On March 1 1954, on Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, the US military detonated the world’s first lithium-deuteride hydrogen bomb, a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. The radiation blew downwind, to the southeast, and irradiated the residents of Rongelap and Utirik atolls, and the crew of tuna boat Fukuryu Maru, “Lucky Dragon.”  

The islanders and fishing crew suffered radiation sickness, hair loss, and peeling skin. Crew member, Aikichi Kuboyama, died six months later in a Hiroshima hospital. Island children, suffered lifelong health effects, including cancers, and most died prematurely. The Lucky Dragon sailors were exposed to 3-5 sieverts of radiation.

One sievert will cause severe radiation sickness leading to cancer and death. Five sieverts will... Read more >

Speaking truth to corporations has been the backbone of Greenpeace’s global forest campaign for over two decades. Putting pressure on companies buying products from forest destruction has successfully helped protect the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, create moratoria on deforestation due to soya and cattle expansion in the Brazilian Amazon, and deliver multiple zero deforestation policies inside and outside Indonesia — as well as a myriad of other protections, regulations and steps towards safeguarding the world’s forests from further destruction and senseless greed.

Dvinsky Forest, Russia. 13 September, 2016

With the launch of Greenpeace’s Great Northern Forest campaign late last year, it should have come as no surprise to companies buying products from the destruction of this vast bor... Read more >

Your right to speak out is being threatened right now in a dizzying variety of ways, not only by oppressive governments around the world, but also by underhanded corporations who want to suppress speech through expensive lawsuits.

Right now, Greenpeace is facing a massive lawsuit that Resolute Forest Products has filed to prevent us from speaking out.

This strikes at the very core of our identity. Greenpeace was created to champion the very idea of speaking out for the planet and the people that depended on it. At our founding in 1971 when a group of the first Greenpeacers sailed out to Amchitka to stop nuclear testing, they weren’t able to stop it with their action, but the story they told sparked a global movement against nuclear testing. Read more >

Speech is power.  It is the greatest force fo...

I’m writing from on board our new crowdfunded boat Taitu after a night I’ll never forget...

 

We arrived in Napier early this morning, after leaving Wellington on Saturday afternoon where we had a wonderful naming ceremony for Taitu.

It started well, with a pod of dolphins bidding us farewell from Wellington harbour. But as we headed up towards Castle Point on the wild east coast, the weather turned. It was much worse than forecast - hurricane force winds, water spouts and heavy seas. It all came at us - seven people, Taitu, in a wild ocean.

There were a few anxious moments, and a few Wellington dinners were left behind to feed the fish. But I never worried about safety. Taitu is small, but it’s seaworthy and we were lucky to have some old sea dogs in charge. Our crew know boats... Read more >

After confronting Statoil and Chevron seismic blasting 50 nautical miles off the Wairarapa coast in small inflatable boats, we put out a call to New Zealanders to help us buy a bigger boat. The response was phenomenal. Within seven days we'd crowdfunded nearly $100,000 and bought a bigger boat! As the newest member of the Greenpeace fleet, it's got its rainbow stripes, and a new name chosen by you.

Taitu as a verb meaning to hinder, impede, deter, and thwart an enemy. As a name for a boat it references the sea (Tai) and Tu means standing, strength, warrior spirit. 

Soon we plan to head out again, this time in our people-powered boat Taitu, and continue our protest against climate-wrecking oil exploration.

This is the speech that Kate Simcock gave at the naming ceremony for Taitu before it he... Read more >

It’s often said that domestic opinion doesn’t count for much in this country. Watch though, as heads turn and lattes spill when that same opinion comes from across the water. It’s our endearing lack of self confidence and charming inferiority complex at work. Kiwi artists and musicians will struggle for years for domestic recognition but one good review in London or Paris and suddenly they’re a national treasure.

One wonders whether this peculiar aspect of national character will be in play as the Government digests two international environmental reports which rolled in yesterday. Both of them hot on the fact that New Zealand’s export led economic growth, fueled by an expanding dairy industry is on a collision course with nature.

Most reasonable people accept that you can’t have unchecked... Read more >