Eliminating toxic chemicals
Toxic chemicals in our environment threaten our rivers and lakes, our air, land, and oceans, and our future. The production, trade, use, and release of many synthetic chemicals are now widely recognised as a global threat to human health and the environment.Yet, the world's chemical industries continue to produce and release thousands of chemical compounds every year, in most cases with little or no testing or understanding of their impacts on people and the environment.
Greenpeace is campaigning for the manufacturers of electronic goods to take responsibility for their products from production through to the end of their use. To prevent mountains of e-waste being dumped in developing countries, manufacturers must design clean electronics with longer lifespan, that are safe and easy to recycle and will not expose workers and the environment to hazardous chemicals.
Genetic engineering
Greenpeace activists protest against GM rice
Genetic engineering enables scientists to create plants, animals and micro-organisms by manipulating genes in a way that does not occur naturally. These genetically modified organisms (GMO) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating the environment and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.
Greenpeace campaigns for safety measures such as the labeling of food containing genetically modified ingredients, and the separation of genetically engineered crops and seeds from conventional ones. We also oppose all patents on plants, animals and humans, as well as patents on their genes. Life is not an industrial commodity. When we force life forms and our world's food supply to conform to human economic models rather than their natural ones, we do so at our own peril.