The Don't Make a Wave Committee was the name of the

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

organization which later evolved into Greenpeace, a global environmental organization. The Don't Make a Wave Committee was founded in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to protest and attempt to halt further

underground nuclear testing Underground nuclear testing is the test detonation of nuclear weapons that is performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the nuclear explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to ...

by the United States in the National Wildlife refuge at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

.Paul Watson, ''Sea Shepherd: My Fight for Whales and Seals'' (1981), The Don't Make a Wave Committee was first formed in October 1969 and officially established in early 1970.

Precursor protest

In the late 1960s, the U.S. had plans for an underground nuclear weapon test in

. Because of the

1964 Alaska earthquake The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27.

the plans raised some concerns of the test triggering earthquakes and causing a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

. A 1969 demonstration of 7,000 people blocked a major U.S.-Canada border crossing in British Columbia, carrying signs reading "Don't Make A Wave. It's Your Fault If Our Fault Goes". Further demonstrations occurred at U.S. border crossings in Ontario and Quebec. The protests did not stop the U.S. from detonating the bomb.Michael Brown & John May: The Greenpeace Story, While no earthquake nor tsunami followed the test, the opposition grew when the U.S. announced they would detonate a bomb five times more powerful than the first one. Among the opposers were Jim Bohlen, a veteran who had served in the U.S. Navy during the

bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

, and Irving Stowe and

Dorothy Stowe Dorothy Anne Stowe (née Rabinowitz; December 22, 1920 – July 23, 2010) was an American-born Canadian social activist and environmentalist, best known for co-founding Greenpeace. Life and environmentalism Stowe was born in Providence, ...

, a Quaker couple. As members of the Sierra Club they were frustrated in the lack of action by the organization.

Formation

In October 1969, Bohlen and the Stowes started meeting at a church basement, calling themselves the Don't Make a Wave Committee and planning anti-nuclear protests. From Irving Stowe, Bohlen learned a form of passive resistance, "bearing witness", where objectionable activity is protested by mere presence. Jim Bohlen's wife Marie came up with the idea to sail to Amchitka, inspired by the anti-nuclear voyages of Albert Bigelow in 1958. The idea ended up in the press and was linked to The Sierra Club. The Sierra Club did not like this connection and in 1970 Jim and Marie Bohlen, Irving and Dorothy Stowe and Paul Cote, a law student and peace activist established The ''Don't Make a Wave Committee'', working independently of The Sierra Club. Early meetings were held in the Shaughnessy home of

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

and Bobbi Hunter. The first office was opened in a back-room of a storefront off Broadway on Cypress, in Kitsilano, Vancouver. An additional member of the committee was cultural geographer Terry A Simmons.

Transition to Greenpeace

During meetings in 1970 Bill Darnell combined the words ‘green’ and ‘peace’,Sean Connolly, ''Global Organizations: Greenpeace'', Franklin Watts, 2008, p. 12 thereby giving the organization its first expedition name, Greenpeace. Many Canadians protested the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...

underground nuclear bomb tests, codenamed Cannikin, beneath the island of Amchitka, Alaska in 1971. In May the year, the ''Don't Make a Wave Committee'' sent Jim Bohlen and Patrick Moore, to represent the ''Don't Make a Wave Committee'' in US Atomic Energy Commission hearings in Alaska. The ''Don't Make a Wave Committee'' first expedition hired the '' Phyllis Cormack'', a halibut seiner available for charter, to take protestors to the testing zone on the island of Amchitka. The expedition was called ''Greenpeace I'', and included Canadian journalist Robert Hunter. In the fall of 1971 the ship sailed towards Amchitka and faced the U.S. Navy ship Confidence. The activists were forced to turn back. Because of this and the increasingly bad weather the crew decided to return to Canada only to find out that the news about their journey and the support from the crew of the Confidence had generated widespread sympathy for their protest. Greenpeace chartered another ship, a former minesweeper ''Edgewater Fortune'', which was renamed the ''Greenpeace Too!''.

Paul Watson Paul Franklin Watson (born December 2, 1950) is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. Th ...

, also a co-founder of Greenpeace was selected to crew the 2nd vessel. One day out of Amchitka the United States Atomic Energy Commission conducted the underground 5 Mt Cannikin nuclear test a day earlier than scheduled on November 6, 1971. The nuclear test gained widespread criticism and the U.S. decided not to continue with their test plans at Amchitka. In 1972, The Don't Make a Wave committee changed their official name to ''Greenpeace Foundation''. On 4 May 1972, following Irving Stowe's departure from the chairmanship of the Don't Make A Wave Committee, the fledgling environmental group officially changed its name to the "Greenpeace Foundation".Sean Connolly, ''Global Organizations: Greenpeace'', Franklin Watts, 2008, p. 13 Later that year David McTaggart would sail his yacht, ''Greenpeace III'', to French Polynesia to oppose the French atmospheric nuclear tests at

Mururoa atoll Moruroa (Mururoa, Mururura), also historically known as Aopuni, is an atoll which forms part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is located about southeast of Tahiti. Administratively Moruroa Atoll i ...

, supported by the new Greenpeace Foundation.

Precursor protest

Formation

Transition to Greenpeace

See also

References

Further reading