Across the world, right now, billionaires, oligarchs, and corporations are using their wealth to silence dissent, undo decades of social and environmental progress, and manipulate the game in their favour.

In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump has actively dismantled and weakened environmental protection and gone after those who fight to protect our nature and climate, with relentless attacks on democratic institutions and public protections, putting corporate profits and power for him and his billionaire friends ahead of people and planet and our future.

The Trump administration has not only left the Paris Climate agreement and offered Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling. He has also opened up pristine and protected marine ecosystems in the Pacific to industrial fishing and wants to launch deep sea mining in US and International waters. And while he exempted oil and gas products from the universal tariff earlier in April, he has ended investments in clean energy and instead boosted coal, oil and gas by weakening regulations and removing obstacles to the fossil fuel industry. [1]

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Trump’s biggest allies are a handful of billionaires, and the fossil fuel companies who are knowingly burning the planet, polluting our waters, and hurting families and communities around the world. These corporate bullies will stop at nothing to keep their oil and gas empire alive – even weaponising the legal system to crush dissent and silence environmental activism.

A key weapon being used by the oligarchy against those advocating for a green, just future is SLAPP lawsuits, like the one waged against Greenpeace in the US and Greenpeace International by the fossil fuel pipeline giant Energy Transfer – a company headed by billionaire and Trump donor Kelcy Warren. In a deeply disappointing verdict, a US jury found Greenpeace International and Greenpeace in the US liable for over $660 million to Energy Transfer.

For the billionaires and big oil companies, this is not about the money. They simply want to silence the uncomfortable truth: their business models are the root cause of climate change and environmental destruction.

Make no mistake: this is a direct attack on our rights and freedoms, on the climate movement and peaceful protest. But we will fight back. Our supporters and allies number in the millions, and fight environmental polluters in every corner of the world. Neither a fossil fuel company nor any other corporate bully will silence us.

100 days have gone by. The next 100 days are time for action: it is time to resist Trump and his billionaire bullies. Will you join us?

Fight the billionaire takeover

It’s time to resist – starting today. So will you join the fight against the billionaire takeover?

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1. Learn more about the some of the other climate destroying actions Trump has taken in his first 100 Days. 

Daniel Bengtsson is the Head of Communications for Greenpeace Nordic. 

We’ve visited ground zero. Not once, but three times. But for generations, before these locations were designated as such, they were the ancestral home to the people of the Marshall Islands.  

As part of a team of Greenpeace scientists and specialists from the Radiation Protection Advisors team, we have embarked on a six-week tour on-board the Rainbow Warrior, sailing through one of the most disturbing chapters in human history: between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs across the Marshall Islands — equivalent to 7,200 Hiroshima explosions. 

During this period, testing nuclear weapons at the expense of wonderful ocean nations like the Marshall Islands was considered an acceptable practice, or as the US put it, “for the good of mankind”. Instead, the radioactive fallout left a deep and complex legacy—one that is both scientific and profoundly human, with communities displaced for generations.

Between March and April, we traveled on the Greenpeace flagship vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, throughout the Marshall Islands, including to three northern atolls that bear the most severe scars of Cold War nuclear weapons testing: 

• Enewetak atoll, where, on Runit Island, stands a massive leaking concrete dome beneath which lies plutonium-contaminated waste, a result of from a partial “clean-up” of some of the islands after the nuclear tests
• Bikini atoll, a place so beautiful, yet rendered uninhabitable by some of the most powerful nuclear detonations ever conducted;
• And Rongelap atoll, where residents were exposed to radiation fallout and later convinced to return to contaminated land, part of what is now known as Project 4.1, a U.S. medical experiment to test humans’  exposure to radiation.

This isn’t fiction, nor distant past. It’s a chapter of history still alive through the environment, the health of communities, and the data we’re collecting today. Each location we visit, each sample we take, adds to a clearer picture of some of the  long-term impacts of nuclear testing—and highlights the importance of continuing to document, investigate, and attempt to understand and share these findings.

These are our field notes from a journey through places that hold important lessons for science, justice, and global accountability.

Our mission: why are we here?

With the permission and support of the Marshallese government, a group of Greenpeace science and radiation experts, together with independent scientists, are in the island nation to assess, investigate, and document the long-term environmental and radiological consequences of nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands.

Our mission is grounded in science. We’re conducting field sampling and radiological surveys to gather data on what radioactivity remains in the environment – isotopes such as caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239/240. These substances are released during nuclear explosions and can linger in the environment for decades posing serious health risks, such as increased risk of cancers in organs and bones. But this work is not only about radiation measurements, it is also about bearing witness.

We are here in solidarity with Marshallese communities who continue to live with the consequences of decisions made decades ago, without their consent and far from the public eye.

Stop 1: Enewetak Atoll – the dome that shouldn’t exist

At the far western edge of the Marshall Islands is Enewetak. The name might not ring a bell for many, but this atoll was the site of 43 U.S. nuclear detonations. Today, it houses what may be one of the most radioactive places in the world: the Runit Dome.

Once a tropical paradise thick with coconut palms, now Runit Island is capped by a massive concrete structure the size of a football field. Under this dome—cracked, weather-worn, and only 46 centimeters thick in some places—lies 85,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste. These substances are not only confined to the crater—they are also found across the island’s soil, rendering Runit Island uninhabitable for all time. The contrast between what it once was and what it has become is staggering. We took samples near the dome’s base, where rising sea levels now routinely flood the area.

We collected coconut from the island which will be processed and prepared in the Rainbow Warrior’s onboard laboratory. Crops such as coconut are a known vector for radioactive isotope transfer, and tracking levels in food sources is essential for understanding long-term environmental and health risks. The local consequences of this simple fact are deeply unjust. While some atolls in the Marshall Islands can harvest and sell coconut products, the people of Enewetak are prohibited from doing so because of radioactive contamination. They have lost not only their land and safety but also their ability to sustain themselves economically. The radioactive legacy has robbed them of income and opportunity.

One of the most alarming details about this dome is that there is no lining beneath the structure – it is in direct contact with the environment – while containing some of the most hazardous long lived substances ever to exist on planet earth. It was never built to withstand flooding, sea level rise, and climate change. The scientific questions are urgent: how much of this material is already leaking into the lagoon? What are the exposure risks to marine ecosystems and local communities? 

We are here to help answer questions with new, independent data, but still, being in the craters and walking on this ground where nuclear Armageddon was unleashed, is an emotional and surreal journey.

Stop 2: Bikini – a nuclear catastrophe, labeled “for the good of mankind”

Unlike Chernobyl or Fukushima, where communities were devastated by catastrophic accidents, Bikini tells a different story. This was not an accident. The nuclear destruction of Bikini was deliberate, calculated, and executed with full knowledge that entire ways of life were going to be destroyed.

Bikini atoll is incredibly beautiful and would look idyllic on any postcard. But we know what lies beneath: the site of 23 nuclear detonations, including Castle Bravo, the largest ever nuclear weapons test conducted by the United States.

Castle Bravo alone released more than 1,000 times the explosive yield of the Hiroshima bomb. The radioactive fallout massively contaminated nearby islands and their populations together with thousands of U.S. military personnel. Bikini’s former residents were forcibly relocated in 1946 before nuclear testing began, and with promises of a safe return. But the atoll is still uninhabited and most of the new generations of Bikinians have never seen their home island. As we stood deep in the forest next to a massive concrete blast bunker, reality hit hard – behind its narrow lead-glass viewing window, U.S. military personnel once watched the evaporation of Bikini lagoon.

On our visit we notice there’s a spectral quality to Bikini. The homes of the Bikini islanders are long gone. In its place now stand a scattering of buildings left by the U.S. Department of Energy: rusting canteens, rotting offices, sleeping quarters with peeling walls, and traces of the scientific experiments conducted here after the bombs fell.

On dusty desks we found radiation reports, notes detailing crop trials, and a notebook meticulously tracking the application of potassium to test plots of corn, alfalfa, lime, and native foods like coconut, pandanus, and banana. The potassium was intended to block the uptake of caesium-137, a radioactive isotope, by plant roots. The logic was simple: if these crops could be decontaminated, perhaps one day Bikini could be repopulated. 

We collected samples of coconuts and soil—key indicators of internal exposure risk if humans were to return. Bikini raises a stark question: what does “safe” mean, and who gets to decide? The U.S. declared parts of Bikini habitable in 1970, only to evacuate people again eight years later after resettled families suffered from radiation exposure. The science is not abstract here. It is personal. It is human. It has real consequences.  

Stop 3: Rongelap – setting for Project 4.1

The Rainbow Warrior arrived at the eastern side of Rongelap atoll anchoring one mile from the center of Rongelap Island, the church spire and roofs of “new” buildings reflecting the bright sun. In 1954, fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear detonation on Bikini blanketed this atoll in radioactive ash—fine, white powder that children played in, thinking it was snow. The U.S. government waited three days to evacuate residents, despite knowing the risks. The U.S. government declared it safe to return to Rongelap in 1957 – but it was a severely contaminated environment. The very significant radiation exposure to the Rongelap population caused severe health impacts: thyroid cancers, birth defects such as “jellyfish babies”, miscarriages, and much more. 

In 1985, after a request to the US government to evacuate was dismissed, the Rongelap community asked Greenpeace to help relocate them from their ancestral lands. Using the first Rainbow Warrior, and over a period of 10 days and three trips, 350 residents collectively dismantled their homes bringing everything with them – including livestock, and 100 metric tons of building material – where they resettled on the islands of Mejatto and Ebeye on Kwajalein atoll. It is a part of history that lives on in the minds of the Marshallese people we meet in this ship voyage – in the gratitude they still express, the pride in keeping the fight for justice, and in the pain of still not having a permanent, safe home.

Now, once again, we are standing on their island of Rongelap, walking past abandoned buildings and rusting equipment, some of it dating from the 1980s and 1990s – a period when the U.S. Department of Energy launched a push to encourage resettlement declaring that the island was safe – a declaration that this time, the population welcomed with mistrust, not having access to independent scientific data and remembering the deceitful relocation of some decades before. 

Here, once again we sample soil and fruits that could become food if people came back. It is essential to understand ongoing risks—especially for communities considering whether and how to return.

This is not the end. It is just the beginning

Our scientific mission is to take measurements, collect samples, and document contamination. But that’s not all we’re bringing back.

We carry with us the voices of the Marshallese who survived these tests and are still living their consequences. We carry images of graves swallowed by tides near Runit Dome, stories of entire cultures displaced from their homelands, and measurements of radiation showing contamination still persists after many decades. There are 9,700 nuclear warheads still held by military powers around the world – mostly in the United States and Russian arsenals. The Marshall Islands was one of the first nations to suffer the consequences of nuclear weapons – and the legacy persists today.

We didn’t come to speak for the Marshallese. We came to listen, to bear witness, and to support their demand for justice. We plan to return next year, to follow up on our research and to make results available to the people of the Marshall Islands. And we will keep telling these stories—until justice is more than just a word.

Kommol Tata (“thank you” in the beautiful Marshallese language) for following our journey.

Shaun Burnie is a senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine and was part of the Rainbow Warrior team in the Marshall Islands.

São Paulo, Brazil, Meat giant JBS was forced to temporarily halt its annual shareholder meeting following interruptions by Greenpeace Brazil activists protesting the company’s role in environmental destruction and climate breakdown.

Cristiane Mazzetti, Campaigner, Greenpeace Brasil said: “We took action today because JBS and its rapacious appetite for profit represents everything wrong with industrial agriculture. Its supply chain keeps fuelling deforestation in vital ecosystems like the Amazon and its colossal emissions – particularly methane – rival even those of some fossil fuel companies.” 

“JBS’s meat empire was built on broken promises, environmental destruction and many corruption scandals. It shouldn’t be rewarded with a New York Stock Exchange listing and offshoring to the Netherlands that will line the pockets of its billionaire bosses and fund a global expansion that will help tip the planet deeper into climate chaos. Companies like JBS have no place on the public markets.”

The activists were forcibly removed from the Sao Paulo headquarters of JBS,  the world’s largest meat company, after interrupting a shareholder presentation by displaying hand banners reading ‘#RespectTheAmazon’ and ‘JBS: Your Profit, Our Extinction’ in Portuguese.

A further ten activists protested at the entrance to the building, with some handcuffing themselves to the railings. Others unveiled a large banner reading ‘JBS profits, forests burn’, a reference both to the company’s links to deforestation in the Amazon and industrial agriculture’s outsized contribution to climate change.A giant 1200m² banner bearing the same message was installed by Greenpeace Brazil climbers upon the roof of an adjacent JBS building. 

Two of the activists impersonated billionaire JBS bosses Joesley and Wesley Batista, whose involvement in a string of high-profile corruption scandals are well established. An online dossier documenting JBS’ long history of broken promises, and allegations of environmental and human rights abuses and political corruption was published today by Greenpeace Brasil. 

As events unfolded in Brazil, protesters targeted JBS and JBS subsidiary buildings and products in several European countries, including in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.

Mazzetti continued: “We are calling for JBS’ listing to be stopped and for the Netherlands’ regulator – Bureau Financieel Toezicht – to step up. We urgently need governments to hold industrial agriculture to account for the damage it’s causing around the world, so we can stop this beef behemoth in its tracks.”

The protest comes days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission greenlit an application by JBS to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange.[1] The listing is paired with a restructure that relocates JBS’ parent company from Brazil to the Netherlands. 

“The planned restructure would also increase the voting control of the billionaire Batista brothers from 48% to almost 85%, limiting the ability of minority shareholders to influence the company on environmental or human rights issues. Earlier this month, it was reported that a $5 million USD donation by Pilgrim’s Pride, a poultry company owned by JBS, was the largest given to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund.[2]”

ENDS

Notes:

Photos and videos available from the Greenpeace Media Library.

Greenpeace and other campaign groups have warned that listing on the US market will help JBS fund a global expansion that will supercharge global emissions and threaten vital ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest.[3] 

In early February, Greenpeace International’s lawyers issued a legal letter to Dutch notary firm Loyens & Loeff, JBS’s notaries in the Netherlands, urging it to take immediate action to assess whether providing legal services to JBS in support of its planned NL restructure and NYSE listing is in accordance with its professional duties, due to JBS’s links to environmental destruction, corruption and human rights abuses. Greenpeace International also alerted the Dutch notary regulator, Bureau Financieel Toezicht (BFT). 

A recent investigation by Unearthed, Repórter Brasil and the Guardian found that JBS will fail to meet its flagship target to eradicate deforestation from its vast Amazon supply chain by the end of this year, while in early 2025 sustainability chief Jason Weller cast doubt on the company’s pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2040.[4][5]

Greenpeace Brasil report ‘JBS: Cooking the Planet’ is available online or as a PDF.

[1] JBS, ‘JBS Completes SEC Registration and Calls Shareholders’ Meeting to Vote on Dual Listing’, 23 April 2025

[2] Mother Jones, ‘Corporate Chiefs Gave Trump’s Inaugural Committee $250 Million. Benefits Abound’, 18 April 2025

[3] Global Witness, ‘JBS S.A. Dual Listing on New York Stock Exchange: A collective warning of risks to people, planet and investors’, 2 October 2024

[4] Unearthed, ‘JBS is likely to fail to deliver on its Amazon deforestation promise, ranchers say’, 17 April 2025

[5] Reuters, ‘Brazilian meatpacker JBS says net-zero emissions pledge was ‘never a promise’, 15 January 2025

Contacts:

Brazil time zone: Lais Modelli, Press Coordinator, Greenpeace Brazil, +55 14 98127 9058, lais.modelli@greenpeace.org 

Europe time zone: Joe Evans, Global Comms Lead, Big Agriculture, Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387 , joe.evans@greenpeace.org 

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

Whether you live in Manila or in Los Angeles, you’re already feeling the impacts of the climate crisis. Last year’s series of six typhoons hitting the Philippines within just 30 days was unprecedented. The flames that ravaged through LA’s metropolitan area were equally historic. Scientific studies confirm Big Oil’s greenhouse gas emissions made both catastrophes significantly more likely to occur. 

Making dirty energy companies pay for climate disasters they have caused is not only fair – it’s also practical. Consider their massive profits. In 2024, five oil and gas corporations alone reported over US$100 billion in total profit. 

That is why making climate polluters pay is the most popular policy option in eight countries, according to a study commissioned last year by Greenpeace International. 

On both sides of the Pacific Ocean, Greenpeace organisations are rallying governments to tax oil and gas corporations so communities may rebuild from climate disasters and invest in solutions. 

Philippines: The CLIMA Bill for climate justice

Greenpeace Philippines is at the forefront of campaigning for the Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Bill to hold polluters accountable for climate damages.

The bill, which Greenpeace Philippines helped draft, mandates climate-related financial disclosures and emissions reduction roadmaps from companies. In addition to a domestic legal framework for loss and damage, mandating due diligence and prevention of human rights harms, particularly in the context of climate change.

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Under the bill, extreme weather survivors may seek redress for harms caused by climate impacts, and a reparations fund shall be used to respond to these claims. The reparations fund will come from penalties slapped on oil and gas corporations and other carbon-intensive industries which breach acceptable emissions thresholds set by the CLIMA Bill. Claims can help marginalized fishers, for instance, replace boats destroyed by extreme weather or smallholder farmers to improve irrigation systems.

The bill is the first of its kind in the Global South, where the impacts of climate change are felt most acutely – despite these countries contributing the least to global emissions.

USA: The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act

California is the largest economy in the United States. If it were a nation, it would be the world’s fifth largest economy. Yet, it is also on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Over the past few years alone, California has experienced massive wildfires, deadly heat waves, record floods and more. 

Greenpeace USA is campaigning for the Climate Superfund Act in California to hold oil companies accountable for their role in fueling the disasters that devastate the state. 

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Similar to policies already adopted in Vermont and in New York, [1] the Climate Superfund Act would create a dedicated fund to aid the recovery and rebuilding efforts through fees imposed on large oil and gas corporations relative to their historic emissions and role in driving the climate crisis, effectively making them pay for their fair share of damage they’ve caused. 

Greenpeace USA staff and volunteers are conducting research, advocacy and public communications, while also organizing on the grassroots level. That includes efforts alongside workers and labour unions, like the California Federation of Teachers. These union members will greatly benefit from the creation of the Climate Superfund, which will help ensure those climate costs aren’t forced onto taxpayers or state and local budgets that Californians depend on for schools and other crucial social programs. 

Though California is known for its progressive politics and “green” image, its politicians don’t always live up to those expectations. Recent lobbying included in financial disclosures showed oil and gas companies spent a record US$ 38 million during 2024 to fight climate and environmental justice policies in California. Their efforts concentrated heavily on blocking the Make Polluters Pay Climate Fund. 

That’s why Greenpeace USA launched the Dirty Dems campaign, spotlighting Democratic lawmakers who have taken the most money from the oil and gas industry and voted against critical climate and other progressive priority legislation. 

Greenpeace USA is demanding more from state politicians and Governor Gavin Newsom – it’s time they side with people over corporate donors, and make polluters stop drilling and start paying. 

A global movement takes shape

Around the world pressure is growing to introduce new taxes and fines on oil and gas corporations, to help communities nationally, regionally and globally rebuild from climate disasters and invest in climate solutions. From France to India, from South Africa to the UK, the Polluters Pay Pact is an international initiative, to hold accountable international corporations for an international problem. Our strength is in numbers: add your voice now to the Polluters Pay Pact. 

Polluters Pay Pact

Sign the pact, record your story. Join the global movement to make polluters pay.

Join the movement

Jefferson Chua is a Climate Emergency Preparedness and Response Campaigner at Greenpeace Philippines. Amy Moas, Ph.D. is a Senior Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA.