As 2018 draws to a close, we’d like to look back on some of the Greenpeace videos that have made their mark on this year. Below you’ll find some of the biggest moments of 2018, from our work protecting one of the world’s largest and biologically rich inland seas to delivering a message in the form of a cookie to a corporate headquarters.
We hope you like watching them as much as we loved making them.
1. Greenpeace Supporting Whale Science with the Arctic Sunrise (March 2018)
Greenpeace invited researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography aboard the Arctic Sunrise to measure underwater sound levels and study how human activities, like seismic blasting, can affect marine wildlife. The government’s own scientists estimate that seismic blasting to search for oil in the Atlantic could impact as many as 138,000 whales, dolphins, and other sea life.
At the end of November, the Trump Administration approved seismic blasting despite vehement opposition from communities, businesses, and lawmakers along the Atlantic coast. Our fight against seismic blasting will continue.
2. The Ford Future (April 2018)
Ford is ready for Trump’s rollbacks of clean car standards. The Auto Alliance, an industry advocacy group whose members include Ford, have been fighting against stronger fuel standards so they can continue to sell gas-guzzling, polluting trucks. Ford has also been accused of installing a technology on more than 500,000 trucks to help these vehicles cheat on federal emissions requirements. Here is our spoof commercial that Ford doesn’t want you to see.
3. A Million Acts of Blue (April 2018)
Plastic waste is everywhere, choking our oceans and waterways, and 2018 was the year when the movement to #BreakFreeFromPlastics went viral across the world.
This year we called on people around the world to create a “Million Acts of Blue” — actions to push retailers, corporations, and businesses to reduce single-use plastic. It is going to take commitments both large and small to tackle the scale of the current plastic pollution crisis, and we all have a role to play. Every action to reduce single-use plastics sends a message to the industry that it’s time to change. We can no longer allow products that are used for a few seconds to pollute our planet for a lifetime.
4. Greenpeace Delivers a Used Trump Hotel Mattress to Scott Pruitt (June 2018)
Greenpeace activists delivered a mattress to the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters with a message reading “Take Your Used Trump Hotel Mattress and Resign Already.” The delivery was in response to the revelation that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt asked a top aide to find him a used Trump Hotel mattress, and came at a time when Pruitt faced intense criticism over accusations of misuse of his office as EPA administrator and his deep conflicts of interest with the fossil fuel industry. A month later, in July, Pruitt officially resigned from his position at the EPA.
5. Protect Water, Stop Pipelines (June 2018)
Clean water is a basic human need and right, no matter where you’re from. The Arctic Sunrise crew members say “Protect Water, Stop Pipelines” in their native language while sailing in the Salish Sea outside Seattle, Washington to protest the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
6. Energy Transfer Partners Uproots Louisiana Homeowner (July 2018)
Melinda Tillies lives in Youngsville, Louisiana. After purchasing her dream home in 2017, Energy Transfer Partners is disturbing her home with the construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline project near her property, the last section of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Those from impacted communities, like Melinda, are fighting back — this time ETP won’t get away with its dirty tricks.
7. Tell Politicians to Stop Taking Fossil Fuel Money (September 2018)
Oil, gas, and coal companies flood our elections with dirty money so they can drown out our voices and pollute our climate. Our government should be working for us, not Exxon and the Koch Brothers.
8. Protecting the Salish Sea from Tar Sands (October 2018)
The Arctic Sunrise followed the route of the tar sands tankers to show what’s at stake and what the movement to stop tar sands pipelines is working to protect. A Canadian federal court “quashed” the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion! It’s a massive victory for the Indigenous Nations and all of us who stood against this pipeline. It is a testament to people power!
9. Top 5 Myths of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (October 2018)
Greenpeace USA debunks popular myths about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch during the Arctic Sunrise ship’s expedition in October of 2018. Learn why cleanup proposals and more recycling are not enough to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.
10. Activists Unveil New Oreo Flavor in Illinois (November 2018)
Between 2015-2017, Mondelēz International’s (the makers of Oreos) palm oil suppliers destroyed at least 70,000 hectares of rainforest, including 25,000 hectares of Orangutan habitat. Activists went to their global headquarters to deliver the message to “Drop Dirty Palm Oil” by unveiling a new “Deforestation Flavor.”
