future

« Continued from first page

Today, with 30 years of experience behind it, Greenpeace can say it has as clear mission as the crew members of the first expedition. We want to protect and save the global environmental "commons"; ensure there is a world our children can live in without risks from polluted water, air, land and food.

To rise to this challenge, Greenpeace has grown to become a global organisation. One of its greatest visionaries, David McTaggart, whose untimely and sudden death we mark below, understood the significance of 'globalisation' long before the phrase came into common use, and was instrumental in expanding Greenpeace into eastern Europe and later Asia.

The need for global leadership is clear. The United States has retreated to a position of short-term political expediency, pulling back from its global responsibilities on environmental issues. President George W Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol shows that he has chosen to listen to the partisan voices of corporate America. However imperfect, the protocol remains a vital mechanism for addressing the damaging effects of global warming, and its rejection shows a fundamental lack of leadership from the world's only superpower.

With 25 national offices and a presence in 39 countries, Greenpeace's battle continues on many fronts. We have a project based in the heart of the Amazon where industrial logging interests are plundering timber and destroying the precious eco-system. In taking the lead in opposing the attempts by the biotechnology industry to introduce genetically engineered crops into agriculture, we have alerted the world to the potential threat that uncontrolled releases pose to wildlife, biodiversity and even human health.

These are roles Greenpeace undertakes today. But neither Greenpeace nor the environmental movement as a whole can achieve everything alone: others must play their part. Globalisation may be making a minority richer, stronger. But with such gains come responsibilities. Political and business leadership comes hand in hand with responsibility. That means caring for the global threat of climate change, taking a lead in measures to reduce its effects; taking a lead in establishing controls and eliminating the resource-depleting and polluting habits of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a stark choice world leaders face: continuing to treat the world as a never-ending plunder box, or accepting the obvious reality that it is not.

Greenpeace will be there to hold to account those who should accept this leadership. In 30 years time, it may be too late to take action. That is why in looking towards the next 30 years Greenpeace can say with unchallenged legitimacy, 'we are here for all the futures'.

Gerd Leipold Executive Director Greenpeace International