Environmental Change

Examine the role of one civil society in fostering improved environmental management. 

Greenpeace is a civil society that's stated goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity"and has its primary focus on issues like global warming and deforestation. It has offices in over forty countries with it's main headquarters based in Amsterdam. They have been known to use extreme protest measures such as in 2007 when six Greenpeace members were arrested for breaking into the Kingsnorth power station, climbing the 200 metre smokestack, painting the nameGordon on the chimney, and causing an estimated £30,000 damage. However, they have been a contribution to the improvement of environmental management. 

They were one of the first groups to develop positive development scenario to reduce the severity of climate change (1993).  According to the "Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" publication, if it meets one of these factors, then we can consider the situation a mitigation: 

• It incorporates specific climate change targets, which may include absolute or relative GHG limits, GHG concentration levels (e.g. CO2 or CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) stabilization scenarios), or maximum allowable changes in temperature or sea level.
• It includes explicit or implicit policies and/or measures of which the primary goal is to reduce CO2 or a broader range of GHG emissions (e.g. a carbon tax, carbon cap or a policy encouraging the use of renewable energy).

In its wikipedia article, Greenpeace was said to have played a significant role in raising public awareness of global warming in the 1990s through the use of posters etc. 

(This is an example of a global warming awareness poster from Greenpeace Turkey in 2008; drawn by Kaan Oszoy)