Such dangerous and dramatic actions brought Greenpeace wide media exposure and helped mobilize public opinion against environmentally destructive practices.
"I'd done a few nights in prison in various places, but Banbury police station is a fair bit different from Murmansk SIZO-1 isolation jail in the Russian Arctic," Stewart, who was the head of Greenpeace's media campaign to secure the Arctic 30's liberty, told the Guardian.
Greenpeace used social media very effectively to campaign against Nestle's Kit Kat brand, after finding an Indonesian supplier was clearing tropical rainforest to grow palm oil.
And especially when we're working on a global campaign, images have the power to reach people when words fail," says Molly Dorozenski, Greenpeace USA's media officer.
A month after it was published in August 2012, the study caused a massive uproar in China, where Greenpeace and Chinese media claimed that U.S. researchers were conducting unethical experiments on Chinese children.
Ben Stewart, head of media at Greenpeace, says the emails controversy had a significant impact.
"We were standing there and realised that we could see three Shell buildings including its HQ," said Ben Stewart, head of media at Greenpeace.
