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Make It a Green Peace! : The Rise of Countercultural Environmentalism

ISBN: 9780199947089 | 0199947082

Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Pub. Date: 5/3/2013

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Summary Author Biography

Make it a Greek Peace!explores the complex intellectual and cultural roots of Greenpeace, tracing the development of the organization from its emergence amidst the various protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s to the end of its volative, dramatic, and at times quirky first decade in 1980. After that time, Zelko argues, Greenpace changed little from its original template. By then it had grown into an international environmental powerhouse centered in Europe, with a complex hierarchical structure and branch offices in numerous countries. Today... MORE it is the world's most recognized environmental groups and its logo is almost as familiar as Coca Cola's or McDonald's in western countries. Still largely associated with direct action, Greenpeace continues to hold onto its radical and hip image, even though it has become part of the environmental establishment. Its present-day activities range from lobbying governments and inter-governmental agencies, such as the International Whaling Commission, to sponsoring the production of new technologies, like environmentally friendly refrigerators and automobiles. Despite its prominence and influence, the institutional that Greenpeace has become is not necessarily what its founders had in mind. Throughout its early history there were moments when it might have ended or it might have become more of a grassroots social movement; instead, from internecine struggles, it has retained its direct action style and adamant holism that first set it apart in the 1970s and imbued its participants with unique elan. Zelko sets Greenpeace within the broader context of its emergence, from founders influence by occult sciences, Theosopy, biospheric holism, Asian religious and spiritual traditions, and mind-expanding drugs, especially LSD. These phenomena created a group with a deep disenchantment with modernity's destructive trappings. As a social movement, founders were particularly influenced by Gandhi-inspired peace and anti-nuclear protests. Narrating the key campaigns and arguments among the group's early members, Zelko shows how Greenpace developed into a tightly controlled international NGO, rather than a loose-knit social movement such as Occupy Wall Street. Drawing upon meeting minutes, internal correspondence, and numerous interviews with former Greenpeacers, as well as philosophical writings, manifestos, and personal accounts by thinkers within the group, Zelko has written the much-anticipated definitive history of the origins of Greenpeace.

The emergence of Greenpeace in the late 1960s from a loose-knit group of anti-nuclear and anti-whaling activists fundamentally changed the nature of environmentalism--its purpose, philosophy, and tactics--around the world. And yet there has been no comprehensive objective history of Greenpeace's origins-until now.

Make It a Green Peace! draws upon meeting minutes, internal correspondence, manifestos, philosophical writings, and interviews with former members to offer the first full account of the origins of what has become the most recognizable environmental non-governmental organization in the world. Situating Greenpeace within the peace movement and counterculture of the 1960s, Frank Zelko provides a much deeper treatment of the group's groundbreaking brand of radical, media-savvy, direct-action environmentalism than has been previously attempted. Zelko traces the complex intellectual and cultural roots of Greenpeace to the various protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s, highlighting the influence of Quakerism---with its practice of bearing witness--Native American spirituality, and the non-violent resistance of Gandhi. Unlike the more strait-laced, less confrontational Sierra Club and Audubon Society, early Greenpeacers smoked dope, dropped acid, wore their hair long, and put their bodies on the line--interposing themselves between the harpoons of whalers and the clubs of seal-hunters--to save the animals and achieve what they hoped would be a lasting transformation in the way humans regarded the natural world. And while it may not have achieved its most revolutionary goals, Greenpeace inarguably created a heightened awareness of environmental issues that endures to this day.

Narrating the key campaigns and arguments among the group's early members, Make It a Green Peace! vividly captures all the drama, pathos, and occasional moments of absurd comic relief of Greenpeace's tumultuous first decade.

Make it a Green Peace! explores the complex intellectual and cultural roots of Greenpeace, tracing the development of the organization from its emergence amidst the various protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s to the end of its volative, dramatic, and at times quirky first decade in 1980. After that time, Zelko argues, Greenpace changed little from its original template. By then it had grown into an international environmental powerhouse centered in Europe, with acomplex hierarchical structure and branch offices in numerous countries. Today it is the world's most recognized environmental groups and its logo is almost as familiar as Coca Cola's or McDonald's in western countries. Still largely associated with direct action, Greenpeace continues to hold onto its radicaland hip image, even though it has become part of the environmental establishment. Its present-day activities range from lobbying governments and inter-governmental agencies, such as the International Whaling Commission, to sponsoring the production of new technologies, like environmentally friendly refrigerators and automobiles. Despite its prominence and influence, the institutional that Greenpeace has become is not necessarily what its founders had in mind. Throughout its early historythere were moments when it might have ended or it might have become more of a grassroots social movement; instead, from internecine struggles, it has retained its direct action style and adamant holism that first set it apart in the 1970s and imbued its participants with unique elan. Zelko sets Greenpeace within the broader context of its emergence, from founders influence by occult sciences, Theosopy, biospheric holism, Asian religious and spiritual traditions, and mind-expanding drugs, especially LSD. These phenomena created a group with a deep disenchantment with modernity's destructive trappings. As a social movement, founders were particularly influenced by Gandhi-inspired peace and anti-nuclear protests. Narrating the key campaigns and arguments among the group'searly members, Zelko shows how Greenpace developed into a tightly controlled international NGO, rather than a loose-knit social movement such as Occupy Wall Street. Drawing upon meeting minutes, internal correspondence, and numerous interviews with former Greenpeacers, as well as philosophicalwritings, manifestos, and personal accounts by thinkers within the group, Zelko has written the much-anticipated definitive history of the origins of Greenpeace.

Frank Zelko is Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont.

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