The Don't Make a Wave Committee was an anti-nuclear group that later became Greenpeace, a worldwide environmental organization. It was created in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to protest and try to stop more underground nuclear tests by the United States in the National Wildlife Refuge at Amchitka, located in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The group was first formed in October 1969 and officially started in early 1970.

Precursor protest

In the late 1960s, the United States planned to test a nuclear weapon underground in Alaska. Concerns arose after the 1964 Alaska earthquake, as people worried the test might cause another earthquake or a tsunami. In 1969, 7,000 people gathered at a major U.S.-Canada border crossing in British Columbia to protest. They carried signs with messages such as "Don't Make A Wave. It's Your Fault If Our Fault Goes." Additional protests took place at U.S. border crossings in Ontario and Quebec. These demonstrations did not prevent the United States from carrying out the test.

Although no earthquake or tsunami occurred after the test, opposition increased when the United States announced plans to detonate a bomb five times more powerful than the first one. Among those who opposed the test were Jim Bohlen, a veteran who had served in the U.S. Navy during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, a Quaker couple. They were members of the Sierra Club and expressed frustration with the organization’s lack of action on the issue.

Formation

In October 1969, Bohlen and the Stowes began meeting in a church basement. They called themselves the Don't Make a Wave Committee and planned protests against nuclear testing. From Irving Stowe, Bohlen learned a method of nonviolent protest called "bearing witness," where people protest by simply being present at events they disagree with. Jim Bohlen's wife, Marie, suggested sailing to Amchitka, inspired by Albert Bigelow's anti-nuclear voyages in 1958. This idea was reported in the news and linked to The Sierra Club. However, The Sierra Club did not want this connection. In 1970, Jim and Marie Bohlen, Irving and Dorothy Stowe, and Paul Cote, a law student and peace activist, formed the Don't Make a Wave Committee independently of The Sierra Club. Early meetings were held at the home of Robert and Bobbi Hunter in Shaughnessy. The first office was opened in a back room of a storefront on Broadway and Cypress in Kitsilano, Vancouver. In 1973, Greenpeace shared an office with SPEC on the second floor at 2007 West 4th Ave. Terry A Simmons, a cultural geographer, later joined the committee.

Transition to Greenpeace

In 1970, Bill Darnell combined the words "green" and "peace" to create the name "Greenpeace" for the organization. In 1971, many Canadians opposed the United States military's underground nuclear bomb tests, called Cannikin, on Amchitka Island, Alaska. In May 1971, the Don't Make a Wave Committee sent Jim Bohlen and Patrick Moore to speak at U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearings in Alaska. The committee hired the Phyllis Cormack, a fishing boat available for hire, to take protestors to the testing area on Amchitka Island. This first expedition was named Greenpeace I and included Canadian journalist Robert Hunter. In the fall of 1971, the ship traveled toward Amchitka but met the U.S. Navy ship Confidence. The activists had to turn back. Due to the difficult weather and the attention their journey received, the crew decided to return to Canada. News of their trip and the support from the Confidence crew gained public support for their cause. Greenpeace then chartered another ship, the Edgewater Fortune, which was renamed Greenpeace Too!. Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace, joined the crew of the second vessel. On November 6, 1971, the United States Atomic Energy Commission conducted the Cannikin nuclear test earlier than planned. The test received widespread criticism, and the U.S. stopped its testing plans at Amchitka. In 1972, the Don't Make a Wave Committee changed its name to the Greenpeace Foundation. On May 4, 1972, after Irving Stowe left the leadership of the Don't Make a Wave Committee, the new environmental group officially became the "Greenpeace Foundation." Later that year, David McTaggart sailed his yacht, Greenpeace III, to French Polynesia to oppose French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, supported by the Greenpeace Foundation.