At 50, Greenpeace is an environmental success story with a daunting future

Fifty years ago, an ad-hoc group of environmentalists gathered aroundliving rooms and kitchen tables in Vancouver's Kitsilanoneighbourhood with a shared goal ofstopping the United Statesfrom testing nuclear weapons off the western coast of Alaska.

They decided to saila leaky, 24-metre-long halibut fishing boat directly toward the blast zone as a form of protest.

The ship was ultimately forced back, but the move drewinternational attention. Nuclear testing in the area ended months later.

Today, the group with small beginnings in Vancouver has grown into one of the most recognizable environmental organizations in the world. Greenpeace has a presence in more than 55 countries, withnearly three million members globally.

It's no doubt a success story for an organization with such small beginnings, but experts and early members agree that the operation will need to keep reinventing itselfif it hopes to have an impact on a climate crisis more urgent than ever.

WATCH | From the Archives: Excerpt from CBC documentary profiles 12-member crew that sailed out of Vancouver in 1971:

Greenpeace inaugural voyage

4 years ago

Duration 1:47

Excerpt from a CBC documentary about the birth of Greenpeace and the 12 member crew, including Terry Simmons, that sailed out of Vancouver in 1971.

"There's both a sense of pride at Greenpeace and also definitely a sense that everything we've done is not enough," said Rex Weyler, who was the organization's director from 1973 to 1982.

Greenpeace has shifted prioritiesover the decades fromanti-nuclear issues, commercial whaling and overfishingto deforestation andthe escalating climate crisis.

It's survived its fair share ofcriticism, controversy, legal action and infighting,even though any one of those issues has brought down similar organizations time and time again.

Experts attribute Greenpeace's endurancein partto itscommitmentto theoriginal set of philosophies and principles.

Its core mission is still the preservation ofthe planet, and the organization still does not accept donations from corporations and governments to avoid the risk of corruption.

'No single generation is going to fix the world'

Its strategy of usinghighly visible, peaceful protest to get the public's attention has been another key.

"That's really where Greenpeace has excelled over time," said Lisa Sundstrom, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who studies non-governmental organizations.

"They got their start by having vessels in the oceans that were stopping environmental or nuclear damage of various kinds, heading off warships ... and it is these really dramatic moments that have been caught on film, and everybody around the world gets to know them for doing this," she said.

"They've kept that up to a certain degreebut [while] simultaneously managing to become quite professionalized and disciplined."

LISTEN | From the Archives: The birth of Greenpeace:

Archives4:04The birth of Greenpeace

A group of Vancouver hippies sails off to Alaska's waters to stop U.S. nuclear testing.

Greenpeace's next challenge will be connecting with younger, grassroots activists at the community level despite being an international giant. It will also have to come up with new strategies to hold the public's attention.

Speaking from his home on Cortes Island in B.C., Weyler said the organization's explosive growth has beenbeyond what the earliest memberscould have expected.

"We wanted the movement to be international, but no, we didn't quite imagine that Greenpeace would be as huge and successful as an organization as it has been," he said.

An activist forhalf a century, Weylersays he knows the road to change is long, and heunderstands, acutely,how easy it can be for the younger generationto feel powerless about making change.

On that, he shared his advice.

"You have to be willing to understand that no single generation is going to fix the world.It's going to take generations to approach solving this," Weyler said.

"You just have to keep going. You have to have courage but every moment of your life cannot be about changing the world. It's overwhelming. You have to take care of yourself. You have to take care of your family," he said.

"All you can do is make a contribution as best you can."