How to Change the World (15), directed by Jerry Rothwell

4/5

FOR many it may be incredible fathoming how a group of young hippy activists in an old fishing boat in 1971 gave birth to a global environmental movement and its poster child Greenpeace.

Their mission, as they set sail from Vancouver, was to stop the US’s atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, a small island off the west coast of Alaska.

They failed but the media coverage they courted and the political pressure they sparked led to the nuclear programme at Amchitka being cancelled five months later.

Through compelling and previously unseen archive film footage and interviews with the key players then and now, writer-director Jerry Rothwell paints a fascinating picture of the genesis of Greenpeace while focusing on the human dynamics, the egos and its de facto leader, the late Bob Hunter.

The charismatic journalist is described by his former colleagues as a visionary and someone who could inspire others.

He also knew what images would make news so, after Amchitka when the group decided to save the whales as their next campaign and target Russian whaling ships, Hunter realised that the shot they needed was for them to situate themselves between the whale and the harpoon.

That’s the image that went global and gave rise to the environmental movement, according to the film.

The shots of dead whales and the sea soaked in blood are pretty brutal along with those of baby seals being clubbed to death in Greenpeace’s follow-up campaign to save them.

The latter sparked dissension in the ranks and a clash of egos as Hunter’s unofficial second-in-command Paul Watson — who spearheaded the seal campaign — and climate-change denier Patrick Moore lock horns about Greenpeace’s true mission.

The radical Watson believed the idea of bearing witness to this crime was a cowardly one. Over 40 years on, the two still harbour mutual animosity.

How to Change the World chronicles the successes as well as the infighting and the disillusionment that followed as the organisation could not cope with its international expansion.

It certainly captures the idealism of the time and the determination to make a difference. However, it completely ignores Dorothy and Irving Stowe’s roles as co-founders of Greenpeace and doesn’t grill Moore on his turning from an environmental activist into an advocate of nuclear energy while denying global warming is caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide.

But in an age dependent on modern technology, the internet and social media, it’s refreshing to see how you can change the world old school-style.