We have to protect human and animal health by eliminating sources of persistent organic pollutants including PVC and chlorine; promoting cleaner alternatives; and preventing developing nations and the world's oceans from becoming dumping grounds for toxic waste and dirty technologies. Import data compiled by Greenpeace from Government of India statistics for 1998-1999 indicate that more than 100,887 tons, including hazardous and potentially hazardous wastes have entered India illegally, some in violation of a 1997 Indian Supreme Court order banning the imports of hazardous wastes into India. The import data was released even as a High Power Committee of the Supreme Court was gearing up to submit a stock-taking report on the status of indigenously generated and imported hazardous wastes in the country.
The Indian Supreme Court ban was imposed after Greenpeace exposed the imports from Germany in 1995 of waste zinc ash containing high levels of heavy metals by Bharat Zinc Ltd., an Indian waste recovery facility. Subsequent investigations by Greenpeace and Indian NGOs revealed the unregulated imports of a variety of hazardous wastes such as brass ash and used lead-containing automobile batteries.
Greenpeace has singled out the Indian Ministry of Environment for its failure to take the Supreme Court ban seriously, and for failing to stem the tide of toxic waste dumping in India. Equally to blame are the exporters and exporting country governments, which seek to exploit the limitations in the Indian regulatory infrastructure to export their environmental liabilities. It has released scientific findings of the ground water and environmental contamination at the five global toxic hotspots identified in India - in Bhopal, Gujarat and Kerala. In each place, the contamination was caused by unchecked industrial growth.
Greenpeace is a global environmental campaigning organization. They
organize public campaigns for the protection of oceans and ancient forests, for the phasing out of fossil fuels and the promotion of renewable energies in order to stop climatic change, for the elimination of toxic chemicals, against the release of genetically modified organisms into nature and for nuclear disarmament and an end to the nuclear contamination. Greanpeace currently has a presence in over 40 countries.
Greenpeace does not solicit or accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties. It neither seeks nor accepts donations that compromise its independence, aims, objectives or integrity. Greenpeace relies on voluntary donations of individual supporters, and on grant support from foundations. It is committed to the principles of non-violence, political independence and internationalism.
The most obvious but not necessarily the most significant things about Greenpeace are its Attributes - ships, planes, communication capability and campaigns: Antarctica, the Amazon, Solar power, stopping oil exploration, opposing nuclear developments or release of GM crops. The essence of Greenpeace's work is harder to express in words than to capture in events or pictures. It has something to do with respect for nature, freedom and truth. At times when the organization is tested, Greenpeace's character comes to the surface. Optimistic, brave and deeply committed, in not just managing environmental abuse but in eliminating it.
