David McTaggart

David "Dave" Fraser McTaggart (born June 24, 1932 in Vancouver , British Columbia , † March 23, 2001 in Paciano , Italy ) was an environmentalist and the initiator, founder and first chairman of the international section of Greenpeace .

David McTaggart and Steve Sawyer

Life

David McTaggart experienced a sheltered childhood with his parents George McTaggart (1899-1990) and his wife Mary. He had two siblings, a sister ten years older than him and his brother Drew (1929-1995).

In the first half of his life, McTaggart was a building contractor and bon vivant . Before that, he had won the Canadian Badminton Championships three times . He has five children with several wives. After the bankruptcy of his company in Canada, he moved to New Zealand and bought the sailing yacht Vega there in 1969 , without any concrete prospects.

In 1972 he became aware of the Greenpeace protests against French atomic bomb tests . At the suggestion of Greenpeace, he not only made his yacht available, but also sailed with three other crew members into international waters around the Mururoa Atoll , which France considered a separate restricted area . By staying in the restricted area, the four environmentalists wanted to prevent a French nuclear test in the South Pacific . They received international attention but were only able to delay the test for a few days. The Vega was rammed by a French warship and the four activists were arrested. The following year, 1973, France repeated the nuclear tests and McTaggart the protest drive. McTaggart and another crew member were beaten up and seriously injured.

In 1979 McTaggart founded Greenpeace International , which he chaired until 1991.

After resigning as chairman, he led a quieter life, but remained active for Greenpeace until his death. He died of heart failure or the resulting car accident near his organic olive farm in Umbria . An elderly Italian couple was seriously injured in another car, the man later died.

Quotes

"Always remember that it's about your children's path into the 21st century - and to hell with the rules"

literature

• David McTaggart: Rainbow Warrior. The autobiography of the Greenpeace founder. Goldmann Verlag, 351 pages, ISBN 3-442-15201-1 .
• David McTaggart: Greenpeace company - trip into the mushroom cloud. Ullstein Verlag, ISBN 3-548-34042-3 .

Web links

Commons : David McTaggart  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about David McTaggart in the catalog of the German National Library
• Greenpeace.de: Vega