Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity" and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, anti-war and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, advocacy, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals.
The network comprises 26 independent national/regional organisations in over 55 countries across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific, as well as a coordinating body, Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The global network does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on three million individual supporters and foundation grants. Greenpeace has a general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is a founding member of the INGO Accountability Charter, an international non-governmental organization that intends to foster accountability and transparency of non-governmental organizations.
Greenpeace is known for its nonviolent direct actions and has been described as one of the most visible environmental organizations in the world. It has raised environmental issues to public awareness and knowledge, and influenced both the private and the public sector. The organization has received criticism; it was the subject of an open letter from more than 100 Nobel laureates urging Greenpeace to end its campaign against genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The organization's direct actions have sparked legal actions against Greenpeace itself and activists. In March 2025, a nine-person North Dakota jury found Greenpeace liable for more than $660 million in damages and defamation for the 2016 to 2017 Standing Rock Protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Additionally, activists received fines and suspended sentences for destroying a test plot of genetically modified wheat and, according to the Peruvian Government prosecutors and the court's decision, damaging the Nazca Lines, a UN World Heritage site.
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