Canada and Australia - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 134

40,000 members, Nature Canada began in 1948 as the Audubon Society,
changing its name in 1971. Endangered species have been a special con-
cern. Friends of the Earth, with 10,000 members, is a branch of the inter-
national organization. The Sierra Club has been active in Canada since
1963, and it established a national office in 1989. The Parks and Wilderness
Society, begun in 1963, concentrates on protecting big, wild ecosystems in
parks, refuges, and wilderness areas. It is proud of having conserved more
than 100 million acres of wild places.
The most noteworthy group is Greenpeace, now grown to be the big-
gest environmental organization in the world. In 1971 a few people from
Vancouver, British Columbia, organized to protest a US nuclear bomb
test in Amchitka, an island in the Aleutian chain of Alaska. Some had
been active in the peace movement against the US war in Vietnam, some
had experience trying to save whales, and still others were members in
a new Sierra Club chapter. They chartered a fishing boat, re-christened
it Greenpeace , and sailed for Alaska. The name reflected a joining of the
environmental and peace movements. The US Coast Guard arrested the
crew and sent them away, but the bomb test was canceled. Emboldened by
their success, the next year the group decided to challenge French nuclear
testing in the South Pacific. The ship sailed into the forbidden safety zone
near the blast site and launched little Zodiac boats to harass the French
naval ships. As they sailed across the ocean, they became beguiled by the
whales and sea life they encountered. In 1975 the Greenpeace sailed to fight
illegal whaling, confronting Russian ships in the Pacific. The following
year, the organization first demonstrated against the slaughter of seals in
Labrador. Soon the Greenpeace movement spread to California, Hawaii,
England, France, and Germany. Today, the international organization
has 2.8 million supporters and affiliates in 40 countries. The Canadian
organization campaigns to save forests, stop genetic engineering, and pre-
vent climate change as well as protect the oceans. It maintains a fleet of
six seagoing boats.
In 1977 Paul Watson, one of the most radical members of Greenpeace,
broke away to found his own organization, the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, named for its boat, the Sea Shepherd . Its goal is protection of marine
mammals. The society contends it is only enforcing the regulations of the
International Whaling Commission, which has no police authority of its
own. One technique is to publicize the violations with photographs and
videotape. It often has news reporters sail aboard its vessels to document
the violations. Other techniques are violent, including harassment and