“Only when the last fish is gone, the last river poisoned, the last tree cut down…will mankind realize they cannot eat money.” 

On July 10, 1985 the former Scottish ’Sir William Hardy‘ fishery research trawler aka The Rainbow Warrior (VIDEO), Greenpeace’s very first ‘flagship’ then captained by Peter Willcox (VIDEO), was sabotaged and sunk just before midnight NZST (1pm BST, 8am EDT). This by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of the French intelligence service (DGSE). One of the twelve people on board, photographer Fernando Pereira, returned to the ship after the first explosion to attempt to retrieve his equipment, and was killed when the ship was sunk by the second larger explosion. The attack on the Greenpeace flagship is still considered as one of the most shocking admitted acts of state-sponsored terrorism. The in 1970 Vancouver ’Don’t Make A Wave Committee’, later turned into the dynamic combination of Green Peace, was founded by Ben Metcalfe, Bob Hunter, Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd), Patrick Moore, Jim Bohlen, Paul Cote and Irving Stowe. Through the bombing of the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ Greenpeace received international attention and in the following decades skyrocketed into unquestionably the most visible environmental organisation in the World with current Kumi Naidoo as activist-in-chief, offices in 40 countries, 3 million supporters, a yearly budget of €236.9 million, 2,400 staff members and 15,000 volunteers. For the very first time Dutch Filmmaker Suzanne Raes gets to the bottom of how did it get to this and what was the ‘real’ motivation of the Forgotten heroes of Greenpeace Europe: Rien Achterberg, Martini Gotjé, Susi Newborn, Henk Haazen, Bunny Mcdiarmid and Hanne Sørensen. What made them decide in 1978 that they needed to fight on the North Atlantic waters to prevent Iceland from whaling and France from nuclear testing? The Film ‘The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island’ (TRAILER) takes a look at six out of 12 original crew members of very first Rainbow Warrior. The crew as you would expect are authentic hippies that tried to make a real change by acting on our behalf for the well-being of ’Spaceship Earth’. Beautiful interviews, great archive material with a fair amount of the original crew who seem to have all retired to the same island in New Zealand, where they still live in the peaceful community based lifestyle. The harrowing story of evacuating Marshall Islanders from an atoll rendered toxic by nuclear tests is one not to forget! And from 1956 to August 1998, at least $759 million was paid to the Marshallese Islanders in compensation for their exposure to U.S. nuclear testing. Watch this documentary if you want to see how Greenpeace through it’s volunteers became the powerful ’discussable’ Multinational it is today ‘When the world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow" Cree Indian prophecy. Share-Care-Love! WATCH FULL HERE! / YOUTUBE. (photo credit Suzanne Raes and Rob Haarsma) More: Al Jazeera World – Greenpeace: From hippies to lobbyists, Greenpeace, the Story, Kumi Naidoo – Environment – The Guardian, Kumi Naidoo’s blog, WorldEconomicForum 2013 An Insight, An Idea with Kumi Naidoo, Point of No Return Greenpeace exposes 14 dirty-energy projects (PDF), Greenpeace TV Live Arctic Documentary, BBC HARDtalk – Kumi Naidoo – Executive Director, Greenpeace International, A Bonfire in My Mouth: Life, Passion and the “Rainbow Warrior”, “Greenpeace: Making A Stand”