Greenpeace

It was when I was a young girl that I first learned about Greenpeace from TV news. I saw the people from Greenpeace organization try to stop a ship with nuclear materials in it. Since then, I have learned about it more through my readings. In the Greenpeace Home Page, it states,"Greenpeace is a non-profit organization, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific". Its mission is to raise the level and quality of public debate against the most crucial worldwide threats to our planet's biodiversity and environment. Now it has over 2.8 million supporters worldwide. With a non-violent manner, Greenpeace is trying to stop climate change, save the oceans, and stop nuclear threat.

This winter is my first winter in Canada. I never saw so much snow and experienced such cold weather in my life. However, some Canadians told me that it had not so much snow for many years because of global warming. My parents also told me there were a lot of snow in my hometown before 1970's. Now, there is very little snow in winters. To stop climate change is one of many missions of Greenpeace. It lobbies government to protect forests and make laws to reduce waste gas into air. In its home page, it said, "a historic agreenment with logging companies is reached on the conservation of Canada's remaining coastal rainforest and approved by the government of British Columbia". Kyoto Protocol(1997) is one of the victories of Greenpeace campaign to protect the climate by reducing greenhouse gases.

Greenpeace has done a lot of things to save our oceans. From news, we could hear Greenpeace actions in save oceans animals and keep our seawater clean. In 1978, the people from Greenpeace stopped slaughtering the grey seals in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The oil company Shell finally in 1998 agreed not to dump disused installations in the ocean after 3 years campaign by Greenpeace.

Everyone is afraid of nuclear bomb. But many countries did nuclear tests either ground or under ground. Greenpeace took many efforts and actions to stop such tests.Its first action was in 1971 to protest the US Government conducting underground nuclear tests in Amchitka of Alaska by a small boat of volunteers and journalists. This action is also the first campaign of Greenpeace against environmental degradation. After that, Greenpeace protest at French nuclear test site and forced French government to end atmospheric tests in the South Pacific in 1975 and cancel all nuclear tests scheduled in 1992. Their actions to stop French nuclear testing received worldwide attention. As it reported in its home page,"Over seven million people sign petitions calling for a stop to testing" in 1995. Finally, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty(CTBT)was adopted at the United Nations in 1996.

In conclusion, Greenpeace is non-profit organization. It is trying to preserve the future of our planet. It has taken a lot of efforts and actions to stop climate change, save the oceans, stop nuclear threat, and etc. It has won many promising victories for 32 years. After my research, I think that Greenpeace would be many government and companies' headache. However, as it insisted,"we believe that the struggle to preserve the future of our planet is not about us. It's about you"(from Greenpeace Home Page). I am going to support Greenpeace's actions in the future.

Reference
Greenpeace Homepage.2003 http://www.greenpeace.org