Behind the Greenpeace door

A big part of Greenpeace's strategy to protect the environment has always been showing up where they're not wanted: nuclear testing sites, off the bows of whaling ships, on people's front porches.

"People are relieved it's not a Jehovah's Witness or a salesperson," says François Corignon. "I think we get a better response than anybody who goes door to door."

He is one of about a dozen Montrealers whose job it is to go door to door for Greenpeace. He speaks to up to one hundred people in a given evening in order to create awareness about the environment, sign up members for the organization and collect money.

Aggressive dogs, uncomfortable weather and unwelcoming people can all be part of a day's work.

And this is not made any easier by the fact that, in order to connect with people when they're at home, Greenpeace hits the turf between 5pm and 9pm, when people are most likely to either be recovering after a difficult day at work, in the process of making dinner, or halfway through eating it.

"Negative feedback is part of the job," says Vic Thibeault, Greenpeace's Development Outreach manager who is in charge of the door to door canvassing in the province of Quebec.

But so is positive re-enforcement.

Over the past three decades, the organization has employed a combination of direct action, political lobbying and public relations to spearhead some of the worlds most high profile environmental victories. While criticism of the organization and its tactics has been fierce, sometimes coming from former Greenpeace activists themselves, the organization has grown into an international force funded entirely by individual donors.

And it's never been more common to be an environmentalist than it is now. The once fringe movement has gone mainstream.

"It's now easier to engage on a topic than it used to be," says Greenpeace canvasser David Rancourt.

Climate change has gotten the public's attention in a way that acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer never did. The environment, according to a November Ipsos poll, is the issue that the largest number of Canadians want the government to address. In the current media atmosphere, IPCC reports and inconvenient truths are a regular staple of the public’s information diet.

"Six years ago, when I started working for Greenpeace, you were starting to hear about Kyoto and whether or not Canada was going to ratify it" says Rancourt, "but a lot of people did not really understand what the protocol was."

Herbert-François Rochons has been going door to door for the organization for 5 years and has also observed an evolution in public perception.

"It's not the level of concern but the comprehension that has changed," he says. "People are starting to get a clear idea of the science behind climate change."

But while the environment has raised its profile as an issue of concern, it cannot be said that Greenpeace as an organization has followed suit.

The organization that crashed the international stage with its highly successful Save the Whales campaign of the 70s and 80s is no longer the dominant voice on the environment that it used to be.

Today it shares a crowded stage with other environmental groups, political parties, and corporations, all of whom are trying to out green each other.

According to Rochons, people who he speaks to are largely cynical about this. While a sense of urgency is growing, there is little optimism that anything is actually being done.

"There is a lot of political disillusionment and we're feeling that much more now than before," he says.

Matthu Kawa points to the lack of activity on the part of the Canadian government as a reason why people are willing to open their arms and their wallets to an organization that takes action to for the environment.

"The fact that the Conservatives are against the Kyoto protocol and that they don't have a plan for the environment gives us more leverage. It makes our job a little easier," says the canvasser of three years.

So will the summer.

The warmer, more predictable weather makes going door to door easier and more efficient and leads to people being a lot more willing to chat for a few minutes in the doorway. Across Canada, Greenpeace will be expanding the number canvassers at it's main offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, and opening seasonal satellite offices around the country.

"It's still the best way to get the message out," says Thibeault, who will be running the summer office in Quebec city. "With any other type of fundraising you end up connecting with a certain type of person one way or the other. With door to door, you reach everybody equally."

One canvasser thinks that despite the growing public concern for the environment, the tipping point in the environmental movement has yet to arrive.

"Most people don't see the consequences of what's happening to the environment," says Corignon. "You can talk about deforestation but most people don't leave the city to see it with their eyes. It's the same thing with climate change, because even though the temperature has risen, it hasn't made a truly big difference to most people's lives."

"When that happens, then people will be really ready to act."
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