Steve Sawyer
"When
the bastards made it clear they were willing to kill to stop
us I realised that youthful idealism could get you killed - in
Fernando Pereira's case it did."
Steve, now 48, lives in Amsterdam with his partner
and former Greenpeace Antarctic campaign director, Kelly Rigg,
and their teenage daughter and son. Steve now runs the policy
project for Greenpeace International's climate and energy campaign,
lobbying governments and corporations on energy policies and
attending marathon meetings of the now-operative Kyoto climate
treaty.
After the bombing, he became director of Greenpeace USA in Washington, In 1988,
he moved to Greenpeace International in England succeeding Greenpeace co-founder
David McTaggart as Executive Director.With the exception of a short stint running
his own antique furniture business and dabbling in the film industry after
stepping down from the top job, he has been involved in Greenpeace's climate
campaign ever since. A seasoned campaigner on board Greenpeace boats and a
tireless lobbyist, he led three Arctic expeditions in the late 1990s, and represented
the organisation at both landmark UN World Summits on Environment and Development
in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Johannesburg in 2002. A keen rock guitarist,
he likes to kick back and jam with his old Greenpeace mates whenever the chance
presents itself.