Making Greenpeace: The Development of Direct Action Environmentalism in British Columbia

Abstract

British Columbia seems an unlikely birthplace for a radical new form of environmentalism. However, by the late 1960s, a series of events--many of them distant and having no direct connection to life in British Columbia--had helped prepare a small patch of ground that gave root to a new movement combining ecology, radical pacifism, and non-violent direct action. Zelko details the founding of Greenpeace, one of the earliest, most long-lived, and influential direct action environmental organization, and examines the location from which many of Greenpeace's ideas--and several of its founders--emerged.