"A trip for life, and for peace" is how Irving Stowe, one of the early co-founders of Greenpeace, described the plan to sail a boat to the Arctic Ocean to stop the testing of a nuclear bomb. Irving didn’t know it then, but the Greenpeace trip would last for decades. And it would change the world.;xNLx;;xNLx;This Timeline is best viewed on a desktop computer. Is there an event missing? Contact us at: [webmaster.int@greenpeace.org](mailto:webmaster.int@greenpeace.org)
After the first Greenpeace action in 1971, the US abandons nuclear testing grounds at Amchitka Island, Alaska
France ends atmospheric tests in the South Pacific after multiple Greenpeace protests at the test site.
After at sea actions against whalers, a whaling moratorium is adopted by the International Whaling Commission.
The Parties to the London Dumping Convention call for a moratorium on radioactive waste dumping at sea. As a result of Greenpeace's repeated actions against ocean dumping, this is the first year since the end of the second world war where officially no radioactive wastes are dumped at sea.
French nuclear testing in the South Pacific again becomes the subject of international controversy, particularly following the sinking of Greenpeace's ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by the French Secret Services.
Following at sea actions, and submissions by Greenpeace, a world-wide ban on incinerating organochlorine waste at sea is agreed by the London Dumping Convention.
A UN moratorium on high seas large-scale driftnets is passed, responding to public outrage at indiscriminate fishing practices exposed by Greenpeace.
Major German publishers go chlorine-free after Greenpeace produces chlorine-free edition of Der Spiegel as part of campaign against chlorine-bleaching.
Worldwide ban on high seas large-scale driftnets comes into force.
The 39 Antarctic Treaty signatories agree to a 50-year minimum prohibition of all mineral exploitation, in effect preserving the continent for peaceful, scientific purposes.
