland Harbour 1985. In 1985, the Rainbow Warrior entered into the waters surrounding Moruroa atoll, site of French nuclear testing. The French government secretly bombed the ship in a New Zealand harbour on orders from Franï¿½ois Mitterrand himself; killing Dutch freelance photographer Fernando Pereira, who thought it was safe to enter the boat to get his photographic material after a first small explosion, but drowned as a result of a second, larger explosion.

The attack was a public relations disaster for France, after it was quickly exposed by the New Zealand police. The French Government in 1987 agreed to pay New Zealand compensation of NZ$13 million and formally apologised for the bombing. (Also see Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.) The French Government also paid 2.3 Million French Francs compensation to the family of the killed photographer. In 1989 Greenpeace commissioned a replacement vessel, also named the Rainbow Warrior, which remains in service today as the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet. In 1996 the Greenpeace vessel MV Sirius was detained by Dutch police while protesting the import of genetically modified soybeans due to the violation of a temporary sailing prohibition, which was implemented because the Sirius prevented their unloading. The ship, but not the captain, was released a half hour later. In 2005 the Rainbow Warrior II ran aground on and damaged the Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines, while she was on a mission to protect the very same reef. Greenpeace was fined $7,000 USD for damaging the reef and agreed to pay the fine, although they said that the Philippines government had given them outdated charts.

Along with the Rainbow Warrior the Greenpeace organisation has four other ships: MY Arctic Sunrise Stories & Victories Stories & Victories My Time at Standing Rock December 16, 2016 It was truly an honor to be able to go to Standing Rock and represent Greenpeace in a humble way. Being surrounded by fellow Indigenous water protectors was grounding and allowed for the continued healing of ancestral trauma that many of us in Indian country have to deal with on a daily basis. Lessons for My U.S. Allies in Trump’s America, From a Brexit Survivor November 18, 2016 If there is one thing I’ve learned from Brexit, it is that to survive a takeover from a regressive party, the people who want to protect human dignity must be united. Victory! World’s Largest Ocean Sanctuary Established Off Antarctica October 28, 2016 It’s alive! Today, the largest ocean sanctuary in the world was born in the Ross Sea, off the coast of Antarctica. This is a huge victory for the whales, penguins, and toothfish that live there and for the millions of people standing up to protect our oceans.

Porter Ranch Residents to Fossil Fuel Industry: Shut It ALL Down October 26, 2016 The company behind last year’s Porter Ranch gas blowout wants to reopen the facility, so this week community members rallied to #ShutItALLDown. ‘These Are Our Prayers in Action’ — A Look at Life in the #NoDAPL Resistance Camps October 10, 2016 For months, the Standing Rock Sioux and allies have been protecting their water by resisting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would carry 500,000 barrels of oil a day from North Dakota to Illinois. Peter Dakota Molof spent a week supporting water protectors at resistance camps set up along Lake Oahe — this is what he saw. How Your Generosity Is Helping #NoDAPL Camps Keep Up the Resistance September 26, 2016 Greenpeace supporters (like you!) donated thousands of pounds of supplies to keep the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline strong.

My Arctic Home August 24, 2016 Clara Natanine is a resident of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), where energy companies are planning to conduct seismic blasting tests to search for oil and gas in Arctic waters. This is her story. Remembering Our Nuclear Weapons Legacy August 10, 2016 As I stood under the blazing August sun with my arms handcuffed behind my back, my eyes began to well up. Not from the heat or the pinching pain in my wrist, but from the enormity of the problem before us: the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons. June 27, 2016 Check out this exclusive excerpt from "Greenpeace Captain," the new book by longtime Greenpeace shipmaster Peter Willcox. FRANCE: PROTESTS STAGED AS SHIP CARRYING NUCLEAR WASTE LEAVES PORT - YouTube FRANCE: PROTESTS STAGED AS SHIP CARRYING NUCLEAR WASTE LEAVES PORT Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded.

Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 21, 2015 Eng/French/Nat Environmentalists protested Monday as a ship left France carrying 20 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear waste which it had reprocessed. The itinerary of the Pacific Teal ship was to be announced Tuesday by the French state- owned nuclear processing company Cogema and Japanese electric companies that produced the waste. New Zealand demanded to know the route and whether it would pass through the country's 320 kilometre (200 mile) exclusive economic zone. Greenpeace campaigners demonstrated in Cherbourg Monday to protest against the transporting of reprocessed nuclear waste from France to Japan. In previous shipments last year and in 1993, blocks of vitrified waste were safely transported from Cherbourg to Japan. Greenpeace and countries along potential routes protested, some banning the ships from their waters. The international environmental pressure group has attacked France, Japan and Britain for threatening the countries the British registered ship will pass with its highly radioactive load. A Greenpeace activist in Cherbourg attacked the reprocessing contract between France and Japan and the secretive way the nuclear materials are transported.

SOUNDBITE: (French) "For us, it is really important to immediately stop the reprocessing contract with Japan. We think there must be a moratorium for the transport of nuclear materials so that the quantity of what is transported is well known and so we can analyse in detail the risks taken and the condition of transport. For the time being, that information is practically secret." SUPER CAPTION: Jean-Luc Thierry, Greenpeace Activist The shipment consists of 40 glass blocks of reprocessed waste weighing 500 kilogrammes (11-hundred pounds) each - originally from a Japanese nuclear plant. Under cover of secrecy, the shipment was taken by train Friday from the nearby Cogema processing factory at La Hague to Cherbourg, Greenpeace said. The environmental pressure group criticised the train trip Friday, accusing France of endangering people along the route. In the past, French officials have contended nuclear shipping routes should remain secret to prevent the vessels from becoming targets for high-seas piracy. But the most apparent threat in the past has been Greenpeace boats trying to tail the vessels. For its part, the French reprocessing company has said the ship is safe.

SOUNDBITE: (English) "It has to be said that the ship is equipped with the highest safety standards - high means double hose, double engine and a lot of devices to guarantee highest safety level. More (than) that, nuclear materials on board the ships are packaged in special cannisters called casks which are designed to resist all circumstances and to keep nuclear material confined inside the cask." SUPER CAPTION: Jean-Louis Ricaud, Director of Reprocessing Department at Cogema But that is unlikely to silence critics of the trade. A study released on Friday revealed children who live within 32 kilometres (20 miles) of the La Hague plant and play on local beaches are three times more likely to develop leukaemia than other children. The French government says it will conduct its own study, checking for abnormal levels of radioactivity in shellfish and sediment near the Normandy plant. You can license this story through AP Archive: Find out more about AP Archive: Category

Question: What organization owned a ship called "The Rainbow Warrior" that protested nuclear testing?
Answer: Greenpeace