From the Greenpeace website: "We are committed to the principles of non-violence, political independence and internationalism. In exposing threats to the environment and in working to find solutions, Greenpeace has no permanent allies or enemies.

We have been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 , when a small boat of volunteers and journalists sailed into Amchitka, an area north of Alaska, where the US government was conducting underground nuclear tests. This tradition of 'bearing witness' in a non-violent manner continues today.

Greenpeace has played a pivotal role in, among other things, the adoption of:

• a ban on toxic waste exports to less developed countries
• a moratorium on commercial whaling
• a United Nations convention providing for better management of world fisheries
• a Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
• a 50-year moratorium on mineral exploitation in Antarctica
• bans on the dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste and disused oil installations
• an end to large-scale driftnet fishing on the high-seas
• a ban on all nuclear weapons testing - our first ever campaign."