Greenpeace
Greenpeace was first established by Bob Hunter, David Mc Taggart, Dorothy and Irving Stowe in 1972. They were a group of activists who wanted to stop worldwide corruption of the planet, these have been expressed through anti-whaling, deep sea drilling protests and anti nuclear to name a few.
Greenpeace's and the French anti nuclear testing began with the Greenpeace vessel the Rainbow Warrior which was a 130 foot old fishing ship and was bought for 40,000 pounds. Despite it being a very old ship, the Greenpeace members in Britain spent 4 months repairing it and painting it. While in the Northern Hemisphere, the Greenpeace movement also engaged in the activity to stop deep sea dumping of radioactive and toxic waste, between 1978 and 1985. However in 1985 the Rainbow Warrior was a key success in 'Operation Exodus' which involved the evacuation of 300 Rongelap Atoll islanders, this was due to the fact that nuclear showers from the old Pacific Proving Grounds like Bikini Atoll by the United States nuclear tests which had prolonging health risks, and was permeating amongst the locals on the Island who had been having serious health side effects from the tests which had not been cleaned up to prevent the occurrence of health risks for islanders.
The New Zealand sector of Greenpeace had become very prominent in New Zealand and was well noted for working with the Fri in 1974 as well as working with the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, (CND). It was to welcome the Greenpeace vessel from its protest work at Mururoa whose tests were still being conducted despite the fact that the Fri had protested their in the 1970's. Greenpeace saw it as their duty to expand on the work done by those on the Fri, and many were keen to help protest. However it was hard work living on the seas as well as being combatted with the possibility of being confronted with French commando's who as experienced with the Fri were well noted for being extremely aggressive to protestors, along with others who followed on in the 1980's. With continuing of the 1985 nuclear tests Greenpeace decided to plant protestors illegally on islands to monitor the radioactivity expressed by the blasts. However despite infiltration by French Government foiled these plans. Despite this setback the Rainbow warrior returned to Auckland to be attend with a flotilla of vessels back to the testing site. However this did not happen as later on 1985 it was bombed.
On July 10 1985 the Greenpeace was secretly boarded by French operatives and was sunk in Auckland harbour, and resulted in the death of an international photographer, Fernando Pereira. After the arrest of the operatives Greenpeace demanded compensation for the family of Fernando, as well as Greenpeace as well who lost equipment as well as their ship. This amount totalled to around 2.3 million for the family, and 8.3 million for New Zealand.
Greenpeace's and the French anti nuclear testing began with the Greenpeace vessel the Rainbow Warrior which was a 130 foot old fishing ship and was bought for 40,000 pounds. Despite it being a very old ship, the Greenpeace members in Britain spent 4 months repairing it and painting it. While in the Northern Hemisphere, the Greenpeace movement also engaged in the activity to stop deep sea dumping of radioactive and toxic waste, between 1978 and 1985. However in 1985 the Rainbow Warrior was a key success in 'Operation Exodus' which involved the evacuation of 300 Rongelap Atoll islanders, this was due to the fact that nuclear showers from the old Pacific Proving Grounds like Bikini Atoll by the United States nuclear tests which had prolonging health risks, and was permeating amongst the locals on the Island who had been having serious health side effects from the tests which had not been cleaned up to prevent the occurrence of health risks for islanders.
The New Zealand sector of Greenpeace had become very prominent in New Zealand and was well noted for working with the Fri in 1974 as well as working with the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, (CND). It was to welcome the Greenpeace vessel from its protest work at Mururoa whose tests were still being conducted despite the fact that the Fri had protested their in the 1970's. Greenpeace saw it as their duty to expand on the work done by those on the Fri, and many were keen to help protest. However it was hard work living on the seas as well as being combatted with the possibility of being confronted with French commando's who as experienced with the Fri were well noted for being extremely aggressive to protestors, along with others who followed on in the 1980's. With continuing of the 1985 nuclear tests Greenpeace decided to plant protestors illegally on islands to monitor the radioactivity expressed by the blasts. However despite infiltration by French Government foiled these plans. Despite this setback the Rainbow warrior returned to Auckland to be attend with a flotilla of vessels back to the testing site. However this did not happen as later on 1985 it was bombed.
On July 10 1985 the Greenpeace was secretly boarded by French operatives and was sunk in Auckland harbour, and resulted in the death of an international photographer, Fernando Pereira. After the arrest of the operatives Greenpeace demanded compensation for the family of Fernando, as well as Greenpeace as well who lost equipment as well as their ship. This amount totalled to around 2.3 million for the family, and 8.3 million for New Zealand.