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Greenpeace vs Friends of the Earth

THESE TWO ORGANISATIONS ARE quite different. Greenpeace generally works outside of the Establishment and gives a high profile to a handful of issues. Friends of the Earth generally tries to create change from within, using a grassroots approach across a wider range of areas.

The basics:

  • Greenpeace gets national offices to campaign together on a small number of critical issues. Its tactics are high-profile and confrontational.
  • Friends of the Earth is decentralised, supporting local campaigning groups. Its tactics are more conservative and effects felt at a more local level.
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Structure and spread:

EACH OF THESE HUGE organisations is split into a charitable and a non-charitable body. Their campaigning work is deemed too 'political' to be charitable and is therefore carried out by the non-charitable wing. This is the larger part of both organisations. Non-controversial activities like environmental research are carried out by their charitable wings (which we have profiled).
  • Greenpeace has an international HQ in Amsterdam and national /regional offices covering 41 countries. The offices manage themselves, carrying out jointly agreed global strategies within their local context and seeking funds locally.
  • Friends of the Earth is larger and more decentralised, operating in over 70 countries, each country nurturing local campaigning groups. 

Origins:

  • Greenpeace was started by Canadian and American peace activists in Vancouver in 1970. It formed to stop an underground nuclear bomb test beneath the island of Amchitka, Alaska. The first ship expedition was called the Greenpeace I; the second relief expedition was nicknamed Greenpeace Too! The test still went ahead but the organization of the committee laid the foundations for the organisations.
  • Friends of the Earth was started in 1969 out of one man, David Brower's, frustration at the conservative views of mainstream nature conservation in the US.  He founded Friends of the Earth to combine nature conservation with new, radical ways to protect the planet. He coined the phrase "think globally, act locally", as the founding motto. Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland was set up in 1971.

Current issues (2006):

  • Greenpeace's main campaigning issues are: climate change, nuclear power, ancient forests, oceans, disarmament, GM foods and toxics.
  • Friends of the Earth's are: biodiversity, climate change, corporates, real food, transport, and waste.

In their own words:

  • Greenpeace  is "an independent, campaigning organisation that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and force solutions for a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace's goal is to ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity."
  • Friends of the Earth is "the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 71 diverse national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent that seeks to influence policy and practice through an honest, accurate and open approach."
> Wikipedia links: Greenpeace | Friends of the Earth