From a protest calling for the protection of the Mayan jungle in Mexico to the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace’s work around the world this week.

Mexico – As part of the campaign “Mexico to the cry of Selva”, activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace Mexico held a protest on Monday morning at the delegation of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) in Cancun, with the aim of demanding that the agency stop authorizations to exploit banks of stone material in the Mayan jungle, known locally as “sascaberas”.

The sascaberas have devastated close to 10 thousand hectares of jungle, driven by the uncontrolled real estate growth associated with massive tourism and by works of megaprojects such as the Mayan Train.

New Zealand – The Rainbow Warrior arrived in Auckland, New Zealand to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the original Rainbow Warrior and the death of photographer Fernando Pereira. The Greenpeace flagship has just returned from taking action on bottom trawling on the Chatham Rise off New Zealand’s East Coast.

Germany – Together with the artist duo VIDEO.SCKRE: Julia Heinisch & Frederic Sontag, Greenpeace and the exhibition project HALLENKUNST are creating a mural for more global justice, peace and climate protection over the course of seven days. The occasion is an international campaign by Greenpeace with the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The motif of the painting was developed in consultation with the artist Geovannie Johnson from the Marshall Islands.

Germany – Activists from Greenpeace Germany protest in front of the Reichstag building on the banks of the Spree with a giant inflatable pink octopus (8 x 10 x 5 metres) for the protection of the deep sea. They want to draw attention to the upcoming decisions on deep-sea mining during the annual general meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Jamaica. With the inflatable deep-sea animal and banners, the protesters are calling on the German government to oppose the start of deep-sea mining in international waters and to vote in favour of a moratorium.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, please visit our Media Library.

On July 10, 1985, at 11:48 p.m. and 11:51 p.m., two extremely powerful bombs planted by the French secret services sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in less than four minutes in an attempt to stop a campaign against nuclear testing in the Pacific ocean. Ten people were on board. Fatal for my friend, the photographer Fernando Pereira, this terrorist attack, ordered by President François Mitterrand¹, and a veritable declaration of war against New Zealand, quickly became an incredible international political fiasco and a scandalous state affairs, now recounted in the history books.

In 1980, at the age of 23, I had the chance of embarking upon the Rainbow Warrior as a photographer and a crew member. It was the beginning of my long journey as a photographer for Greenpeace (over 37 years, 220 reports, 40 countries, 12 ships). At the beginning of this saga, I lived on the Rainbow Warrior for a year and was an eye witness to four spectacular campaigns and their victories.

Recently, Greenpeace International agreed to return to me 35 kg of my negatives and slides that were stored in their Amsterdam offices. I have just finished digitizing this unique collection after a long operation of rescuing originals very damaged by the tumult of years. In these archives, I rediscovered many forgotten images. They take us to the heart of the daily life of the crews of the Rainbow Warrior.

To pay tribute to the memory of this very special boat, I propose a portfolio spanning from 1980 to 1986, containing many photos of non-violent direct actions that highlight the recklessness and the commitment of these pioneers in environmental protection.

This album begins with my very first report for Greenpeace, shot over three weeks while off the coast of Great Britain to intercept, with drums and trumpets, a cargo ship loaded with Japanese nuclear waste.

The following campaign would be longer; six months of extreme intensity in Spain. In 1979, the Spanish killed 425 whales off their coast. This adventure ended with a fantastic escape from the military port of El Ferrol and by a global moratorium on whaling voted by the International Whaling Commission in 1982. This triumph is engraved in gold letters on the long list of Greenpeace victories.

We’re young, we’re fired up. We believe that whales are part of the common heritage of humanity, we do not agree with their extermination, and we are determined to make it known…

– Rainbow Warrior Mon Amour

Barely recovered from our emotions, we set sail again with the Rainbow Warrior and crossed the Atlantic to oppose the killers of baby seals in 1981 on the Labrador ice floe and in 1982 on the ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Campaigns which would lead to a total embargo by the European Union on the importation of seal skins and in turn, would lead to the collapse of seal hunting in Canada.

In August 1985, I was assigned by the Associated Press to cover Greenpeace’s campaign against French nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean on a new ship, urgently chartered to compensate for the disappearance of the Rainbow Warrior. In October, disembarking in Auckland after 43 days at sea, I was able to follow the trial of the “false Turenge spouses”, the assumed name of the two agents of the DGSE (General Directorate of external security) arrested following the largest police investigation ever conducted in New Zealand. Charged and imprisoned for Fernando’s murder, their charge would later be reclassified as manslaughter. 150 journalists of all nationalities requested accreditation from the court to follow this event, at the end of which the false Turenge couple were sentenced to ten years in prison.

In Auckland, I was also able to take my last photos of the Rainbow Warrior before its immersion in the Matauri Bay Marine Reserve. Today, this wreck, steeped in history, has become a tourist attraction visited by divers all over the world.

Before July 10, 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was already well known, the attack turned it into a legend.

Pierre Gleizes is a Greenpeace photographer. To see Pierre’s Rainbow Warrior portfolio visit, La planète de Pierre Gleizes

_{¹ Admiral Pierre Lacoste, directeur de la DGSE, Un amiral au secret, Flammarion, 1997}

Auckland, New Zealand – 40 years ago today, Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by French secret service agents in an operation that murdered photographer Fernando Pereira. The commemoration coincides with Greenpeace resisting a new wave of attacks from the billionaires and corporate polluters who plunder our precious planet. 

The bombing was an attempt to silence anti-nuclear protests in the Pacific. It backfired, igniting a global outcry and galvanising a movement. “You Can’t Sink a Rainbow” became a rallying call for resistance. It was a call to courage, putting hope into action for a better world.

Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director, said:

“Whether forty years ago or today, Greenpeace will resist, we will persist, and we will win. Alongside our allies, and inspired by the courage of those who came before us, the global community of people working together in hope and for each other will prevail over those who plunder the planet for profit and power.”

“This anniversary is a moment to remember Fernando Pereira. It is a moment to remember that when we join together, we can, and have changed the world for the better.”

“In 1985, the French government wasn’t just trying to sink a ship – it was attempting to sink a movement, to attack activism, and to silence the voice of hope. They failed. They blew wind in our sails.”

“Greenpeace and the movement refused to back down and continued to campaign against nuclear testing until, in 1996, we won.”

“In 2025, civil society is under increased attacks from billionaires and fossil fuel companies trying to silence dissent, but we will show again that hope rises as we join together to meet this moment with increased unity and courage”.

In 1985, the Rainbow Warrior had just helped relocate the people of Rongelap to Mejatto. The 300 Marshall Islanders were suffering severe health effects – including radiation sickness, birth defects, and high cancer rates – as a consequence of the fallout from the notorious 1954 US Castle Bravo nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll.

The crew then sailed to Auckland to join protests against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. The Rainbow Warrior was to lead a flotilla of boats into the test zone to disrupt and draw international attention to atmospheric nuclear tests.

In the wake of the bombing protests and international pressure against nuclear weapons testing continued to build. Greenpeace mounted three further protest expeditions to Mururoa in 1990, 1992 and 1995 on board the Rainbow Warrior II.

In 1995 the Rainbow Warrior sailed into the test zone, defying exclusion orders and attempting to disrupt the tests, drawing global media attention and support. French forces seized the ship and arrested the crew, sparking widespread international condemnation. Although six tests went ahead, the intense backlash contributed to President Jacques Chirac announcing a permanent end to nuclear testing and signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996.

ENDS

Notes:

Pictures and video of the Rainbow Warrior lit up as a “beacon of resistance”

Contacts:

Simon Black, Greenpeace International:  +61 420 488 219, sblack@greenpeace.org

Nick Young, Greenpeace Aotearoa: +6421707727, nyoung@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, phone: +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org