Greenpeace faces biggest lawsuit in half a century (5 photos)

Eco-fighters have clashed with the oil giant Shell and they themselves are not happy about it.





Greenpeace activists are such entertainers. For decades they have been harassing companies involved in the production of hydrocarbons, cooing about global warming and the imminent universal crisis - well, that is if humanity does not come to its senses and switch to “green energy”. Therefore, many believe that the eco-office is well “warmed” with money by companies from the “green economy” sector. But this is at the level of rumors, there is no serious evidence yet.



As for environmental activists, they do everything to attract attention. For example, in 2001, a group of environmental activists on inflatable boats broke through to a British nuclear submarine and unfurled a poster “For nuclear-free seas.” For this, each of those participating in the action was fined 430 pounds sterling.

In 2008, two eco-Japanese men stole a box of whale meat from the Nisshin Maru. This was their fight against whaling. For theft, they received a year's probation.

In 2011, activists climbed onto the platform of the oil and gas company Cairn Energy and prevented people from working for several days. At first they wanted to beat up the activists and throw them into the ocean, but the management of the office strictly forbade doing this, so as not to run into a lawsuit. Therefore, the workers rested for almost a week and watched the raging activists. Greenpeace later paid Cairn Energy $50,000 for each day of forced downtime.





In addition, Greenpeace is constantly accused of scams: in 2014, $4 million in donations mysteriously disappeared from the organization. Then they found out that the management of the office had let them speculate on the foreign exchange market. Forex has reached them too. And in September 2022, Greenpeace bosses announced that they would build an eco-vessel for $55 million. And everyone started talking about kickbacks and money wasting.



Now environmental activists have once again attacked the oil giant Shell. The company was drilling wells near the Canary Islands and the “greens” swam to the Shell ship, climbed onto it and staged a protest. They were only able to get rid of them when the ship arrived in Norway. All this time, protesters blocked the company's work.

And they received a lawsuit. As the oil workers stated:

The right to protest is fundamental and we absolutely respect it. But it must be implemented legally and in accordance with safety regulations.

They added that the company suffered heavy losses due to the downtime. The amount of the claim is $2.1 million. If Greenpeace resists and does not agree to a deal, the claim could be increased to $8.6 million.

Greenpeace called it:

One of the biggest legal threats to the organization's ability to demonstrate in more than 50 years of history.

And they accused Shell of using “aggressive legal tactics”, “attempting to silence public protest” and “greedy pursuit of fossil fuels”.



So “their struggle” continues.