SV Oceania Visits Adele Island, Western Australia. © Greenpeace / Oliver Clarke

Our work

We’ve been campaigning for a green and peaceful future for over 50 years — with many wins along the way. Yet, today, we’re in the fight of our lives. Going back to normal is not an option. It’s time to rise up like never before and fight for our climate and communities.

Global Week of Action - Solidarity against Energy Transfer Lawsuit in Prague. © Ray Baseley / Greenpeace

Energy Transfer’s $300M lawsuit

Energy Transfer, the Big Oil company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is suing Greenpeace USA for $300 million because we dared to uplift the Indigenous-led opposition movement at Standing Rock. The case goes to trial in North Dakota in February 2025, and seeks to create new legal precedents that would quell the climate justice movement’s ability to organize, protest, and dissent.

Protecting the oceans

For centuries, people have assumed that our vast ocean was limitless and immune to human impacts. It’s only recently that scientists have come to understand the devastating effects we’ve already had on the seas.

Plastic Waste in Verde Island, Philippines. © Noel Guevara / Greenpeace

Fighting plastic pollution

The flow of plastics into our environment has reached crisis proportions, and the evidence is most clearly on display in our oceans. It is estimated that up to 12 million metric tons of plastic enter our ocean each year.

However, plastic is not just an ocean and waste problem, it is also a climate, health and social justice problem. 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuels, like fracked gas and oil, and it contributes to climate change throughout its life-cycle.

Ending climate change

Scientists are shouting an urgent warning: We have little more than a decade to take bold, ambitious action to transition our economy off of coal, oil, and gas, and onto safe and green renewable energy. Shifting to cleaner, locally-run energy will not only slow the tide of climate catastrophe, it’ll create millions of new jobs that sustain families while protecting community health.

The California climate emergency

We must stop drilling for oil and gas if we want to maintain a livable planet. Unfortunately, greedy oil and gas companies continue to extract every last drop, putting the planet on a dangerous course to render our beloved California unlivable.

Defending democracy

We cannot protect our health and environment without a well-functioning democracy that works for all, especially BIPOC communities who have historically borne the heaviest burden of pollution and voter suppression. Our democracy should represent the interests of the people — interests like a safe climate and a healthy environment. Over the past nine years, Greenpeace USA has worked to defend democracy across a variety of issues. We are currently committed to defending democracy from three perspectives: The Right to Vote, The Right to Protest, and Ending Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (Anti-SLAPP). 

Our legacy of campaigning

Boreal Forest - Montagnes Blanches, Quebec. © Markus Mauthe / Greenpeace
Time lapse night shot of Northern Lights with illuminated sky. © Markus Mauthe / Greenpeace
Forests
Activists Bring "Skull of Satoshi" to Fidelity's Offices in New York City. © Tracie Williams / Greenpeace
Art and activism merge in the striking art installation called the Skull of Satoshi, created by art activist Benjamin Von Wong and Greenpeace USA to highlight Bitcoin’s record of climate destruction. The Skull of Satoshi makes its New York debut. This thought-provoking art installation is 11 feet tall and features smoking stacks representing the fossil fuel and coal pollution generated by Bitcoin mining, eyes adorned with bitcoin logos and red lasers, and cables protruding from its neck. The skull is made with electronic waste donated by Unirecycle, representing the millions of computers used to validate Bitcoin transactions, known as mining.
© Tracie Williams / Greenpeace
Bitcoin
PVC Action in USA Baton Rouge. © Greenpeace / John Novis
Greenpeace action against Louisiana’s polluting vinyl (PVC) production facilities, USA. © Greenpeace / John Novis
Toxics
Anti-Nukes Protest in Manila. © Basilio Sepe / Greenpeace
Members of Greenpeace Philippines wearing hazmat suits carry signs as they mark the 11th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan during a protest at the Department of Energy – Renewable Energy Management Bureau in Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Greenpeace Philippines called on the government to stop promoting nuclear as an alternative energy source in the country and demanded the revocation of the Executive Order No. 164, which promulgates the use of nuclear power.
© Basilio Sepe / Greenpeace
Nuclear
Monsanto Nap Hal Wheat in Germany. © Heiko Meyer / Greenpeace
Close-up shot of “Nap-Hal” wheat. “Nap-Hal” patent is owned by Monsanto. © Heiko Meyer / Greenpeace
Agriculture
Polar Bear on Labrador Sea Ice. © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace
A polar bear on the Labrador Sea ice, off the coast of Canada. Polar bears cannot survive without sea ice. The loss of ice threatens vulnerable species like polar bears who depend on multi year ice to raise their young, to travel and to hunt for seals; their primary food source.
© Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace
The Arctic
iCloud Action at Apple Store in Budapest. © Anna  Veljanovich  / Greenpeace
Greenpeace activists protest outside an Apple store in Budapest. They place a big model of an apple, they make it dirty with “coal” and then clean it with water pistol. Other activists hold a banner reading ‘Think Different – Clean Our Cloud’. Greenpeace’s international Clean Our Cloud campaign is calling on industry laggards Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon to join the growing number of tech companies who are taking steps to power their electronic data centers substantially with renewable energy instead of coal. © Anna Veljanovich / Greenpeace
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