How to Change the World (2015) Movie Script

1
Mr. Schlesinger has
an announcement.
We will hand out
copies momentarily
so you won't have to write
down what he said.
He'll take questions afterwards.
The Atomic Energy Commission
is now planning to proceed
with the Cannikin test.
We have now received
the requisite authority
to go ahead,
including detonation.
On the windswept island
of Amchitka,
final preparations
for the test go on.
Filling the 6,000-foot
deep hole with sand.
The five megaton nuclear bomb
rests at the bottom.
Since childhood,
when I started making
science fiction comics
in my school scribblers,
I loved to draw.
But by the time I got
a place at art school,
Uncle Sam and Comrade Ivan
were pointing
56,000 nuclear warheads
at each other
and boys my age
were coming back
in body bags from Vietnam.
The American dream
was turning into
a planetary nightmare.
AEC scientists say
they are not worried.
The blast will set off
a large earthquake
or a tidal wave.
Drawing comics didn't
seem to be enough.
So I burned my college
acceptance letter
on the steps
of my high school,
and set off
to change the world.
Young people demonstrated
their opposition
to the nuclear blast
by closing
the main highway crossings
at the U.S./Canadian border
between Seattle
and Vancouver.
No more Amchitkas!
No more Amchitkas!
No more Amchitkas!
I don't think this
particular demonstration
can necessarily stop it,
but, it reflects
a level of awareness
that wasn't here,
say, five years ago.
By the fall of 1971,
I am a columnist
for The Vancouver Sun
and had volunteered
to chronicle a voyage
into a bomb.
The protest ship,
the Greenpeace,
is heading for Amchitka,
hoping to anchor offshore
and stop the test.
The boat is one more factor
for Richard Nixon
to have to consider,
the possibility of some
international incident
involving Canadians.
Until that fateful journey,
nothing has seemed
so absolutely essential
to write about.
But heading into the bomb,
there is only
this antique wooden tub
between us
and the icy seas.
Suddenly,
I am very frightened.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Ninety percent of history
is being in the right place
at the right time.
In Vancouver in 1971, we have
the biggest concentration
of tree-huggers,
draft dodgers,
shit-disturbing unionists,
radical students,
garbage dump stoppers,
freeway fighters,
pot smokers, vegetarians,
nudists, Buddhists,
fish preservationists,
and back-to-the-landers
on the planet.
And we are all haunted
by the specter
of a dead world.
These are the people
who will shape
the next ten years
of my life.
The idea was simple,
send a boat to bear witness
in the Quaker tradition
of going to the scene
of the crime.
Patrick Moore
has just finished
his PhD in Ecology.
He's a bit
psychedelic-looking
for a scientist.
But when he speaks,
it sounds like he knows
what he's talking about.
Well, the committee's position
is that it's opposed
to all testing
of all nuclear weapons
anywhere in the world
by any country.
Paul Watson is
a 19 year old sailor,
who gets bored easily.
Take a picture of you guys
taking a picture.
He has North Vietnamese flags
stitched to his Army jacket,
wears Red Power buttons,
Black Power buttons,
and just about any kind of
anti-establishment button
that can be imagined.
No, that's Bob's
interpretation of it.
I don't recall wearing
all these patches.
The thing is is that everybody
has their own view
of what went down
and I was considered
probably a little more
radical than the others.
Change happens where
things are mixed up,
and things were mixed up
in Vancouver.
There was this ex-patriot
American community,
there was
a Buddhist community,
there were fishermen,
and there was this
talk about ecology.
Rex Weyler is
the Texan photographer
who fled the Vietnam draft
and has been chased
by the FBI up to Vancouver.
Bob Hunter was writing
in The Vancouver Sun.
He was talking about ecology
and peace and social change
and the consciousness
revolution.
And it really was the best
journalism in Vancouver.
But he was more than just
being a writer.
Bob saw himself
as helping to bring about
a cultural revolution.
It's just such madness
that it's almost
a logical area to attack
because two different kinds
of madness have
come together there.
There's the Cold War madness
and there's the
"Let's pollute,
it doesn't matter,
the main thing
is to make a buck."
Conservationists are making
a last ditch attempt
to stop the Amchitka
nuclear test.
Donations have been received
and are continuing
to come in from all over
British Columbia,
and from many parts of the
northwestern United States.
Bob just realized that
if you wanna do a protest,
you have to make a story
that's going to travel well,
an event that would impact
millions of people
in every corner of the world.
The plan is a good one.
Ours is a Canadian vessel
so the Americans
cannot seize it
in international waters
without committing
an act of piracy.
I think we oughta really
mind fuck each other
on this trip.
The fathers of this adventure
are Jim Bohlen, Irving Stowe,
and Ben Metcalfe,
veterans of
the peace movement
who've recruited a younger
generation of eco freaks,
myself included.
The youngest of us all,
Bill Darnell,
has accidentally given
the boat its new name.
At the end of the meetings,
Irving would always say,
"Peace," and flash
the peace sign,
and I said, "We should
make that a green peace."
By putting those two
things together,
Bill symbolized the union
of the peace movement
with the environmental
movement,
and that was a new idea.
That is, in a way,
what gave Greenpeace
its power from the start.
It has been no easy task
to find someone willing
to sail out to the Bering Sea
as winter approaches
and park their vessel
uninsured next to
a nuclear explosion.
But chance has led us
to John Cormack.
Well, yeah, okay,
we'll get into action,
'cause I know this guy's
ready to go...
Should I take my hat off,
and my glasses off,
and smile for ya?
John did it for money.
And he had that
sense of adventure.
Yeah, we're going
to check into that.
He had the nickname
"Hard Luck Cormack,"
and his boat
was in some disrepair.
I just looked at it and said,
"Bob, we are all gonna die."
It is really rolling.
Some of the boys,
they feel pretty sick.
Apart from Captain Cormack,
between us we have almost
no practical experience
with the sea.
Gravity drags our stomachs
into pulpy collision
with our lungs.
The cold grey boil
of the waves
wagging over our heads.
This trip is going to be
at least 100 times as heavy
as I thought.
This little 99-ton
halibut boat
has stayed on
her keel so far,
but the fall
and winter storms
up here are fantastic.
Winds of 120 miles an hour
are not unusual.
Last night, the whole...
We realized that we can send
a 20-second voice clip
from the ship over
the telephone system
and it'll appear on the radio
in Australia, New Zealand,
and other places.
That verified that this
was a real global story.
Back on land, Rod Marining,
the self-styled non-leader
of the Northern Lunatic
Fringe of Yippie,
stokes the fires
of public opinion.
Hey, you know
what it's all about?
It's putting on a good show.
People in Alaska,
down the Pacific coast,
Canada and Japan
have protested.
The people fear earthquakes,
damage to wildlife...
The theory of
electronic communication
was just being developed
at that time.
You know, the fax
hadn't been invented yet.
Bob coined
the term "mind bomb"
for what today we would
call "going viral,"
where an idea gets into
the electronic media
and just spreads like ripples
on the water instantly.
Image is everything.
The boat is an icon.
A mind bomb sailing across
an electronic sea
into the front rooms
of the masses.
Blast Nixon,
not Amchitka.
Blast Nixon,
not Amchitka.
10,000 students showed up
in downtown Vancouver
in front of
the American Consulate.
You know, for us on the boat,
that was really a huge lift.
That gave us a real sense
of accomplishment.
Power to the people!
Power to the people!
The Nixon administration
said today
that the five megaton
nuclear explosion
planned for Amchitka Island
in the Aleutians
will not be set off
before October 27th.
It wouldn't say just when
it will take place
and the President is still
making up his mind on that.
Like a seesaw, the battle
swings back and forth.
But it is possible
that the test has been delayed
just to shake us off.
We knew we shouldn't just
take off and go to Amchitka,
and be there a month early
in what could be
terrible hurricane weather.
So, John decided that we
would go into Akutan Harbor.
Reaching Akutan is a relief.
An Alaskan fishing village
with a small Aleut community,
and an abandoned
whaling station.
John told us we weren't
supposed to go ashore,
but, we went ashore.
In the remains
of the whaling station
huge bones thrust out
of the moss like thickets.
We are intent
on trying to prevent
a nuclear holocaust,
but for this other race
of giant creatures,
the holocaust
has already come.
As though we've been given
a glimpse of our own future.
We walk up into the hills
where it's kind of rocky
and other-worldly.
I think a few people
were a bit
on the psychedelic side.
We all sort of lay
face down in this moss
and immersed ourself
in nature.
And we started to talk.
As Dr. Patrick gives us
the ultimate lecture
in ecology,
in a leaping flash we all
connect with the idea
that all life is interwoven.
The whales, the moss... us.
We are all one.
A flower is your brother.
You know, we just sort of
felt our power.
Whether we were doing this
as a team of men, warriors.
There on Akutan Island,
we bonded in a way
that I'd never really
experienced before.
The next day though,
there in the distance
was a U.S. Coast Guard ship
steamin' straight for us.
The U.S. Navy was
monitoring our voyage.
This commander
gets out and says,
"Where's your captain?"
and he goes up
and talks to John Cormack.
District Director of Customs
asked Coast Guard
to notify
Master Phyllis Cormack
that he has incurred penalty
with the U.S. Customs
for failure to report
on the Tariff Act of 1930.
We're all subject to fines
because we hadn't
cleared Customs.
We entered the
U.S. illegally.
As the captain was up
reading the Riot Act to John,
the three crewmembers
in the boat handed up to us
this crumpled up
piece of paper.
Listen, you guys.
From the crew.
Due to the situation
we are in,
we, the crew of the Confidence,
feel that what you are doing
is for the good
of all mankind.
If our hands weren't tied
by these military bonds,
we would be in the same
position you are in
if it were at all possible.
Good luck, we are
behind you 100 percent.
Hey, that's really great!
We only just started out,
we heard about it, man.
It's far out,
I dig it, man.
It just completely
blew our minds.
Wow.
Signed by 16 members
of the crew.
I think everybody
except the captain.
If vessel does not make
formal entry to Custom
before he departs Akutan,
then he will be in violation...
Up in the wheelhouse,
the commander told us
that we had to go back
to U.S. Customs,
which wasn't any further
out the Aleutian chain
towards Amchitka,
it was the
opposite direction.
And they had us.
The Coast Guard says it has
disciplined an officer
and 17 enlisted men
for supporting a protest
against the planned
nuclear test
on Amchitka Island
in the Aleutians.
The men were all on
the Cutter Confidence
when its skipper boarded
the Canadian yacht,
the Greenpeace,
which was sailing
in the Aleutians
to protest the big test.
We retreat to clear
Customs at Sand Point.
The battle isn't lost
but Amchitka is now
a thousand miles away
and slipping out of reach.
And in the Bering Sea,
ice packs are congealing
and winter is on the wind.
No, I wouldn't sail across
the Gulf of Georgia
in that boat,
you guys are crazy.
Don't let 'em bullshit you,
you know.
We could've gone back
out into international waters
and headed straight
for Amchitka.
We're liable to die
if we do that.
Even huge steel boats
get broken in half up there
in the winter
in the Bering Sea.
I'm just trying to clarify it.
And Metcalfe was arguing
we'd accomplished our purpose,
we'd got it
into the mainstream media,
Trudeau was calling Nixon.
But Bob really wanted
to go on.
And I was in that same camp.
Here's another case in point
that's coming up right now.
I am sick and goddamn
well-tired of this fight
that's going on
between you and you.
I think Bob would've gone
off the boat,
got on the island,
run directly for ground zero,
and gone down the hole
to where the bomb was
if he could've.
He wasn't afraid at all,
of anything, Bob,
he was fearless.
This has gone on
just too far,
there's too many
snide remarks
and backhand statements
in the whole business
and I just don't like it
one goddamn bit.
Bob lived his ideas.
If we're gonna
change the world,
are we gonna risk something?
If it's at all possible,
let's do it.
After seven days of arguing
and not being able to
come to any kind
of a consensus,
Bob just pinned this piece
of paper on his undershirt
one day that just said
"Fuck off," you know like,
don't talk to me, you know,
I've had it, I'm done.
We all were and I think
that's kind of when
Jim Bohlen stepped in
and said,
"Look, we're going back."
Bob felt abject failure.
He was angry, he was sad,
he was beside himself
that we weren't continuing.
It broke his heart.
It's sickening for me
to realize that a revolution
can go no faster or further
than people themselves
who are supposedly
saving the world
through our moral example.
But in reality,
we spent most of our time
at each other's throats.
Egos clashing, turning
resistance into psychodrama.
When we were almost back
to Vancouver,
they announced
November the 4th
was the day for the bomb.
This afternoon on hearing that
the Atomic Energy Commission
will proceed with
the Amchitka test
crewmembers said that,
"President Nixon has clearly
circumvented all
legal procedure
in sanctioning the blast."
On Amchitka, the last
workers are hustled away
from the test site
into a concrete bunker
twenty miles away.
And the Chair of
the Atomic Energy Commission
plans a family picnic.
I will be on the island
during the test.
I did bring along two
of the girls and my wife.
And I think that that should
indicate the high degree
of confidence that we have
in the safety of that test.
As a neighbor to a person
who was doing something
potentially dangerous,
I might call the cops.
Uh, yes, well there
are no cops to call.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one, zero.
And that was it,
seven minutes and three seconds
after Cannikin was detonated
on Amchitka,
the first readout
in Vancouver.
The seismic readings
translated into an earthquake
registering 7.0
on the Richter scale.
We all came home feeling
like we'd failed.
But, we sort of were
treated like heroes
which was a little bit
disconcerting, like,
"No, no, we didn't
actually do it,
you got the wrong guys,"
you know.
Many of the Coast Guard
people we talked to,
apart from the officers,
were completely on our side.
- Were they?
- Oh yeah...
As it turns out,
my post-trip despair
is utterly mistaken.
Political pressure generated
by our voyage succeeds
beyond anybody's
wildest dreams.
Five months later,
the nuclear testing program
at Amchitka was
quietly cancelled.
In the next year and a half,
they'll clean up
most of this debris.
After that,
Amchitka will become
what it once was,
a wildlife refuge.
And deep down beneath it,
a cavern full of
trapped radiation
that will endure for
perhaps 20,000 years.
There was definitely
an unfinished feeling
after Amchitka.
It was gnawing away
at the back of our minds
that humanity could do
tremendous harm to this world
even without war.
The name on the sail
of our little boat
has earned some
media capital.
And I suggest
we reinvent ourself
as The Greenpeace Foundation.
Bob felt that there needed
to be an ecology movement
on the same scale
as the civil rights movement,
the women's movement,
the peace movement.
How do you take hold
of the global mind,
as it were?
Because the globe
in the '70s,
was not thinking
globally at all.
It was the question
of where do you start
with such a huge
number of problems?
Where do you start?
It only slowly dawned on
Hunter that he probably
should be giving
direction here.
He was struggling
with the question
of whether he was
still a journalist
writing about this movement
or whether he was an activist
leading this movement.
And then, of course,
Paul Spong came along.
Paul Spong is a young
psychologist who landed a job
studying a whale named Skana
at the Vancouver Aquarium.
He's just been fired
for stating publicly
that the whale wants
to be free,
which has made him a bit
of a legend among eco freaks.
Are you sure about that?
This is a kind of
a surprise to the people
of Vancouver and district.
We didn't know that we were
going to get a whale
and all of a sudden
we have one.
I devised an experiment
to try to understand
what her vision was like.
Once she got it,
she was very,
very consistent.
She would perform
at 90 percent or above
day after day after day.
And then on one day,
from one trial to the next,
she reversed her behavior.
She kept on doing it,
but she always got
the answer wrong.
Kind of ruined my experiment.
Paul knew the whale
was playing with him.
But now he was the subject,
and the whale was doing
its research on him.
It was really the first time
that I started to think about,
"Who is this whale?"
Dr. Spong, you are,
at the moment,
protesting the captivity
of Skana the whale
in its present environment.
It's a very dull environment.
It's plain concrete walls,
nothing from the ocean in it.
Not a seashell in it.
Not a seashell.
During the last 50 years,
it has been estimated
that two million whales
had been slaughtered.
An 80-foot whale
weighing 100 tons
can be converted into easily
replaceable ingredients
for industrial lubricants,
margarine, cat food,
and cosmetics.
Paul learned about
what was going on
in the whale world outside.
He wanted to do
something about it
so he came to us.
I was actually aware of Bob,
listening to the stories
about the Amchitka voyage.
This method of direct,
non-violent confrontation
was a method that
actually could succeed
at making change.
I invited Bob to come down
and visit Skana.
At one point,
she opened her jaws wide
with a clear
invitation to him
to put his head inside.
And he did that.
She takes my whole head
in her jaws and holds me
like a crystal goblet
in a vice.
I can feel her teeth making
the slightest indentation
at the back of my neck.
Terror explodes in my chest.
She could snap my head
like an eggshell,
but chooses not to.
Suddenly, I get it.
She's shown me exactly
where my courage ends
and my fear begins.
Then, as though satisfied,
she lets go...
and sinks away.
I think everything
that he was struggling with
coalesced and he realized
at that moment
what he had to do.
This is my farewell column.
I have quit The Vancouver Sun.
Not in anger.
Not under pressure.
Not for any good reason
except that, to me,
it seems clear
that the time has come
to commit myself fully
to what has loosely
been called
the environmental movement.
I've cut my hair,
trimmed my beard,
and somewhere along the line,
I lost my headband.
There used to be 4.5 million
whales on this planet.
What we've done is
we've removed 90 percent
of the whales already.
Like there are already
about five species
they're not allowed
to hunt any longer
because they have reached
a point called
"commercial extinction."
If there is intelligent life
on this planet,
it ain't necessarily us.
I remember being at a meeting
and supporting the efforts
to stop the French testing
in the atmosphere.
Everybody's very earnest
and intense.
And then Hunter said,
"Well, here's what
we're gonna do.
We're gonna save the whales."
I thought he was just nuts.
Saving whales?
Whales?
I was not in favor.
What has that got
to do with anything?
It horrified the rest
of the group.
I didn't see it.
I didn't think
I wanted to go
in that direction with it.
That's kind of
a regret for me.
I think it's one of
the things about Bob Hunter
was he was spontaneous
enough to recognize
the power and the integrity
of a new idea and go with it.
Bob always recognized
that you can change the world
through a camera
much easier than with a gun,
and much more effectively.
The concept was complete
from the outset.
We have to get between
the whales and the harpooner.
That's the image
we have to get.
It was completely premeditated.
Well, I thought it
was a great idea
and we could probably
intercept them using Zodiacs,
which I was familiar with
because I was
in the Coast Guard.
And everybody else worried
about the risk,
but, I figure, you know,
that was the whole
point of it.
Harpooning a whale
is not really a story,
but people risking
their lives to protect
the lives of a whale,
that's a story.
The announcement that
Greenpeace intends to rescue
the last of the great whales
has released
a frightening energy.
Some kind of psychic tom-tom
is at work in the jungles
of the collective unconscious.
And it's brought people
in droves.
You wanna grab hold
of the line
and take it up the mast,
you guys?
Sure, yeah, where is it?
My newfound love, Bobbi,
becomes the driving energy
that fuses the parts
of this kaleidoscope together.
It was a magic time.
We needed money and then
money would happen.
We needed people,
the right person
would come along.
I took over the treasury.
And the treasury at that time
consisted of a little,
tiny lockbox
with about $50 in it
and a couple
of receipts, and...
And we moved from there.
We have a fine,
if unconventional,
blend of human talents.
For every mystic,
we have at least one mechanic.
It wasn't really
a lot of people,
but, boy, did we do
a lot of things.
Day and night,
we would be making lists
of hundreds of things
that we had to do.
We really had fun
with each other.
We laughed and joked
and pushed and...
To the point that we had
a whole other language
going on amongst ourselves.
Why don't I let you just talk
to Walrus, here he is.
Just hold down
on that button.
Walrus is
an archaeology graduate
who looks like
a frontier cowboy.
Hi Walrus... I mean,
hello, Rut.
Paul Watson called me
and said,
"Hey, Walrus,
come on out here.
We're trying to set this
whale thing up."
I thought, "Well,
you need a cook,
I'll just take that on."
No one ever has found out
why he's changed his name
from David Garrick
to Walrus Oakenbough.
As I was exploring the topic
of magic mushrooms
and different
psychedelic plants,
I didn't want
to use my real name.
Just for logistical purposes.
When we hoped for
a film crew,
cameraman Ron Precious
arrived with 20,000 feet
of Kodachrome.
The crew welcomed me
as the cameraman
and Fred Easton
was my sound man
as well as
the second camera.
We were all there
for the same reason,
to get powerful,
iconic images that would,
you know, resonate
with everyone.
And when we wanted another
Zodiac inflatable,
Carlie Trueman turned up
with one of her own.
Twenty-three years old
and an experienced
scuba diver.
Definitely more a mechanic
than a mystic.
Absolutely true.
Okay, here we go.
I mean, this was
a motley group of people
if there ever was one.
And I looked at them all
and I thought,
"What the hell am I getting
involved with?"
- Maybe turn a little bit.
- Turn a little bit.
Like the fashion...
A mad costume designer
has wrought a uniform for me
out of green
and navy blue corduroy,
with huge pirate style cuffs
featuring enough
officer stripes
to rank me as the commander
of some psychedelic NATO.
Hang on a sec, hang on a sec.
But the idea of leading
anything troubles me.
I've always hated leaders.
My father deserted my mother
when I was still young
and it's close
to nauseating to realize
I'd become group
father myself.
He wasn't
an organizational man,
but Bob embodied
what I think of
as real true leadership.
He was visionary,
he could look into the future
and imagine things
that didn't yet exist,
and he could inspire
and empower people
to contribute.
Groovy, man.
This was
a glorious revolution,
this just wasn't about us
going out and saving whales.
We were talking about
a new way of being
in the world.
One of the languages
we're learning
to speak here is whale.
That's whale language.
Creatures of light,
monsters of the deep.
Aquatic acrobats.
The biggest brains
on the planet.
Is there any way we can
bridge this species gap
and actually communicate
with the whale?
We believe that music
was the way
to communicate with them.
I was at work one day
in San Francisco,
having lunch,
reading about Watergate.
My co-worker turned
on the radio,
and it was a talk show
but the voices
were not human,
they were whales.
So I fired off a letter.
All of a sudden I got
this letter from Bob Hunter.
"Your letter arrived just
in time, it's a miracle.
We needed a synthesizer
player and there you were."
Now everybody's got
a synthesizer these days
but in those days, in 1975,
I've never seen
anything like this.
And Will could make
these unworldly sounds.
John aggressively
wanted to get rid of me
as soon as he could.
I'd never been on a boat,
I wasn't a sailor,
I didn't know how to do
lines or anything.
You know, boat lines.
Is there anybody there
who's into hitting
that Greenpeace flag?
We groped towards mastery
of the skills that we need
for the voyage.
Yeah, we should have
flags on it, this is theatre.
Pardon me, this is reality.
Learning to handle
the Zodiacs,
we were transformed
from flower children
into a sea-going gang
of ecological bikers.
We have psyched ourselves
into a sense of simmering,
sparkling power.
The plan is to put these
in the water
and run along with
the chaser boat
when it's actually hunting
a whale,
so they can't get
a shot at it.
Expecting any violence
on the part of the whalers?
Um... we've been wondering
about that all winter.
On April 27th,
the 80-foot ocean-going trawler,
Phyllis Cormack, set sail from
Vancouver, British Columbia,
on a two-fold mission.
Number one,
search out
and document Russian
whaling operations
in the North Pacific...
By the time we got
on the boat,
we were stunned ourselves.
There were thousands
of people there, thousands.
That great feeling
when everything
has finally come
to fruition
and the show is on.
But then here we are,
taking off
into the middle
of the Pacific Ocean,
and we have no idea
how to find the whalers.
We have no idea
how long it's gonna take us,
or where we're actually
even going.
So, then there was that.
One, two, three, four,
2,000...
That makes it about 2,500 miles
to the Hawaiian islands
from here.
Does that sound
about right?
Anybody know how far
Hawaii is?
We had some vague idea
as to about where
the whaling fleet was,
but we didn't know.
We did know that there was
a lot of information
about where whales
were killed
in the Bureau of International
Whaling Statistics,
in Norway,
in a town called Sandefjord.
Paul managed to talk his way
in there as a scientist.
He wasa scientist,
but he didn't mention
the part about Greenpeace.
I told the director
I wanted to find out
where we might do research
with sperm whales.
I spent several hours there
looking through stacks
of log books,
piled row after row after row.
And in the end,
he got his secretary to help.
Paul's espionage gave us
the positions
of the Soviet factory
whaling fleets
going back 10 or 15 years,
and there they were every year
at the same place
off California.
It's this area here,
which had the most whales in it.
So, June, July,
and August.
The timing of the Russian hunt
happens to coincide
with the annual meeting
of the International
Whaling Commission,
which determines how many whales
can be killed worldwide.
It has as many whales
in that one little area taken
as there is in a combination
of the whole works
around the island.
If we confront the whalers
in that five-day window
at the end of June,
our mind bomb will have
the maximum effect.
So, we just should be out
somewhere around in there
as much as possible in June.
The problem was,
is that it was early April
and we had all of May
and half of June
to keep the story alive.
It's not a normal
kind of battle,
it's a new kind of battle.
You know,
by going out there
and concentrating
people's attention
through the media
and communications system,
in a way,
what you do is you bring
everybody onto the boat.
You know,
and at a rough calculation,
I'd say there's probably
about 14 million people
on this boat
at the moment.
Bob looked at
our little world
as kind of making
a movie.
We were creating
the story line.
He had an arc;
He knew where it needed to go.
We were like characters.
What do we need to do
and who can best
fill the role?
Great movie, yeah.
There was the front,
the screen of the movie,
what you saw,
and then there was the back,
what was behind it all.
The hidden reality
of what was actually going on.
You're not taking anything now,
are you?
No.
No.
Don't waste your film.
I wouldn't say Bob
was directing us,
but he was certainly aware
of what things were cinematic
or film-worthy.
Truth:
24 frames per second.
He liked to exaggerate
the extreme to make us appear
as the unwitting fools,
so that the people
with real power
would not take us seriously.
We were like the Trojan Horse.
Really,
it was all a design
to achieve the ending
he was after.
But heroes often fail.
May had come and gone,
it's now June.
We headed to
the Mendocino Ridge
to look for them.
There's just a big,
gray ocean around here
and some gray clouds,
and a lot of birds.
But we haven't seen
any whales yet.
The days were ticking off,
but the Mendocino Ridge
is a long stretch of ocean.
Well, what do you think?
I think we chased them off
the whaling grounds.
Well, I'd like to know
what we've done.
I don't know.
Have we got a positive
identification on it?
No.
Except that we know
that they're in this area,
so...
I don't know,
why don't we go back
to where we were last night?
Yeah.
And try again.
Hello, can you hear me?
Over.
Not getting through
to you, Bob.
Just talk to us, over.
Negative.
Why doesn't he just tell me
the goddamn...
The ship was floundering at sea,
we had no money.
Some of the rice
was full of diesel,
and people were hungry
on board the boat.
I don't understand, Rod.
It was like finding
a needle in a haystack.
- George?
- Yeah.
There's some Russians
caught talking here.
Can you eavesdrop?
The radio crackles
with ghostly Russian voices
which seem to come
from everywhere at once.
Our Czechoslovakian engineer,
George Korotva,
tries to get a fix
on their position.
Well, they must be way down
there at least 150-200 miles.
We sat on the radio
for hours and hours
and hours.
And so,
you got an idea,
they are there somewhere.
Cormack said to Hunter,
"We have two days of fuel left."
The question was,
were we gonna run
for San Francisco
without an encounter
with the whalers,
or were we gonna stay out
and try
and find them?
And, of course,
that has huge consequences
for Cormack.
If he has to have a tow...
I mean,
this is big bucks
that we're talking for John.
Hunter, Pat Moore,
and David Garrick come by,
and they have got
The I Ching,
and they have got
the coins,
the three coins.
I have no idea
what the The I Chingis,
I've never heard
of this book,
I've never seen it.
But, of course, it's a book
of divination, right?
The Chinese word,
which means "approach,"
has a range of meanings.
I thought, I have joined
a ship of fools.
The ancient explanations
in the book of changes give,
as its first meaning,
"becoming great."
Hunter throws one
that says "success,"
it furthers one
to cross the great waters.
There are four hexagrams
out of the 64 that have that,
and it just means
"good fortune,"
supreme good fortune.
He's thrilled.
He thinks that we should go
and keep chasing whales,
right?
Pat Moore threw it
and he gets a second one
of the four hexagrams.
David throws it
and he gets a third one.
I'm saying, "What the hell
are you guys doing?
What,
you're gonna consult
some kind of oracle
for this decision?"
And they said,
"You throw them."
And I went,
"Oh yeah, right.
You guys,
this is BS."
And I threw them
and I got the fourth one.
And we went out,
and the next day,
we found the Russians.
Vostok is just over
five miles ahead of us.
Yeah.
Rex, count those boats again,
will ya?
- What?
- Count those boats...
- There's nine.
- There's nine boats.
One, two, three, four, five,
over there.
There's one by
the Vostok,
and there's three
over here.
There's nine chasers
altogether.
Yeah, well, Bob,
what's the plan?
The problem is,
a boat that size
can do about 20 knots.
We can only do 10, so they're
starting to pull away.
So, we'll put
the Zodiacs out
and run over and have
a damn good look at it.
See whether they're
our boys or not.
If they are,
we'll try to hang in with them
as long as we can.
I think we better hurry...
They're way up
on the horizon now.
Yeah.
Okay, say he does 15,
the Zodiac does 20.
I need five miles
ahead already
and the crew
aren't out on deck
in their Zodiacs...
They're on their way now.
Two miles.
John has just spotted
two flags in the water.
They're dead ahead of us,
I can see it, too.
It's a sperm!
It's definitely a sperm.
Let's get closer to it.
Yeah, here is...
It's definitely a dead whale.
Just bleeding
all over the place.
That sure doesn't look
the right size.
They're too small, Bob.
They're babies.
That's a goddamn baby whale,
for Christ's sake.
It's only about...
How long is that?
Is that its tale there for sure?
Twenty feet,
at the most.
Twenty feet at the most.
I think we should even
measure that one, Bob.
We thought they were out there
killing adult whales.
We find out they're basically
wiping out the whole pod,
kids and all.
George,
this is a film thing,
so let's get a Zodiac
and circle around this whale
and get some shots.
Yeah, he's getting
a reading now.
I think we hadn't
quite thought through
the mechanistic side
of whaling.
The fact you could
blow the carcass
and stick a radial
directional finder onto it
and just leave it
and come back later.
And it was just heart-wrenching.
It brings tears right now,
that little whale.
Okay, that's good,
get in there
before some sharks chew on it
or something.
Watch for sharks!
I was very much appalled
by what I saw.
Here we are,
out here,
they're killing
these beautifully intelligent,
socially-complex
sentient beings,
and for what?
I actually got on
to the whale
to measure it.
And found it was
illegally taken...
It was an undersized whale.
What do you say, Paul?
How long do you think it is?
What?
How long?
About 18 feet.
That was certainly
a turning point in my life.
Just how warm
the body was,
how hot the blood was
that was coming out
of the wound.
The whale's eye was open
and it just struck me
in a flash that
we're insane,
ecologically insane.
From that moment on,
I never looked upon myself
anymore as working for people
but more working for whales
and other creatures
that live in the oceans.
June 27th,
one mile from the Vostok.
Closing in.
The Russian boats
are all in motion,
I think with the Vostok
at the center.
And everybody
is in their wetsuits.
We've worked out who's
going to be in what Zodiacs.
We're just heading
alongside it now
and we're going to circle
around behind
on the other side.
That chaser boat
is tucking in
right behind it.
Blood pouring out.
Hell of a mess.
Just a hell of a mess.
There's a whole crowd
on the stern of the Vostok.
Fucking pigs!
Hey, listen now, no...
Let's not get into
overt aggression
with them yet.
Look at that
fucking thing move.
The guys up on top
are all in uniforms
with Russian hats.
What do you call
those hats, George?
Papakha.
Papakha?
Papakha.
The Dalniy Vostok is literally
a slaughterhouse on water.
It was highly mechanized
killing.
This was a factory.
And that was when it got
very, very, very real.
Okay, Zodiac launching crew.
Zodiac launching crew!
Come on,
quick, quick, quick.
And there they go folks,
they're off.
They're off.
The idea had been
that Fred Easton would film
with his Bolex 16 mm
and I would take photographs
from a distance
from the side,
so we could get
the whaling ship
and the protestors
in the shot.
I climbed to
the crosstrees,
and I sit with a pair
of binoculars
on the spreader bars,
and I keep track
of where all the boats are.
When Hunter got on the Zodiac,
I saw his cassette player
sitting there
on the hatch cover,
I just grabbed the thing
and I went up the mast
and I started recording
the confrontation.
There's a large herd
of sperm whales
off our starboard bow.
We're all going that way.
The other two backup Zodiacs
have been on the bow
of the chaser boat,
and it's been unable
to fire on any sperms,
even though there's plenty
of them around here.
Sperm whales are blowing
hard and fast,
seems they're tired
and they can't dive
very much at all.
Every time the whale moved,
we tried to steer the boat
in order to block it.
And that worked
for about 20 minutes or so.
The harpoon man appears
very frustrated
through the binoculars.
He doesn't even
seem to be at his post.
The skipper of the kill boat
comes down the walkway
to the gun deck.
These two men argue.
He puts up his hands like this
and bends to his gun,
and we know
that he's gonna shoot.
George Korotva
and Bob Hunter
are in the Zodiac
in front of the chase boat bow,
by only a distance
of about 50 feet,
and the film crew Zodiacs
are on each side.
Fred Easton had a problem
with his camera...
All the bouncing
and jostling in the Zodiac
had frayed the battery
connection...
Intermittent, going on and off,
on and off.
Here's the big moment
and I didn't even know
if this camera
was going to function.
It was going zigzag,
zigzag.
Occasionally.
And the sea,
he was following back and forth.
The harpooner then
looked at us
and then the captain
looked at us
and he smiled.
Then went like this
across his throat.
And I always joked that,
you know,
the reason we were in
that position
is because we had read
a lot of Gandhi at the time.
And it suddenly occurred to us
that Gandhi wasn't going
to work for us anymore.
They just shot
the harpoon.
I don't know
if they hit.
I don't see any blood.
They're coming around
to port slowly.
They've cut their engines.
Sound of that harpoon
was frightening.
It was like a giant cannon.
He had a clear shot
right over the Zodiac
to the whale,
and it went over.
Hunter's head
maybe 15 feet.
Well, I turned around
and then I saw...
The cable snapped.
I peeled off
and get the hell
out of there.
George is calling in
the other Zodiacs.
There's steam rising
from the blood.
There's still blow...
The whale's not dead yet.
It's still blowing,
but it's not going anywhere.
They'll shoot
a female whale
and then when the bull whale
comes to help the female,
they'll shoot the bull whale.
Hunter's yelling
at all the Zodiacs
to come in immediately.
There's a bull over there
that's mad as hell,
freaking out.
Go, help,
go get the rope!
There's the other one,
over there.
Did you get that, Rod?
Thoroughly shaken,
we haul ourselves
back on deck
on a wave of revulsion,
rage, and exultation.
We count eight
surviving whales in the pod,
fleeing steadily
to the horizon.
A few hours later,
the last Russian vessel
disappears from our radar,
heading in
the opposite direction.
You got it on tape?
No, unfortunately,
I didn't bring
my tape recorder.
You're stupid...
How dumb can ya be?
We're back on board, going over
what had just happened,
Hunter was asking,
"Did you get it?
Did you get the shot?"
We have that big moment
when the harpoon shot fired.
With film,
that's the problem,
you don't know
until you develop the film,
whether, in fact,
you captured the image.
New paragraph.
Riding upward on a wave,
we found the harpoon gun
aimed directly at us. Period.
Okay.
New sentence.
As we fell with the wave,
we heard a deafening bang.
Okay.
Bob's talking to our friends
in San Francisco, saying,
"Make sure you tell the media
that we're coming in."
And our friend
in San Francisco just laughed,
he says,
"Oh, don't worry about that.
Everybody knows about it,
everybody's talking about it,
everybody will be there."
The 80-foot ecology ship,
Phyllis Cormack,
steamed into San Francisco Bay
today
after its weekend encounter
with nine Russian
whaling vessels...
Could you explain the incident
when the Russians fired
the harpoon over your head?
Chasing right behind us,
say, 500 feet behind us,
right dead on our stern,
going much faster
than we were...
We were mobbed by the media.
What have American authorities
said about your chasing
these Russian whalers?
We've got no response
from the authorities.
Suddenly,
we became celebrities.
Could become
an international incident.
I think it has become an
international incident already...
Both Fred and I
are immediately escorted
to CBS station's headquarters
to have the footage developed.
We start hand winding the film
through a Moviscop,
it's about a four-inch screen.
Fred pans the camera
to the right
and he comes upon
a Zodiac.
Pans it a little further
to the right,
and there are the whales.
And as he panned back,
the harpoon entered the frame.
We got the shot.
Fred got the shot.
And that was the moment
that launched
the modern
environmental movement.
A Canadian ecology organization
claims a boat it operates
chased a nine ship
Russian whaling fleet
for 250 miles off
the California coast
this weekend
in order the save the whale.
A lot of ecologists
are worried about whales,
and one group has gone
to war with the Russians.
Thirteen people
on an 80-foot boat
have taken on a whole
Russian whaling fleet
in the Pacific Ocean.
"And God created great whales,"
from that rolling passage
in the book of Genesis.
Right down to the present day,
the world's largest mammal
has created awe,
terror,
and reverence.
Members of the Cormack's crew
sailed a small rubber boat
into the path
of a Russian whaler.
The Greenpeace managed
to save eight whales
by using this tactic.
But finally,
the Russian harpooner,
whale in his sights, fired.
The harpoon flashing
only 15 feet
above the heads
of the Greenpeace crew,
and moments later,
a dying whale
thrashes in the water.
We had really expected
that they would not shoot
if there were
human beings in the way,
and they did.
He actualized a dream.
If you don't think
of these things,
nothing's gonna happen.
To think of it,
go out and do it,
that's remarkable.
In the meantime,
evidence obtained
during this last mission
will be submitted
to the International
Whaling Commission,
and the United Nations,
with a plea
that something be done
to curb the wholesale slaughter
of the world's largest mammal.
What Bob said we could do,
we did.
And now,
looking at this,
oh boy,
this is something.
That footage proved out
the mind bomb theory
that you could do
a dramatic action
and actually connect
viscerally with people
in their own minds.
That galvanized
the United States,
it really did.
I mean, the whole place
just became whale conscious.
And pretty soon,
we had volunteers.
They wanted to set up
Greenpeace offices
all the way
down the coast.
It really was
on a trajectory skyward.
You can get fucked up
pretty fast
if you start thinking
the money's the deal.
Are we running?
Okay.
Bob, it seems like
just a few days ago...
For me,
at least...
That I was talking
with you at Jericho
and you were headed
out to sea.
What does it seem
like to you, Bob?
It was either two hours ago
or 10,000 years.
I think not only
did the moment
of confronting the whalers
change the world,
in the sense
that it helped
launch an environmental
movement,
it changed all of us
individually,
and it changed
the organization.
Fear success because
success can poison
the essence of what it was
you were trying to do.
By the time
we get back to Vancouver,
our lives
have irrevocably changed
without us realizing it.
The North Pacific odyssey
cost over $120,000,
three times
the original estimates.
But as one crewman
told me,
as long as they're
butchering whales,
Greenpeace won't rest.
Everything worked out well.
Almost no return.
The weakest link was
always going to be ourselves.
The threat of our own egos
getting in the way
of what we were
trying to do,
our personal relationships
with each other.
And I think if you look
at the history
of social change
movements,
that's always
the weakest link.
Despite global fame,
our little group
is now $40,000 in debt.
Our bank tells us
that we have to learn
the arcane arts
of cash flow
and bookkeeping,
which we know nothing about.
I really don't have
much to say.
Thank goodness.
The chief advocate
of fiscal responsibility
is one of the worst
flipped-out mystics of all.
Namely, myself.
And we're gonna try
and save them all
by next year.
There's no reason
why we can't.
Hunter would refer often
to a question
he asked of Allen Ginsberg once,
"How do you deal with power?"
And Ginsberg advised him,
"Let go of it
before it freezes
in your hands."
We've got offices
being set up
in about 20 different places,
ranging from France,
through the United States.
There's one being
set up in Japan.
So, it's a growth situation.
Still coming in?
Oh yes, Bob.
Bob said, "Let 1,000 Greenpeace
offices blossom."
Why not?
It was just like
Johnny Appleseed.
There'd be a little bit
of Greenpeace here,
and a little bit
of Greenpeace there.
Do it.
Just set up
and we'll stay in touch
and we'll make a movement.
When there are visions involved,
and dreams,
and ideals,
and ethics,
and changed values,
that all basically implies
a revolution.
And when you get
down to it,
that's what
we're talking about.
Bob thought it was fine
for Greenpeace groups
to just start up
all over the world,
without any control,
and basically,
to take our name
and our deeds
and exploits,
and raise money themselves,
and not have
to give any to us.
We didn't own
the environmental movement.
Our goal was not
to start an organization
and make the organization
famous.
Our goal was to make
ecology famous,
make nature famous,
make whales and seals famous,
that's what we wanted to do.
Money is raised
by any means possible...
Sales of t-shirts,
bumper stickers,
buttons,
and lottery tickets.
Walk-a-thons,
cycle-a-thons,
swim-a-thons,
telethons.
And Greenpeace memberships,
10 dollars for an individual.
As soon as you had
different cities saying,
"We're leaping
on this bandwagon
and we're calling
ourselves 'Greenpeace, '"
at that point,
there is a necessity
for some kind
of organizational structure.
And the people that
organize structures like that,
are not the same
kind of people that say,
"Well, I don't know,
let's just put a little boat
in front of a whaler
and take a picture of it."
They think
completely differently.
The winter is full
of ambition.
We're already planning
the next whale voyage
when Walrus and Paul
have an idea to interfere
with the annual
Newfoundland seal hunt.
Paul Watson,
freelance writer,
ex-sailor,
a longtime dedicated member
of the Greenpeace foundation.
He and his companions
are in bizarre rehearsal
for their next
grand adventure.
It's the blackest mark
on the whole Canadian
national identity.
I mean,
people all over the world
know about Canada's
seal slaughter.
We just didn't have
the resources
and people
and energy to do
two major campaigns.
Bob and everybody said,
"Well, you know,
we haven't got
the funding for that."
I said,
"Well, that's okay,
I've raised the money
independently."
So then they sort of reluctantly
let me go ahead with it.
We'll be applying some dye
to the coats of the seals.
They kill the baby seals
because they want the white fur.
Well, they won't
be getting white fur,
they'll be getting
green and white fur.
One of the problems
was that this was Paul's idea
and he was happy to create
a confrontation.
Paul wanted Hunter
to come along,
he didn't want Patrick
to come along.
Bob brought Patrick.
Pat Moore
and Paul Watson clashed,
and they clashed continuously.
Well, I didn't take
to Pat Moore at all.
I thought he was a bit
of a pompous ass,
really,
you know?
He had his private school
education
and looked down
on everybody else
who didn't have
that background.
Paul is a bit
of a know-it-all.
That's, to me,
that's a problem.
It was not good
for everybody.
It just began
a downward spiral
in the relationship
between those two.
The battle lines are drawn again
between conservationists
and Canadian
government officials.
Up till then,
we'd been perceived
as the little David
going out against
the vast Russian whaling fleet,
or against nuclear tests.
But now we were coming
after the little Newfoundland
seal hunters.
This is a new situation for us
and for Canada,
because we're attacking
our own culture.
The more coverage we had,
the more political it became.
It was gonna be a battle
like we've never experienced
before.
Local fishermen,
many of them out of work,
angry that anyone
would consider the welfare
of seals above their own.
Blocking the entrance
to St. Anthony
is as mean looking a gang
as any of us has ever seen.
They surrounded us,
and tried to roll us over
and all that kind of stuff,
unsuccessfully.
They had a noose
in this pickup truck,
and they're just
pointing at it
and us behind it.
"We're gonna string
you guys up."
Nice way to enter
a Canadian town, eh?
The people in New York
or the people down...
Little old ladies
in the running shoes,
who just have their compassion
and concern for the seal,
and not realize that
in this part of the world,
there's a whole way of life
that's threatened by the...
Bob being Bob, he found out
who the leaders were
and went and tried
to make a deal with them.
The reception we got
in St. Anthony's
didn't surprise me.
I was raised in the maritime,
so I knew they were
gonna be angry.
What surprised me was,
Bob and Pat and others
backing down.
There are 900 species
on the endangered list
and Greenpeace is concerned
with all of them.
But one of the species
that's on the endangered list
is the Newfoundland fisherman,
and we're concerned
with him, too.
He's such
a convincing speaker.
He managed to convince them
to allow us to enter the town
and then meet that evening
in the high school
and plead our case,
basically.
I'd like to place a resolution
before this meeting tonight,
that these people
be given until tomorrow morning
to place themselves
back on their bus,
remove themselves
from St. Anthony
and the province
of Newfoundland.
Well, I'm 67 years of age
and we have suffered our life.
And it's high time
we stop this right now.
To rescue our campaign,
we must persuade this room
to allow us onto
the ice floes.
There's nothing
to be gained
from pitting ourselves
against the local landsmen,
when most of the cull
is done by commercial
and Norwegian fleets.
As any general knows,
if you drive a wedge
between your opponents,
you are that much closer
to winning the battle.
I would like to call upon
Mr. Hunter,
if you will respond.
Thank you.
The reason we're here is not
to harass Newfoundlanders,
and not to try and tell you
to change your life,
and not to take food
out of your mouths.
We're here primarily
because there is a Norwegian
fleet operating,
and they're out there
doing something that they did
off the coast of Russia
over a decade ago,
so that finally the Russian
landsmen had nothing
to hunt any longer.
They chased...
The Russians chased
the Norwegians
out at that point,
but by that point,
it was too damn late.
I think he had a strong
sense of empathy,
and he would flow
with the situation.
We had a common saying
back in those days that,
you know,
let the guru
be the situation,
or the situation is the guru.
I have stated
that we did not realize
that it would interfere
with your livelihood.
Now that we understand that,
we are prepared not to do it.
The deal that he made
was that they would
hand over the dye.
We take that to be
a firm commitment
that you definitely
will not use the paint,
or that you are going
to look further into it.
No, you can take that
as a firm commitment
that we will not use it
and we will bring
the dye down to Roy tomorrow.
Bob unilaterally
decided to give it up,
and Paul and I weren't
going to give it up.
But he announced it
to everybody
that we would give it up.
So that,
that was not a good thing to do.
The campaign
to save the seals
and the rescuers decide
not to spray them green.
Hello again.
And there are new developments
in the campaign
by animal lovers in Canada
to save thousands
of young seals
from the hunters.
The Greenpeacers
are coming across
lots of problems.
Here's the dye.
We spent months
digging that stuff up together,
so maybe keep it
as a souvenir.
To Paul,
I've sold out to the sealers,
and I'm basically
a traitor.
But this is the only way
I can see
to reverse the tide
that's moving against us,
and continue our protests
out on the ice.
You know,
in retrospect,
I think it was fair
to say that Bob
was just trying
to be strategic.
It's politics.
Bullshit... you know,
if you're gonna take a stand,
you have to take
a stand,
and you can't retreat,
you can't back down,
and you can't compromise.
The Greenpeace Foundation
has every intention
of carrying on with
its opposition to the hunt.
Paul and myself
and Walrus were starting
to critically look at Bob
and say, look at, you know,
he's not an omnipotent god
that we thought he was.
He's got his frailties
and we have to counter that.
It's so easy for people
to be critical,
but what that allowed
them to do
was to be out
on the seal floes,
and the campaign
was able to carry on.
The Canadian government
made it illegal
for us to keep
the helicopters
within three
nautical miles
of any seal
on the ice.
We had to go at least
three miles across ice
to get to a seal
on foot.
A very dangerous
thing to do.
It's a brutal
thing to witness.
To go after
a baby seal
and club it
and then drag it
by the hakapik,
dug into its brain area,
it's gut-wrenching.
Take that off,
take that one off.
It's not respectful
of the natural world.
Sadly, we kept our word
that we didn't have
any spare dye
to use out there.
And I think we succeeded
in getting our message out
just as well
as we would have
if we'd sprayed them
with green dye.
Bearing witness
is a powerful concept.
Making it clear
that you are...
You are watching it happen.
Oh, bearing witness.
You know, you don't
walk down the street
and see a woman
being raped
and stand there
and take pictures.
Bearing witness to me
is cowardice.
It's a non-intervention.
I never understood it.
We should not be
submissive to these people
who are destroying
the planet.
We should be aggressive.
We should stand up
and stand tall,
and get in their face.
Goddamn disgusting mess.
Then when you're
out of jobs, you know,
the guys that are making
all the money out of this,
they'll just go and
invest it in real estate
and you'll be out of jobs.
We're trying to help
you, too, you know?
Making a living, boy.
Yeah, but you're gonna
be out of a living
in five years
if you don't stop here.
It's my bright idea
to stand in front of the ship
that collects
the seal skins.
Look out, the boat's moving!
I'm in the grip
of this insane fantasy
that I can hold it back
by sheer force of will.
Blocking the boat.
The moment I do...
Paul Watson joins me.
The ice is cracking
under our feet.
I turn to Bob
and I said, uh,
"Okay, when the ice breaks,
I'll jump this way,
you jump that way."
He said,
"I ain't moving."
I said,
"Oh, shit, Bob.
If you don't move,
I can't move."
They ran at us
a couple of times,
and they stopped.
When you're under fire,
you don't have time
for debating.
You just have to act.
And people put aside
differences quickly.
You know, I felt
so incapable
of doing anything
to stop it.
I could...
We could only do
what we did.
And, uh, you know...
we did our best.
That was a dramatic image.
It certainly got
a lot of coverage.
But Bob had taken away
my major tactic,
and I just wanted
to be free
to handle my campaigns
without being
or interfered with.
It got bigger
and bigger and bigger.
And the bigger it got...
the harder it was
to keep cohesion together.
By 1976, we were feeling
a tremendous amount
of strain and pressure.
And in the meantime,
we wanted to pull off
another whale campaign.
Now with a bigger boat.
It was a lot
more expensive,
and we went through
a lot more fuel.
The Greenpeace VII,
153-foot minesweeper
capable of going
all the way to Tokyo.
It's gonna leave
from out here,
and then when we
go out on that boat,
everybody goes out
on that boat with us,
and this is something
that they can't stop now
'cause we're not just
a bunch of hippies
paddling around
in a row boat
in English Bay any longer.
Suddenly we found ourselves
struggling with
competing opinions
about how the organization
was gonna be pulled together.
We can put it up
a little more if you want.
People wanting credit.
People wanting to be
a big shot,
or people wanting
to be in charge.
Holding the end
of the rope.
Yes!
You don't need that.
Pat Moore sort of
saw himself
as somebody who
was second in command,
so to speak.
And Paul Watson also
saw himself
as sort of
second in command.
This is ironic because
the last thing
Bob wanted to be
was first in command.
Those boats are gonna
stay in that position.
Good enough!
Man, we could've hired
a psychologist
to come in and say,
"Guess what?
You're gonna be fighting
each other for a while."
"Guess what? You're gonna
have hurt feelings."
This isn't an individual game,
and it isn't
an ego game.
It's, uh... we do,
in fact, represent
a powerful force
that is trying
to hold this planet
together.
Bob was trying
to preserve
the tribe,
the family spirit
of what we had,
and he was slowly
watching it turn into
this kind of Shakespearean
tragedy.
And so, he took
to wearing this brush
that we used to clean
the latrine.
And he had assigned
himself the role
of latrine officer.
He would keep it
in grand order,
and he'd proudly
walk around,
and people were going,
"What is with Hunter?"
You can still see the Zodiac
in front of you, can you? Over.
Can still see
the Zodiac...
I mean, it was sort of
an internal mind bomb.
Bob, in his own way,
modeling modesty
in the face of this,
sort of, unrelenting ego.
I felt like he's
giving this
everything he has.
But I think he felt
a little bit alone.
Because he was
so stressed,
he was prescribed
valium to calm him down.
Kind of a daily
combination
of valiums,
and nicotine,
and alcohol,
and pot.
And so, he was making
bad decisions.
We've got to make
some decisions here
that I do not want
to communicate
back to Vancouver.
I think at that point
we became a little
sideline to
the Cold War.
A toy for the CIA.
Suddenly we had somebody
inside the United States
government
feeding us information
regarding the position
of the Russian
whaling fleet.
And accepting fuel
from somebody who has
a close association with the
US Central Intelligence Agency.
Now, of course,
they were doing that
because they loved
the fact that we were
harassing the Russians.
So, suddenly we're
seeing all these
strange bedfellows.
We got a coordinate
that had gone all the way
to Washington, come back
to Vancouver, to here,
and it is an old
Greenpeace slogan
that used to appear
on the walls.
I know you heard this
a hundreds times, Bobbi,
wherever you are,
but it used to be,
"With enemies like this,
who needs friends?"
We couldn't get
the coordinates
for the Japanese fleet,
but we could get
the coordinates
on the Russian fleet
because that was
in the interest of the
United States Government,
to embarrass the Russians.
The whole fleet is
apparently now moving west.
When that got out,
that caused a huge dissension
on the crew.
You know, I really
didn't wanna become
a strong-arm
for psychological war
on behalf of
the American government.
Paul Watson blamed
Pat Moore and Bob Hunter
for not being
more aggressive
in going after
the Japanese.
So, that's...
We're adopting
a fine ancient
strategy
of hanging loose until
the last possible second.
We just barely
made it to Hawaii
and things started
breaking apart.
Paul left.
Paul Watson
left the boat.
Uh, if you're on standby,
that makes things
a lot easier.
Many times,
I was on his right shoulder
and Bobbi was on
his left shoulder
because Bob was
completely wrecked.
He was moody
and he was causing problems.
Come on, let's go, guys.
Let's go!
The new members
of the crew
kind of rebelled
against Bob's authority
on the boat.
I would call it
a full-on mutiny.
The crew was just saying,
"You guys have...
You've lost us completely."
Bob's become
a babbling idiot,
we don't have
any confidence
that you guys are...
Are making the right decisions.
I brewed darkly over
my failings as a leader.
The greater our influence,
the messier and more
obstinately human
things become.
Everyone involved,
being flawed human beings
after all...
Thank God for the valium.
We speak for the 70 countries
that have begged you
to stop whaling!
There are not many
whales left.
These whales belong to all
the people of the Earth,
not just those proud
and mighty
and successful nations
like yours,
which have the machinery
to be able to kill them.
They also belong to me,
they belong to my children,
they belong to
the children of Africa,
South America,
of North America,
and of Europe.
Our confrontations
with the Russians succeed
because they, too,
have become aware
of the power of images.
Whenever we appear,
they shut their
whole operation down.
We stayed in front
a couple of times,
they started up,
and each time they start up,
we get back in front of them
and they stop,
and right now they're stopped.
Stopped.
But to what end?
Eventually we will
have to go home.
I have borne witness
to the point of nausea,
yet nothing in the world
has really changed.
Maybe we should buy
some explosives
and sink the bastards.
On the second seal hunt,
I didn't invite Bob
or Pat on the campaign.
Since Bob had interfered
the year before,
I, uh, didn't want him
interfering again.
I think Bob felt
just frustrated
that he couldn't
be there
because it became
a kind of media circus.
We have to talk about what
happened today with the...
Paul Watson was
the name of your friend,
and isthe name
of your friend and colleague
who was injured
on the floes.
He handcuffed himself
to one of the cables
that is attached
to the pile of seal pelts.
They dragged him across the ice,
into the water,
smashed him against
the side of the boat
with him sort of hanging
by one arm,
and they dunked him
four times,
which is, of course,
Arctic temperature water
in the North Atlantic.
Take him to the hospital.
And get our helicopters
permission
to land here
right away.
I can't, I have no contact
with your helicopters.
Well, go on
and get a contact.
Say,
"Yes, I'll do something!"
Those guys tried
to kill me!
I have no authority.
I don't care if you
have no authority.
Do something,
what the hell are you...
Okay, let's put him
in the...
Four of our other people
had to go in to rescue him.
He's now on board
one of the icebreakers
with a broken arm,
back damage,
and suffering
from exposure.
I was flown back,
and I remember
getting out of
the helicopter
and this woman came
and started
hugging and kissing me,
and I didn't know
who that was.
And, uh, and I left
and I said to Bob Cummings,
I said,
"Who the hell's that?"
And he said,
"Oh, that's Brigitte Bardot."
Brigitte Bardot
turned the pages
in our favor
so dramatically
that it was never
turned back.
You know,
the Canadian government
hated her for it,
but she's sort of like me,
she doesn't give a damn.
Are you willing to die
for a seal?
If I die for a seal,
I die for a seal,
but I don't think
I'm going to have
to die for a seal.
I don't think it will
come to that.
That was when
you discovered
just how male dominated
Greenpeace was,
because guys were absolutely
smitten with Brigitte Bardot.
Bob wanted
to take a break,
and so he designated me
to go as the representative
of the organization
while Paul Watson
was the leader
of the campaign.
Patrick was there as
vice president of Greenpeace
to watch-dog me.
At one point,
Pat Moore said
he was going out to the ice
with Brigitte Bardot,
and I said,
"No, you're not."
I said, "I don't have
room for you,
because I need
every seat
for somebody
with a camera.
And what am I gonna
do with you?"
Paul had invited
80 European journalists
and only had
two helicopters.
And he said,
"Well, let me just
put it this way...
if we're not
in that helicopter,
you're out the door."
I said, "Well, let me
put it this way...
you're not getting
in the helicopter."
They think
had Bob been there,
he was always the glue,
the mediator,
he was always
the person who could
bring calm
and sanity to the group,
and he wasn't there
to do that.
Officials from
the Department of Fisheries
have been closely
monitoring the activities
of the Greenpeace Foundation.
The officials also have
exhibits against
the foundation
which could be used
for possible charges.
The exhibits include
the handcuffs
used by one member
to attach himself to a ship.
And he did it
without telling anybody
he was going to do it.
He was part of a team,
and all of a sudden
he's gone off
like a loose canon.
It wasn't part
of the plan.
And that was, like,
the fourth or fifth
or sixth time
that he had behaved
in that way towards
the rest of us.
Pat saw this as
an opportunity
to kick Paul out
of the organization.
He was condemned
by others in Greenpeace
for destroying property.
Well, give me a break.
I was never one
to condemn
some material
rearrangement
of molecules of something...
even though it might be called
"property destruction."
No one doubts Paul's
courage for a moment.
But he seems possessed
by too powerful a drive.
We all feel we've
got trapped in a web
no one wants
to see develop.
There is nothing to do
but bring down the axe,
even if it means
bringing it down
on the neck
of our brother.
And by an 11 to 1 vote,
him being the one,
that was decided.
I think everybody
understood
that that would be
better for everybody.
Bob felt excruciatingly torn
over letting
Paul go.
That's the last thing
he really wanted to do.
But it was only
as a result
of putting those
two young lions
together on one hill.
And I say to
the Greenpeace Foundation
that when they undertook
saving the seals
that they did not do
their homework properly.
Do the members of Greenpeace
get paid anything?
How many contributors
do you have?
How much money did you
take in in dues last year?
Do you think that
at 34 you could be doing
better things
with your life?
He needed a break,
really needed a break.
Uh, here's Bob Hunter
from Greenpeace.
Well, basically,
as far as I can see,
it's all over.
It's just a 200 year
mop-up operation now.
Yeah!
Is there a point
simply in life
where everything
you believe
turns inside out?
You begin to doubt
it all.
What is leadership?
Tricking other people into
your own hallucinations.
Can I start again?
He lost heart.
He looked at me and said,
"It's time."
And that was it,
and then he put
his resignation in.
In the middle
of the spring of '77,
Bob handed the reigns
over to me.
Within a year,
the conflicts that arose
because of that
had virtually torn
the organization apart.
The challenge
that we faced
was the proliferation
of Greenpeace offices
that had no cohesive
management.
By the time I took
over from Bob
in early '77,
the horses were well
out of the barn.
You could never have
50 Greenpeace groups
all operating
simultaneously
and wanting to be
independent and anarchistic.
Pat always thought
that he knew
exactly what was right
and what was
the best way
to do things,
and he was somewhat
dictatorial.
All the organizations outside
of Vancouver revolted.
We were $150,000
or more in debt,
and San Francisco office,
which we had created,
was now making
10 times as much money
as we were able to raise,
yet they didn't want
to pay our debt.
It has to be
eventually resolved
who is the ultimate
authority
over the name "Greenpeace."
It started in Vancouver,
we're in charge,
all these outfits
out here,
they're supposed
to send money to us,
and we'll call the shots.
Well...
that wasn't gonna work.
This was a social movement.
It wasn't a corporation
where the new president
suddenly lays down
the law
and everybody goes
along with him.
Next thing we know,
Pat Moore started a lawsuit
against our group
in San Francisco.
We're willing to go
through with it,
and we're willing
to be candid with people
about the fact that even in
the environmental movement
there are corporate
takeover bids and rip-offs,
and people who are
trying to steal our name,
and all the rest of it
going on.
That didn't go over
well with... with hippies.
It wasn't an easy time
for Eileen and I.
San Francisco, in turn,
sent a bailiff
to our house
with a personal
lawsuit against us
for a million dollars
for defamation.
Uh, we lost a lot
of friends
during that time
because they didn't think
what we were doing
was right.
It was enough to make
you lose a fair amount
of hair off
the front of your head,
as you may notice.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Da-dum, da-dum,
da-da, da-da.
We moved away
soon after
into the countryside.
We started a family.
Every time anyone
would be speaking
about Greenpeace,
I would, you know,
that was it,
I said,
"No 'G' word
in this house."
I was tired of it all.
I think Bob was
discouraged
and heartbroken.
We didn't object
to the fact
that Greenpeace had to be
organized and managed,
but organizing
and managing
should not become
the purpose,
that the purpose
was still
a cultural revolution.
And Bob felt betrayed
by Patrick,
that this deeper
ecological purpose
was in danger
of being lost.
I realize I've committed
the paramount sin
of quitting my
earthly duty.
The hole of guilt
has opened in my soul.
It's either time for someone
to escort me away,
or for one last push
for unity.
How can we save
the planet
if we cannot
save ourselves?
Bob got back involved
to pull the organization
together.
I said to Bob,
you know,
"You said you were leaving,
you're out of it,
you haven't been part of this.
So, why...
Why would you, uh...
try to dictate
what's going to happen?"
Bob decided that,
really, the best thing to do
was for Greenpeace
to get out of the hands
of the local grassroots,
and move into
the international arena.
He decided to find
a new leader, essentially.
The most obvious choice
was David McTaggart.
David McTaggart, who was
the head of Greenpeace Europe,
had got every other
Greenpeace office
in the world to be
against us.
I was perceived
as the enemy
by all the rest
at this time, though.
Uh, all those in favor
of these two flowers
continuing their voyage
along the river of life...
I describe Bob
as my best friend
and my best enemy.
I mean, he fought dirty,
uh, but he was
a worthy opponent.
It was not pleasant
for any of us,
displacing Patrick,
'cause we were still friends.
But we couldn't let him stay on
in that leadership role.
McTaggart and Rod Marining
and Bob Hunter
and a few others
met in my basement
in Kitsilano,
and we planned
the founding
of Greenpeace International
McTaggart came up
with a plan,
and Bob conferred it.
If we internationalize
Greenpeace
so that Vancouver
is no longer considered
to be the center
of it all,
but one of an equal
number...
Australia, United States,
New Zealand,
Amsterdam,
London, they're all
gonna be separate
and equally powerful,
then we'll give
Patrick Vancouver,
and then all
the lawyers involved
with suits against
each other
would drop
their lawsuits.
Patrick was invited
to receive Canada
and give up the world.
I gladly signed
that agreement.
At that moment,
when we created
Greenpeace International,
we made something bigger
out of a bunch
of disparate fragments that
had fallen apart, basically.
You know, we had
a saying in Greenpeace,
"You can't get off
the boat."
Which was just to mean
that you don't wanna...
Once you're in it,
and you're enjoying it,
and you're succeeding,
you don't wanna stop.
And, indeed,
it's... it's not easy
to get off that boat.
Trying to cling on
to power
is a fundamental mistake.
It's something we learned
from The I Ching,
It's such a hard
lesson to learn.
Suddenly, Greenpeace
was raising millions
of dollars worldwide
by this time.
And we just
gave it away.
He did it.
No matter how big
a movement grows,
its blueprint
is found in its seed.
I think of Greenpeace
from the very beginning
as a natural phenomenon.
All of us were involved
because we had to be.
We were part
of a reflex
summoned to action
by the earth itself.
I think Greenpeace
is a real force in the world,
and that it accomplishes
great things.
Uh, but save the planet,
you know,
that's their...
That's the aim here.
Yay!
The International
Whaling Commission
has imposed at least
a partial ban
on factory ship whaling.
In 1982, a 10 year
moratorium
on commercial whaling
was finally put together.
As far as we're
concerned,
it's the conservation
event of the decade
in that at least
7,000 whales
have been saved
per year,
because that's
approximately
what they were
killing each year.
The important part
of that period
was the realization
that a small group
of individuals
can make an impact,
and that they could do it
without many resources.
I believe that Greenpeace
was more powerful
when it had nothing
than it is today
with its hundreds
of millions of dollars.
I'm very proud
of Greenpeace.
The real ecology
movement is a long,
multigenerational
phenomenon.
It's really a lesson
that nature's
going to teach humanity,
and we're just
trying to help it along.
We made a difference,
you know?
Uh, it doesn't mean
you can stop.
Emily!
It's too early
in the morning,
I don't want
to go to school.
Sorry, sweetheart.
When I grew up,
my father moved away
from traditional
activism
into his media,
journalism role.
In many ways,
he really struggled
making this new life
with my family.
Anybody who thinks
that the warming trend
is just a theory
and not a fact
need look no further
than these mountains
of salt piling up
which are all the salt
that was not used on
the roads in Metro last year
because there was virtually
no winter.
He really knew that
this would become
the defining issue
of our time,
and it would surpass, really,
all environmental issues,
because they were
all interconnected
to this one issue
of climate change.
I think he found
himself again.
He found his role again
that he could be
that leader again
in society.
Planet Earth.
I say love it or leave it.
I'm Bob Hunter
covering ecology.
He felt like he could
actually use media, again,
as his tool for change.
Hey, Skipper!
Permission to
come aboard!
Permission granted, Bob.
The most exciting
things after Greenpeace
was being with
Paul Watson,
and the most meaningful.
I just wonder what keeps
the fire in your belly.
Anger, you gotta
keep anger.
Yeah.
Bob would go out with
Paul's new organization,
the Sea Shepherd Society.
They were both
action junkies.
It's 10 after 9.
The nearest drifter boat
is just off
to our starboard here,
we're closing in.
Okay, here we go.
Sea Shepherd was set up
as an anti-poaching
organization.
In 1979, when I hunted down
and rammed
the pirate whaler Sierra,
I was brought before
the port captain
and accused
of, um, negligence.
I said, "Well, there wasn't
anything negligent about it.
I mean, we hit
the ship exactly
where we intended
to hit it."
People support Paul
just like they cheer
for Rambo in the movies.
It's the same
kind of thing.
He is trying to create
a real-life action figure image,
which he's done
very successfully.
And I see him
as a real-life hero
in many aspects.
I was with Greenpeace
for 15 years
and helped create it.
It has turned into something
I'm regretful about.
Hi, are you guys media?
Help yourself to any
of this literature here.
You can't become
such an anti-Greenpeace
person
and still command
any level of...
Of love and respect,
you know?
Greenpeace is back
in the dark ages somewhere
against genetic science
being used to make
our food and medicine better.
But they can...
If they wanna keep
that position, fine.
Patrick was able to turn
his former position
into a moneymaking endeavor,
representing first
the salmon farmers,
and then miners
and loggers,
and the nuclear industry.
So he became a PR
organization
defending all of
the enemies of Greenpeace.
Bob felt quite
betrayed by that
and coined the term
"eco Judas."
You do concede
that human-induced
carbon emissions
have contributed
to global warming
in the second half
of the 20th century?
No, I do not.
We do not have proof
that we are the cause
of warming.
It isn't warming
much anyways,
so even if CO2
is a greenhouse gas,
it's not having
anywhere near the effect
that people thought
it would...
This whole
anti-globalization,
anti-capitalism,
anti-business,
uh, orientation of
the environmental movement
is extremely destructive.
Our next witness
is Dr. Patrick Moore.
Please proceed with
your statement.
In 1971, as a PhD student
in ecology,
I joined an activist
group in a church basement
in Vancouver, Canada.
We became Greenpeace.
After 15 years
in the top committee,
I had to leave
as Greenpeace began
to adopt policies
that I could not accept
from my scientific
perspective.
There is no reason
to believe
that a warmer climate
would be anything
but beneficial
for humans
and the majority
of other species.
Please see exhibit three.
I don't consider Patrick
an active ecologist.
Patrick Moore is
a public relations specialist
selling his affiliation
to Greenpeace
to his corporate clients.
We live in different
worlds now.
By the time I realized
that I wanted to be
an environmentalist
myself,
my father shared
the news with me
that he had
terminal cancer.
Um, and only about
a year and a half left.
In that time,
I wanted to be
as close to my father
as possible,
but he told me
he wanted me to go
on my first campaign
with Sea Shepherd
rather than just
be by his side,
and so I did.
And it changed my life.
I shared the stories
of every little thing,
every sea sickness event,
every arrest, uh,
at one point I was
taken hostage.
I shared everything
with him
in writing
and in emails,
and our
correspondence together.
And I could tell
it just gave him
maybe one of those
last little highs in life.
You know, Bob and I
could never speak
about his death,
and I can't now,
but um...
Bob was a real
global person
and what I wanted
to do to honor him
was to take him
to all four corners
of the planet.
He had never been able
to go to Antarctica.
He really wanted to,
and fight on that front.
For Paul, it was
his way to get to say
goodbye to his brother.
I always thought of it
as my dad's last campaign,
and it was my...
One of my first campaigns.
And it was kind of
completing
both of our missions.
What... what I wouldn't
give just for one more day,
you know, just one...
You know if you
could just have Bob back
and go to the pub.
I realized something
I had forgotten,
something I learned
at the height of the '60s,
that my separate existence
is an illusion.
Ecology is flow.
You and I are most definitely
part of the flow.
Everything we do
affects the flow.
And everything the flow does
affects us.
It doesn't really matter
what I read or think or write.
Don't judge me
by my words,
which are many,
but by my actions,
which are few.
Because if we wait for the meek
to inherit the earth,
there won't be
anything left to inherit.
Put up a parking lot