Greenpeace has also been a source of controversy ; its motives and methods have received criticism and the organization's direct actions have sparked legal actions against Greenpeace activists.

Greenpeace activists disrupted the whaling by going between the harpoons and the whales, and the footage of the protests spread across the world.

In 2008, two Greenpeace anti-whaling activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, stole a case of whale meat from a delivery depot in Aomori prefecture, Japan.

Amnesty International said that the arrests and following raids on Greenpeace Japan office and homes of five of Greenpeace staff members were aimed at intimidating activists and non-governmental organizations.

Greenpeace activists board the ship.

Environmental activists, including members of Greenpeace, have organized strong protests against the oil shale industry.

Typical examples include Greenpeace sabotage of bulldozers, peace movement activists entering NATO bases by breaking fences, and Earth Liberation Front destruction of empty new homes that they deem to be imposing on the Arizona desert ecoregion.

* Greenpeace encourages its activists to use Non-Violent Direct Action

Despite the building not having any bureaucratic function, it has been the location of protests, such as when farmers drove their tractors in a convoy past the front of the property in 2006, and when Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the front gates in March 2007.

* Rainbow Warriors, colloquial name for Greenpeace activists

On 13 January 2009, it was announced that McGowan in partnership with three other Greenpeace activists, including actress Emma Thompson, had bought land near Sipson, a village under threat from the proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport.

Unknown to the Greenpeace activists, French secret agents Jacques Camurier and Alain Tonel, had set off in an inflatable dinghy across the 2 km stretch of the harbour from Mechanics Bay.

" He points to groups like the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and to activists such as Rachel Carson and

In response to the government's announcement, Greenpeace activists occupied Energy Minister Dwight Duncan's offices.

* In 2004, activists from Greenpeace and the Australian environmental organization The Wilderness Society hold the record for the world's highest tree-sit at 65m, in the Styx Valley, Tasmania.

Notably, it was the example set by the voyages of the Golden Rule and the Phoenix that would inspire the first Greenpeace activists to use similar methods in their campaigns to halt nuclear testing at the island of Amchitka, Alaska, and at Muraroa Atoll in the Pacific.

During this time David Tussman, together with the rest of the founders, early activists of Greenpeace, and the majority of Greenpeace staff-members announced that the board of the San Francisco group intended to separate Patrick Moore's Greenpeace Foundation from the rest of the Greenpeace movement.

In August 2002 twelve Greenpeace activists obtained access to the station.

Fonterra was also the subject of Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand protests off the Port of Tauranga on 16 September 2009 and Port Taranaki on 5 February 2011, where Greenpeace activists invaded ships carrying palm kernel animal feed, destined for dairy farms.

These " politically neutral " groups tend to avoid global conflicts and view the settlement of inter-human conflict as separate from regard for nature-in direct contradiction to the ecology movement and peace movement which have increasingly close links: While Green Parties and Greenpeace, and groups like the ACTivist Magazine for example, regard ecology, biodiversity and an end to non-human extinction as absolutely basic to peace, the local groups may not, and may see a high degree of global competition and conflict as justifiable if it lets them preserve their own local uniqueness.

Greenpeace also states that " there was no single founder, and the name, idea, spirit, tactics, and internationalism of the organization all can be said to have separate lineages ".

As part of their stance on the subject of renewable energy, Greenpeace have launched the " Go Beyond Oil " campaign.

The activities of Greenpeace in the arctic have mainly involved the Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration company, Cairn Energy ; and range from protests at the Cairn Energy's headquarters to scalling their oil rigs in an attempt to halt the drilling process.

In Philadelphia, in 2006, Greenpeace issued a press release that said " In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE ," The final report warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns.

Greenpeace rejected the accusations and challenged PIW to disclose its funders, a request rejected by then-Executive Director of PIW, Mike Hardiman, because PIW does not have 501c3 tax exempt status like Greenpeace does in the U. S. The IRS conducted an extensive review and concluded in December 2005 that Greenpeace USA continued to qualify for its tax-exempt status.

Since Greenpeace was founded, seagoing ships have played a vital role in its campaigns.

Lawsuits have been filed against Greenpeace for lost profits, reputation damage and " sailormongering ".

Some corporations, such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Électricité de France have reacted to Greenpeace campaigns by spying on Greenpeace activities and infiltrating Greenpeace offices.

I am also a co-founder of Greenpeace and I have known Patrick Moore for 35 years .[...

] Moore makes accusations that have no basis in fact " although Greenpeace themselves have vehemently denied Watson's claim of being a Greenpeace Founder.

Since the enactment of EU legislation concerning the concentration of particulate in the air, environmental groups such as Greenpeace have staged large protest rallies to urge the city council and the State government to take a harder stance on pollution.

Amchitka, the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace has been published by Greenpeace in November 2009 on CD and is also available as mp3 download via the Amchitka concert website.

Greenpeace is also critical of extracting petroleum from oil sands and has used direct action to block the oil sand operations at Athabasca, Canada.

Adam Woolf from Greenpeace also stated that, " fifty years ago there were many experts who would be lined up and swear there was no link between smoking and bad health.

Greenpeace, together with other environmental NGOs, also campaigned for ten years for the EU to ban import of illegal timber.

Greenpeace also highlighted that Metsähallitus admitted the value of the forest afterwards as Metsähallitus currently refers to Koitajoki as a distinctive area because of its old growth forests.

Greenpeace has also supported the rejection of GM food from the US in famine-stricken Zambia as long as supplies of non-genetically engineered grain exist, stating that the US " should follow in the European Union's footsteps and allow aid recipients to choose their food aid, buying it locally if they wish.

Although Greenpeace had stated that efficiency was its primary concern, as early as 2001, statements from March and April 2005 also continued to express concern over human health and environmental safety Greenpeace has opposed releasing golden rice to fields as opposed to farming in greenhouses, which according to golden rice developer Ingo Potrykus, limits the amount of material needed for human safety testing.

The regional boards also appoint a trustee to The Greenpeace International Annual General Meeting, where the trustees elect or remove the board of directors of Greenpeace International.

The role of the annual general meeting is also to discuss and decide the overall principles and strategically important issues for Greenpeace in collaboration with the trustees of regional offices and Greenpeace International board of directors.

Foundation donations are also rejected if the foundations attach unreasonable conditions, restrictions or constraints on Greenpeace activities or if the donation would compromise the independence and aims of Greenpeace.

In 1989 Greenpeace commissioned a replacement vessel, also named the Rainbow Warrior ( also referred as Rainbow Warrior II ), which was retired from service on the 16th of August 2011 to be replaced by the third Rainbow Warrior.

He also accused Greenpeace of having unofficial agreements with polluting companies where the companies paid Greenpeace to keep them from attacking the company's image.

Greenpeace also quotes Tongan parliamentarian Samiu K Vaipulu as saying at a workshop on the proposed South Pacific Whale Sanctuary in Samoa that Japan had linked whale votes to aid.