Green Peace Original Article

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    Questions 1 to 7 are based on the following passage.

    The passage below describes about Bob Hunter, the first President of Greenpeace, who changed the

    whole world by going against the activities done by

    One Monday morning in 1971, Bob Hunter walked into the Vancouver Sun newspaper office

    we shared and told me what hed been up to the night before. It was in a church basement, hebegan, and related how he and a gang equally crazed activists at this meeting had decided to do

    something about the US nuclear test due to take place at Amchitka, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

    Hunter had come up with the idea of starting a committee called Dont Make a Wave, which

    would sail to Alaska to block the explosion. He told us that as he had left the meeting, he had raised

    his hand in that 1960s hippie mantra and said, Peace. A young social worker then replied, Make it

    a green peace!

    And so this young man became the first Greenpeace president by 1973, led its

    transformation into what it is today: an international organization with a presence in 41 countries

    and with more than 2.5 million members worldwide. Time magazine once named Hunter one of thetop environmental heroes of the 20

    thcentury. He died in May 2005, only 63. He also changed the

    world.

    When we worked at the Vancouver Sun, I had been yearning for years for my own political

    column. But these were anti-Vietnam, pro-pot years, so our managing editor decided he needed

    someone who could explain and relate all of that to our readers. Thats how Hunter to his great

    glee became the first counterculture columnist in all of Canada. I eventually got a slot where I

    could do my dull political stuff, but meanwhile we became close friends, matching insult with insult.

    Hunter and his crewmates didnt succeed in their first quest to stop the nuclear test at

    Amchitka: their sagging 24-metre fishing boat which became the Greenpeace I was blocked by

    the US coastguard from getting near the island, and the underground bomb was eventually

    detonated. But the Vancouver Sun columnist on board filed a dispatch every day of the epic 45-day

    journey.

    Hunters daily reports made headlines across North America and, eventually, the world. In

    the process, these early activists won the battle. Washington became aware of the power of the

    symbolism of the Greenpeace, which now had a growing international following. Amchitka was

    never again used as a nuclear test site.

    However, while the US, along with Britain and the Soviet Union, had agreed to stop

    atmospheric tests and to restrict and to restrict its explosions underground back in 1963, France and

    China had not made such a commitment. France was doing nuclear tests above ground on islands in

    the South Pacific, and in 1972 Greenpeace eco-warriors decided to try to put a stop to it. But French

    warships surrounded their vessel, one coming in so close that it collided, causing so much damage

    that they had to abandon the mission for that year.

    In 1973, French commandos boarded the boat and beat the skipper so severely he was

    partially blinded in one eye. One of the activist crew had photographed the incident and wad able to

    smuggle the film ashore. News of the beating was reported around the world.

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    In 1985, when French secret service agents blasted a hole in the side of the Rainbow Warrior

    while it was berthed in Auckland harbour, Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira was killed.

    The French eventually admitted to sanctioning the attack.

    The Rainbow Warriors destruction ultimately helped turned the world against nuclear

    testing. The birth of Greenpeace and its protests brought public attention to the hunting of whales,

    as well as the dumping of toxic wastes into the oceans. Thanks to Hunters style of attracting

    publicity Greenpeace tree-huggers blocked oil tankers, hung banners on New Yorks Statue of

    Liberty and climbed Torontos CN Tower the world woke up.

    Bob Hunter ended his journalism career though he readily confessed that he was a traitor

    to his profession, since his writing was always opinionated doing a regular breakfast-time TV gig in

    Toronto. On camera in his dressing gown, hed go through all the morning newspapers, explaining to

    viewers the slant and distortion depending on each newspaper owners political persuasion.

    When he lost his long fight against prostate cancer, his death didnt go unnoticed. It made

    headlines in North America, Europe and Asia.

    At his memorial service, nine speakers gave their tributes, including two of his children,

    Conan and Emily, and Bobbi, his wife of 31 years. Dalton McGuinty, premier on Ontario, told those

    gathered Hunter was a citizen of the world who altered history. The then Canadian Prime Minister

    Paul Martin also sent his condolences. And Paul Watson, with whom Hunter faced down a sealing

    ship on ice floes off Newfoundland, announced that a new ship dedicated to research and activist

    campaign would be named Robert Lorne Hunterand to unending cheers that Bob is going back

    to the sea.

    Everyone leaving the service was handed a tiny seedling, accompanied by a note:

    Embrace your friends

    Love your family

    Celebrate all life

    And hug this tree

    for me

    Love, Bob

    My little tree is flourishing, as are my memories of a lifelong friend whose idealism helped

    change the entire world.