This Day in History: 1971-09-15

First Greenpeace ship the Phyllis Cormack, leaves Vancouver on this day in 1971 to oppose the Amchitka nuclear tests by the US. The organization originally called the “Dont make a Wave Committee” becomes Greenpeace, and within a few years it raises street theater and protest tactics to a new level using global media. The effect, according to Greenpeace co-founder Robert Hunter, was a “mind bomb” – that is, an action that would create a dramatic new impression to replace an old cliché. Greenpeace overturned the image of heroic whalers with a counter-narrative image of heroic environmentalists who risked their lives by sailing in between harpoons and whales. This approach caught the world’s attention and dramatically changed the political terrain for conservation and environmentalism in the 1970s. A video of a concert to help fund the launching of the Phyllis Cormack is available on YouTube.