Greenpeace [Hardcover]

They were the generation that grew up in the wake of Hiroshima. They called themselves ecoholics, mind-bombers, and mind-punks. Their home was 1970s Vancouver, which they liked to call "the Shire," after J.R.R. Tolkien's idyllic paradise of tranquil Hobbits. They were far from the jungles of Vietnam and the protest-filled streets of Paris and Washington, but they created a movement that changed history. Greenpeace tells the remarkable story of the world's leading environmental protest group, from its early days in Vancouver's psychedelic underground scene to its evolution into a global super-movement that boasts 2.8 million supporters in 40 countries and an annual budget of $240 million.

The author, Rex Weyler, participated in the group's first anti-whaling campaign in the north Pacific Ocean and wrote this book with the collaboration of Greenpeace and those of its founders who are still alive. His hefty 623-page volume came out around the same time as a lighter, parallel effort by Greenpeace co-founder Robert Hunter, called The Greenpeace to Amchitka. The two books complement each other nicely. Hunter's is an intensely personal memoir written in the heady days of 1971, while Weyler's is more comprehensive and biographical, surveying the group's evolution, political divisions, and personal conflicts, including the split between the so-called "mystics" and "mechanics"--the dreamers versus the practical thinkers. "We were fragile pilgrims," Weyler writes in this nicely paced and intimate chronicle, "not makers of history, but participants, lucky to have had the opportunity to meddle in the affairs of the world." --Alex Roslin

"The organization [Greenpeace] has a rich oral tradition, and many of its early campaigns have become legend. I'm thrilled that these stories have finally been captured on the written page by Rex Weyler in his new book, GREENPEACE ... Weyler's history reads like a novel, driven by an eclectic cast of characters who drift together in Vancouver, B.C., during the Vietnam War ... In the 1970s, Greenpeace was full of creative lunatics who believed that anything was possible because they often made the impossible happen. Not only did they fuse the ecology and disarmament movements, but they were among the first to recognize that there was no meaningful difference between protecting the environment and protecting people. Together, they contributed a whole new toolbox of tactics to the nonviolent tradition ... It will go on my shelf between Taylor Branch's "Parting the Waters" and Erik H. Erikson's "Gandhi's Truth." -- The Dragonfly, John Sellers, executive director of The Ruckus Society since 1998

"Vancouver's endowment to the world ... Our tranquil west coast 'Shire' seemed an unlikely place to spawn a transforming international movement capable of taking on the establishment and winning." -- Vancouver Sun

"Weyler's finely crafted narrative explores with elegant pacing and graceful humility the origins of Greenpeace and its activities over its first decade, echoing the eco-political times it passes through ... This rousing story could inspire a whole new grassroots force." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Look it up! You're involved." With this slogan, posted guerrilla-style on billboards in 1969, the group that would become Greenpeace launched its first campaign ... and sparked a mind-shift that changed how we think about the world around us. In the decade that followed, Greenpeace evolved from a loosely organized protest group in Vancouver, Canada, into an international phenomenon that went head-to-head against corporations and governments, attracting the support of ordinary citizens alongside celebrities, politicians, writers, scientists, musicians, and visionaries.

Greenpeace is the definitive record of this journey, indelibly portrayed by someone who witnessed the events firsthand. With an historian's insight and a novelist's style, Rex Weyler introduces us to the characters and events that shaped an "Eco Navy"--from the first voyage into the North Pacific to stop American nuclear bomb tests, to the risky mission to rescue whales from Russian and Japanese whaling fleets, to internal struggles over growth, money and ideology.

Greenpeace is a remarkable achievement: a gripping account that reads like a novel; a snapshot of the mid-twentieth-century zeitgeist; a fascinating study of media manipulation; an uncompromising look at the politics of activist organizations; and above all, an inspiring call-to-arms that deepens our understanding of what it means to be politically engaged. As one of the players in the book points out, "The sooner we get on with it, the better."

Why Rex Weyler wrote the book Greenpeace: "This history had only been told piecemeal, from very subjective points of view, and I wanted to leave a better record. Although I lived through these events, I made an effort to be a responsible journalist, to get the facts straight, dig below the surface, discover the human motivations, and understand the story so I could tell it well. I wanted to depict something deeper about the era of the 1960s and 70s, the social and political forces, the precedents, influences, and the conflicting points of view that gave rise to something new. I wanted to find the heart of the story in the action and choices of the characters and the reaction of the world around them. And I wanted to inform citizens now, citizens anywhere, that they can influence their world, they can make a difference, and change the world, by standing up to abusive power, by not being intimidated by the status quo."

On the quiet afternoon of September 16, 1971, journalist Ben Metcalfe sat alone in the galley of the ship composing a radio broadcast. "We Canadians started the Greenpeacing of America last night," he began. "We call our ship 'Greenpeace' because that's the best name we can think of to join the two great issues of our times, the survival of the environment and the peace of the world." The crew crowded around the door to listen. "We do not consider ourselves to be radicals," Metcalfe continued. "We are conservatives who insist upon conserving the environment for our children and future generations ...

"While it may be true that this began as the idea of a few men and women in the city of Vancouver, it was not long before we were joined by thousands of others. And now millions have learned about it over the past few days. The crew know today that we are part of a massive international protest against the insanity of the nuclear-bomb tests ... That is what we call the Greenpeacing of America. It just might work." --from Chapter Three, "On an Ocean Named For Peace"

Advance Praise for Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World

"This book is not only a great chronicle of Greenpeace, but of the era that put peace and ecology on society's agenda. It shows the enormous power of speaking truth with courage and imagination." --Bonnie Raitt

"A masterpiece." --Robert Hunter, Environmental Specialist, CityTV; first president of Greenpeace

Rex Weyler was a co-founder of Greenpeace International and a director of Greenpeace Canada until 1982. His photographs and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Oceans, Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, New Age Journal and National Geographic. Weyler is the author of a Native American history, Blood of the Land, and he co-authored the classic Chop Wood, Carry Water. He is the co-founder of Hollyhock Educational Institute and lives in Vancouver.

“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?”