After nearly 20 years of hard environmental work, you learn a thing or two about how to get the job done. We asked a few Greenpeace campaigners to tell us how they save whales, stop waste dumping and persuade people to think differently about their planet. The techniques we learned are for the world to use. The people pictured here are just a few members of a team of hundreds of campaigners in 23 countries and Antarctica, all of whom want to make the next ten years count.-the editors

Greenpeace is famous for plugging pipes, and with good reason. There are thousands of them across the country, spewing hazardous chemicals into our air, ground and water. People should understand, however, that pipe plugging is part of a serious national strategy. We are trying to change the public understanding of toxics issues in this country. Five years ago, we were still fighting over how many parts per million of a toxic chemical could be "safely" released. Now we are looking at whole classes of chemicals and demanding that they not be produced at all. What brought us here was research, discussion and a steady refinement of philosophy. The key is striving to answer the fundamental question: what is the most effective and comprehensive solution to toxics in the environment.

The answer is not for government to regulate pollution at the outfall pipe. For the durable carcinogens that concentrate in plants, animals and humans, this is useless. Even the most minute amount of dioxin can cause cancer. And no matter how small the amount of dioxin released, it will eventually bioaccumulate at frighteningly high levels. The solution is to prevent it at the source.

The act of plugging the pipe, limiting the number of places polluters can legally put their waste, is essentially a back-door tactic. By supporting local efforts to prevent the siting of landfills and incinerators, Greenpeace has been able to raise the cost of disposal, in dollars and public relations, for companies that produce waste or make a profit from "handling" it. And they are feeling the heat. By making waste disposal expensive, we make waste prevention more attractive.

In the process, we have strengthened a national movement of people who are affected by toxic waste in their communities&emdash;people who are literally fighting for their lives. The way we do this is by acting as a reliable source of information, by introducing people to each other, and by weaving local grassroots power into a more unified national force.

The toxics issue has created a bridge that brings environmental concerns home. To the people being affected, opposing the disposal of toxic waste is not a philosophical pursuit, it is an act of selfpreservation. This has created the opportunity for a tremendously more powerful constituency for a national approach to waste prevention. One of the keys to the success of our campaign has been simply to see that and work with it.

The Upshot: Know your goals, and define them clearly. Recognize the forces at work already out there and align yourself with them. Share, network, facilitate, and help the process take its course. The toxics issue is the most exciting environmental success story in the United States today.

Back...