September 15 – Greenpeace Day

nPostednon September 15, 2016

nBacknin the 1960s, the U.S. government wanted to test nuclear weaponsnunderground, on the island of Amchitka in Alaska. n

nNobodynhas lived on the island since the early 1830s, and the U.S. “owns”nAlaska and therefore Amchitka…so why was this plan making somenCanadian conservationists upset?

Well,nget this: Amchitka is a volcanic island, and it is known to bentectonically unstable. That means that, at any time, there could benearthquake activity there. And in the past, earthquakes near Alaskanhave caused destructive tsunamis.

nSo…doesn’tnit make sense that we shouldn’t be blasting nuclear weaponsnunderground there?

nSomenCanadians were worried that the nuclear weapon test could cause annearthquake and then a tsunami. They protested the test. A group ofn7,000 people blocked a major U.S.-Canadian border crossing with anprotest march. There were signs that said, “Don’t Make a Wave.”nAnd there were signs that said, “It’s Your Fault If Our FaultnGoes.”

nThenU.S. went ahead and did the test, of course. Thankfully, nonearthquake nor tsunami….So then the U.S. decided to do another testn– five times stronger!

nWaynmore protest erupted. A well known conservation group, the SierranClub Canada, was being linked to these protests because some of itsnmembers were leading the protests. And the Sierra Club didn’t want tonbe linked to the protests. So the group sort of split off from thenSierra Club and, for the time being, named themselves the Don’t Makena Wave Committee. They held a benefit concert to raise money, andnthey chartered a ship that they named Greenpeace to protestnthe nuclear test out at sea. That happened on this date in 1971.

nThenactivists had to turn back because they faced both a U.S. Coast Guardnship and really bad weather. And the test did happen (and again,nthankfully, there was no resulting earthquake and tsunami).

nButnthe Greenpeace venture brought a lot of attention to the protest, andnthat brought a lot of criticism to the nuclear tests. The UnitednStates government decided to stop its testing on Amchitka.

nInna way, Greenpeace – as the new organization renamed itself – lostnboth battles but still won the war. Since then, it has had a lot ofnvictories and has become one of the best known environmental groupsnin the world.

nEvennthough it was founded by Canadians, the center of Greenpeace is notnin Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The NGO has offices in more than 40ncountries of the world. It works on everything from climate changenand deforestation to overfishing and commercial whaling.

“Kayaktivists” in Seattle protesting
an oil rig.

nGreenpeacenis known for direct action – like blockades, protests, nonviolentnresistance, and providing witness of others’ actions in an effort tonraise consciousness and cause widespread protest. The organizationnalso does research and lobbies lawmakers.

nGreenpeacenhas caused controversies – and the environmental organization hasnnot been blameless in all of them. Some of the activities done bynactivists under the banner of “Greenpeace” have been illegal, andnseveral times activists or even the group as a whole has ignorednscience and evidence in their passion to save the earth and allnliving things. Here are two bummers, as examples:

nInn 2014 some Greenpeace activists irreparably damaged the ancient Nazcan Lines in Peru while setting up a banner within the lines of then hummingbird glyph. The area is supposed to be protected – accessn limited, and special shoes required – in order to prevent thisn sort of damage, but there is video and photographs showing that the activists were wearing normal shoes instead of the required protectiven shoes. The banners themselves left marks, and I wonder if one of the damaging lines was made by a vehicle used to illegally go to the site.

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nApparentlynthe Peruvian government thought that the excuses and eventual apologynby Greenpeace were not sincere. n

nI’mnthinking that the entire plan to put a banner in that spot was crazy. Inmean, the ancient glyphs aren’t causing any environmental harm –nwhy put a banner there at all, why risk the possibility of damagingnan ancient artifact of someone else’s culture, someplace that has beenndeemed a UN World Heritage Site?

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Peruvian responses to the Greenpeace banner
include outrage over the destruction but also the
simple point that using English for the message,
in a country with three official languages, none
of them English, shows that this message isn’t
remotely intended for Peruvians.

Could it be more clear?
“We’re going to use your cool place here to get
some attention – but we’re not talking to you –
and we sure don’t care about your culture!”

nThisn year 107 Nobel laureates signed at open letter to Greenpeace urgingn the organization to end its protest of GMOs – genetically modifiedn organisms. The scientific evidence show that crops and foodsn improved through biotechnology are as safe or even safer than othern crops / foods, and GMOs are important to solving problems of hunger, certain diseases, and even environmental problems.

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nGreenpeace seems to haven had a history of protesting GMOs and pressuring the U.S. to follown in the European Union’s footsteps of rejecting GMOs. Many peoplen seem to be scared of genetically modified foods as if they weren Frankenstein monsters, but the fears are not logic-based norn evidence-based – they’re just irrational fears.

nDespite then history of Greenpeace’s opposition to GMOs, the organization’sn official response to the letter from the Nobel laureates that theren was no opposition! Wh-wh-what?