The Greenpeace To Amchitka

Greenpeace is known around the world for its activism and education surrounding environmental and biodiversity issues. With a presence in more than 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Greenpeace is undoubtedly a dominant force in the realm of environmental activism. This is the story of how Greenpeace came to be. In September 1971, a small group of activists boarded a small fishing boat in Vancouver, Canada, and headed north towards Amchitka, a tiny island west of Alaska in the Aleutian Islands, where the US government was conducting underground nuclear tests. At that time, protests against nuclear testing were not common, yet the US tests raised genuine concerns: Amchitka is not only the last refuge for endangered wildlife, but is also located in a geologically unstable region, one of the most earthquake-prone areas in the world. The threat of a nuclear-triggered earthquake or tsunami was real. Among the people sardined in the fishing boat were Robert Hunter and Robert Keziere. The boat, named the Greenpeace by the small group of men aboard, raced against time as it crashed through the Gulf of Alaska, braving the oncoming winter storms. Three weeks was all they had to reach Amchitka in an attempt to halt the nuclear test. Ultimately, the voyage—beset by bad weather, interpersonal tensions and conflicts with US officials—was doomed. And yet the legacy of that journey lives on. In this visceral memoir, based on a manuscript originally written over 30 years ago, Robert Hunter vividly depicts the peculiar odyssey that led to the formation of the most powerful environmental organization in the world. Features 40 black and white photographs taken during the voyage by Robert Keziere.

Table of Contents PART I: MAKING OF A RADICALEarly InfluencesA Turning PointIn a Family WayRadicalizationLeaving the USAGreenpeace is Conceived PART II: CONFRONTING THE BOMBPreparationsAssessing the CrewThe CrossingAn EpiphanyGetting BustedDecisions. DecisionsHeroesThe Bomb Goes Off PART III: GREENPEACE IS BEAUTIFULAn Expanding VisionBack to the LandGreen Movement RootsSurvival on the Farm PART IV: GREEN ACTIONReal PolitiqueThe Greens OrganizeGreenpeace CallsThe Cruise CatcherYou Can't Sink a RainbowGreen Power PART V: AS IF SURVIVAL MATTERSWatershedsTowards a Global Green ConstitutionUNCEDReflections APPENDIX: Technical Analysis and Risks of Nuclear Testing on Amchitka

More than a quarter-century has now passed since the United States set off the last of three underground atomic blasts in the remote wilderness of the Aleutian islands, off the coast of Alaska. Cannikin, as this third test was called, exploded as planned on November 6, 1971, on Amchitka Island. The first test, Project Long Shot (1965), was designed to determine whether the blast’s shock waves could be distinguished from earthquakes. Milrow, the second (1969), and Cannikin were part of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile development program. Amchitka and the Bomb looks at how these nuclear explosions were planned and conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission, in spite of vehement protests by political and civilian groups. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of a new generation of weapons, the government defended the nuclear tests on Amchitka as providing U.S. presidents, and especially Richard Nixon, with negotiating power to force the Soviet Union to accept a satisfactory arms limitation agreement. Dean Kohlhoff traces the enormous environmental impact of the blasts on the Aleutian wildlife refuge system. He also examines the social and political fallout from the tests on Aleut civilian populations. As the tests inexorably went forward, an emerging environmental movement was galvanized to action. Passionate but ultimately futile attempts to stop the blasts were made by such nascent groups as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the Wilderness Society. Although Alaskan Aleuts sued to halt Cannikin and environmental groups joined them for an injunction against the test, a split U.S. Supreme Court eventually approved the 5.1-megaton explosion. Amchitka and the Bomb tells a harrowing story of the struggle of private citizens and small environmental groups to counter the weight of the federal government. It adds immeasurably to our understanding of the nuclear history of the United States. Its concise interweaving of the military, scientific, economic, and social implications surrounding the nuclear explosions on Amchitka Island exposes the unpleasant consequences of allowing treasured national values to become victim to political necessity. Kohlhoff has contributed a vital chapter to Alaska's history and to the history of the American environmental movement.

The founder of Greenpeace brings readers the story of the creation, adventures, clashes, objectives, and heroics of the world's largest direct-action environmental group and describes the influence of such legends as Gandhi, Einstein, Rachel Carson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., on the organization. 25,000 first printing.

Account of the environment group's philosophy and history.

McLuhan’s Children is an inside look at Greenpeace’s rise to global prominence through its savvy use of mass media imagery. From the flamboyant, guerilla-theatre approach to the emergence of environmentalism as a dominant international issue.

"Ecology? Look it up. You're involved." With this slogan, posted guerrilla-style on billboards, the group that would become "Greenpeace" launched its first campaign . . . and sparked a mind-shift that has literally changed how we think about the world around us. In the decade from 1969 to 1979, Greenpeace evolved from a loosely organized protest-group in the unlikely setting of Vancouver, Canada, into an international phenomenon that went head-to-head against governments and corporations, attracting the support of ordinary citizens alongside celebrities, politicians, writers, musicians and visionaries.Greenpeace: The Inside Story is the definitive record of this extraordinary journey, indelibly portrayed by someone who helped make it happen--Pulitzer Prize nominee Rex Weyler. With an historian's insight and a novelist's style, Weyler introduces us to the characters and events that shaped an "eco-navy"--from the first voyage into the Pacific to "stop the bomb" to the risky mission to "save the whales" to the struggles with money and ideology that accompanied success. Greenpeace is a remarkable achievement: a gripping story; a snapshot of the mid-20th-century zeitgeist; a fascinating study of media manipulation; an uncompromising look at the sometimes brutal internal struggles of activist organizations; and above all, an inspiring call-to-arms that deepens our understanding of what it means to be politically engaged. Greenpeace shows why and how the revolution begins ... and leads us through the aftermath."We, the children of Celia Clinton Elementary School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, enjoyed the air raid drills of 1954. We stood in lines on the playground and goofed off. We watched the bald-headed principal come out in his shiny grey suit and herd the teachers as they herded us. The classroom version of the drill had us under our desks, little seven-year-old fingers clasped behind our heads, elbows at the ears, like the fingers and elbows of thousands of other children in Moscow, Frankfurt, New York, and Winnipeg. An alternative strategy was to take the position under the windows. Not away from the windows, our teacher explained, but under them, so when the glass was blown out, it would sail harmlessly over our heads. I doubted the tactic. I wanted to be far away from any bomb that would blow out our windows and I resolved that when the real one came, I would escape and run home. Then, I thought about my older sister. I would pick her up in grade three. But where was that?"--from Greenpeace: The Inside Story

Joe Keithley, aka Joey Shithead, founded legendary punk pioneers D.O.A. in 1978. Punk kings who spread counterculture around the world, they've been cited as influences by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Rancid, and The Offspring, and have toured with The Clash, The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Nirvana, PiL, Minor Threat, and others, and are the subject of two tribute albums. But punk is more than a style of music: it's a political act, and D.O.A. have always had a social conscience, having performed in support of Greenpeace, women's rape/crisis centres, prisoner rights, and anti-nuke and anti-globalization organizations. Twenty-five years later D.O.A. can claim sales of more than 500,000 copies of their eleven albums and tours in thirty different countries, and they are still going strong. I, Shithead is Joe's recollections of a life in punk, starting with a bunch of kids in Burnaby transfixed with the burgeoning punk movement, and traversing a generation disillusioned with the status quo: stories of riots, drinking, travelling, playing, and conquering all manner of obstacles through sheer determination. And through it all, Joe reveals that the famous D.O.A. slogan, talk - action -0 is, for him, more than a soundbyte. With an introduction by music producer Jack Rabid, publisher of seminal New York music magazine Big Takeover.