Forty years ago this week, the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior was sunk by two bombs planted by French secret service operatives. The bombing, which killed photographer Fernando Pereira, was intended to halt Greenpeace’s campaign against French nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll. Instead, it galvanised the global environmental movement and left a lasting stain on France’s international reputation.
On the night of 10 July 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was moored in Auckland, New Zealand, preparing to lead a flotilla of protest vessels to Moruroa, in French Polynesia, where France had been conducting nuclear tests for decades.
