Photo Gallery Greenpeace in Crisis
A crew member of the Russian oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov looks on as members of Greenpeace sail past a banner saying "No Arctic Oil" in the harbor of Rotterdam May 1, 2014. Since last week, the environmental organization has faced a scandal, as the news has emerged that it lost millions of euros through ill-advised financial transactions.
Since he took over the organization in 2009, Kumi Naidoo has refocused Greenpeace's operations on the developing world. This has resulted in large-scale organizational changes.
Greenpeace activists near the Stena Don Oil Rig off Greenland in 2010. Calling themselves the rainbow warriors, activists hang from factory chimneys, throw themselves in front of whaling ships or risk jail time in Russia by calling attention to the plight of the Arctic. Now, another activity has been added: playing the financial markets.
A Greenpeace climber scaling Chevron's Stena Carron oil platform during a protest off Shetland, Scotland in 2010. For an organization almost entirely financed by donations and contributions, the revelations of financial mismanagement are a PR disaster -- endangering, from one day to the next, the greatest good Greenpeace has: its credibility.
The financial mismanagement is largely the result of a power vaccuum created by the departure of its former COO, Willem van Rijn.
Greenpeace activists demonstrate in front of the Russian consulate in Hamburg in support of their jailed colleagues. Greenpeace International management didnt notice that it was sitting on a financial time bomb until August 2013. Lawyers were brought in, but the contracts were watertight. There was no escape.
German Chief Executive Officer Brigitte Behrens, shown here, plays down the conflict. So far, she says, the delegation of international campaigns has worked, and supporters are regularly informed about all activities through Greenpeace news. But, even so, the money is gone. Im very shaken, she says. It can never happen again.
