Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organisation, consisting of 28 independent national and regional offices with presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific; and Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as the organisation's international coordinating body
The global organization states that it does not accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties, relying on individual supporters and foundation grants.
Greenpeace evolved from the peace movement and anti-nuclear protests in Vancouver, British Columbia in the early 1970's. On September 15, 1971, the Don't Make a Wave Committee sent the eighty foot halibut seiner Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace for the protest, from Vancouver, to oppose United States testing of nuclear devices in Amchitka, Alaska. While the boat never reached its destination and was turned back by the US military, this campaign was deemed the first using the name Greenpeace.
In a few years Greenpeace spread to several countries and started to campaign on other environmental issues Today the focus of the organization is promoting an energy revolution to address climate change; defending the oceans by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing and creating a global network of marine reserves; protecting the world's ancient forests and the animals, plants and people that depend on them; working for disarmament and peace by tackling the causes of conflict and calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons; campaigning for sustainable agriculture by rejecting genetically engineered organisms, protecting biodiversity and encouraging socially responsible farming; creating a toxic free future with safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals in today's products and manufacturing.