“Make it a green peace!” was first uttered, in Vancouver, 1970. A humble retort to the standard hippie “Peace!” salute of the time. It marked the close of the meeting of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, where it had just been agreed to send a boat to Amchitka to confront US nuclear weapons testing.
They did not have a boat, the funds to buy one or the skills to sail it even if they had!
A year later, on September 15, 1971, the Phyllis Cormack, bearing the banner Greenpeace across its bridge, left Vancouver bound for Amchitka determined to “confront the bomb”. It was still doubtful if the funds would last or if the skills would be sufficient.
The “Greenpeace” never arrived and on 6 November an underground atomic bomb was exploded, rupturing the island, opening fissures and pushing deadly radiation into the surrounding environment.
The first of many “mindbombs” – an idea so powerful that it changes mindsets – had also exploded in the collective consciousness. The crew’s courage and powerful storytelling ignited mass opposition to future tests and the all powerful US Atomic Energy Commission reluctantly declared it would abandon the Amchitka site “for political and other reasons”. A stunning victory for daring to care and caring to dare!