Greenpeace

3:00 am.  Larry and I hid in the dark shadows at the base of the tower and sorted our climbing gear in the deafening roar of the cooling water that was splashing past us only a few feet away.  The plan was for me to climb up the flimsy plastic mesh designed to keep birds and leaves out of the tower's infrastructure, to a platform 75 feet above.  Just climbing that high on an uncertain medium was unnerving enough, but even more frightening was the fact that the climb was overhanging at about a 110-degree angle.  After waiting out a security guard who ventured within 15 feet of our hiding place before heading back to his truck and continuing with his rounds, I tied into the lead end of the rope and embarked on the first leg of our ascent.  The climbing was tenuous, and I was looking at hitting the ground if I fell.  I took my time, fighting nerves and trying to ignore the almost overwhelming urge to rush.  About 10 feet from the top, the mesh on which I stood started to pull away from the side of the tower.  After pulling away a few gut-wrenching feet the mesh held, and I froze, my heart racing wildly.  The cliché about hanging by a thread suddenly gained new meaning.  After a minute or so, I got my wits together and slowly traversed a few feet to the right.  Once I had gained more stable mesh, I slowly started ascending again and kissed the platform when I arrived there a few minutes later.

That was me, Bill Richardson, on an action at the Fermi Nuclear Power Plant in Monroe, MI.  Okay, so it was ten years ago.  Now I'm the Deputy Executive Director of Greenpeace US, and my days are spent more in meeting rooms and holding down a desk than they are climbing buildings and hanging banners.  But the work I do today behind the scenes is heavily influenced by the perspective I gained as a frontline activist during my early years at Greenpeace.  The mindset and conviction one fosters by putting personal fears aside and taking action, by taking risks to further a cause you believe in, works just as well in the boardroom as it does on a cooling tower.

June of this year will mark my 18th anniversary with the organization.  I started as a door-to-door canvasser, and had the opportunity to be involved in numerous field activities over the years.  In addition to the cooling tower at Fermi, I scaled the Sears Tower with three other climbers on December 2nd, 1992.  The date marked the 50th anniversary of the first sustained nuclear reaction, which took place in Chicago and ushered in the dark cloud known as the nuclear age.  Other activities have ranged from blockades in the woods to time on our ships.  The experience that affected me most deeply was when I was on the Rainbow Warrior headed for New York Harbor – on September 11th, 2001.  We spent the day anchored offshore, staring at the wall of smoke where the twin towers had once stood.  With most of our communications to the outside world cut off, we were anxiously left to guess about everything that was happening in New York and back home in DC, while floating in nerve-racking isolation.

My field experiences went a long way to shape the person I am now.  The responsibilities I hold currently are more managerial and administrative in nature, and don’t match the images people typically conjure up when they think of Greenpeace on the job.  But behind the scenes of our more high-profile activities, I work with many talented people who diligently cross T's and dot I's, and make sure the actions we take are part of integrated strategies designed to raise awareness and achieve environmental victories.  Our administrative roles are ultimately just as important as taking on whalers and climbing smokestacks.  We feel a great sense of obligation to our donors to be fiscally responsible, and in today's political climate where the Bush administration is using the cover of Homeland Security to clandestinely take on its legitimate adversaries, we have to be on top of our administrative game.  Recently, we were subjected to an IRS audit that was initiated by an anonymous referral, probably with the assumption that we wouldn’t have our act together when it came to the books.  I am proud to say that we passed the audit with flying colors.

So now you know a little bit about me, my history with Greenpeace and what I do now.  Every day I work here is a privilege.  To be a part of an international organization that can leverage the power of individual supporters around the world to do things like take on the Japanese whaling fleet and help protect 5 million acres of old-growth in the Great Bear Rainforest is humbling.  The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.