Greenpeace Australia is part of a much larger international interest group. Greenpeace International was founded in 1971 by a small group of Canadians who were opposed to US nuclear testing in Alaska. Today the organisation has 2.8 million members and an annual income of €165.3 million. It has forty-three offices in thirty countries, a full-time staff of 1200, four vessels, a helicopter, two balloons, hundreds of inflatable dinghies and the latest satellite communications equipment. Greenpeace Australia has 13 000 members and an annual income of $14.4 million. The world headquarters of Greenpeace is in Amsterdam. From here it coordinates the activities of its various national organisations. Each national organisation establishes its own goals and conducts its own campaigns. At the same time, all are committed to the broad policy directions agreed on by the council of Greenpeace, which is an assembly of national and regional directors.

The council has defined the organisation’s priorities as follows: to oppose all things nuclear; to denounce air pollution and threats to the atmosphere; to defend diversity of plant and animal species; and to fight people’s growing dependence on toxic chemicals. As the influence of Greenpeace has grown so has the number of its critics. Many large corporations and government officials, and even some other environmentalists, say Greenpeace campaigners will do almost anything to attract the attention of the media. Some even say that Greenpeace deliberately sets out to manipulate the public’s emotions by using scare tactics instead of relying on facts to argue its case. Despite these criticisms Green peace’s opponents concede its campaigns have been very successful. Some of their campaigns have led to international treaties or bans. These include their campaigns against commercial whaling, logging, dumping of toxic and radioactive waste, and pollution in Antarctica.