Shell's retreat from attempts to sink its obsolete Brent Spar oil storage rig in the Atlantic Ocean was a major triumph for Greenpeace. By comparison, the brutal seizure of Rainbow Warrior II in the Pacific is proving a disaster for French President Jacques Chirac.

While disposal of the Brent Spar in the Atlantic posed many environmental complexities, originally there were only two options. The owners, Shell UK Ltd, could sink the rig two and a half kilometres deep in the second largest ocean on the planet; or they could tow it back for disposal in their own heavily populated country which has a surface area barely the size of the Great Lakes. Scientific opinion was divided over which method would have the least environmental impact.

It was disturbing to learn that the rig was to be sunk while still containing 100 tons of toxic sludges. Could not these sludges have been off-loaded for treatment over the years, instead of building up what is the equivalent of an ecological deficit? If Shell could routinely store, then off-load oil from the rig, surely they should have been able to decant the sludges also, rather than leave a macabre legacy for future generations?

But any environmental assessment would have to take into consideration the alternatives to deep sea disposal. A flotilla of tugs would burn hundreds of tonnes of fuel oil as they towed the massive rig on a long journey on a notoriously stormy ocean. Then consider the massive quantities of energy required to break up, then dispose of the huge oil rig in an environmentally safe fashion on land.

But these days, perception is reality. The Greenpeace view - enthusiastically endorsed by the media - was that the Atlantic was being used like a landfill site. Now no one wants to see our oceans become garbage dumps but reaction, especially in Germany, was violent and ecologically damaging. A Shell service station was fire bombed and a manager narrowly escaped injury from a letter bomb. Greenpeace disavowed the violent actions but a former member, Philip Morgan, now an oil analyst, said: "Even one fire bombing of a gas station was probably more polluting than if the Brent Spar had been sunk...."

It is rather ironic that the most militant protests came from Germany, whose U-boats sent millions of tons of shipping - many of them oil tankers to the bottom of the Atlantic during World War II. Then there was the battleship Craf Spee which sought refuge in Uruguay's River Plate, following a protracted battle with three much lighter Royal Navy cruisers. (Ajax, just east of Metro Toronto, was so named in honour of one of the cruisers.)

When forced to leave neutral waters by international conventions, the Graf Spee sailed from Montevideo - almost certainly with her bunkers filled with fuel - to be scuttled on the direct orders of the German High Command. The captain, whose seamanship had earned the respect of the Royal Navy, committed suicide as his ship joined thousands of American, British, German and Japanese ships and planes beneath the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But almost all of these vessels were sunk in action, unlike the Graf Spee which was scuttled, a fate denied to the Brent Spar.

Wrecks are surprisingly abundant in our Great Lakes. Dr. Joe Macinnis, a world renowned Canadian underwater explorer and IMAX filmmaker, who has degrees in medicine and law, recently told the Water Environment Association of Ontario: "The Great Lakes alone contain some six thousand wrecks, one, the Edmund Fitzgerald, is only 25 feet shorter than the Titanic. More ominously, there are at least five wrecked nuclear vessels along with fifty nuclear missiles Iying at the bottom of our oceans." Against facts like these, the Brent Spar furore is revealed as a very minor ecological incident which still achieved global media coverage.

But a generation raised on violent action movies must have been captivated by media footage of Shell's staff blasting away with water cannons at activists as they boarded the rig from 'copters. Truth sometimes really does imitate fiction. It reminded me of those James Bond movies where, in the final reel, evil villains, also on oil rigs, vainly blast away at rescuing helicopters flown by heroes.

Norway, which built the Brent Spar in 1976, has allowed the rig to be towed to a deep fjord for storage and later dismantling. Long a leading proponent of sustainable development, Norway had its own pristine environmental image tarnished in recent years over whaling quotas. After criticizing Greenpeace for questioning the accuracy of its minke whale population estimates, Norway conceded its scientists had overestimated North Sea whale populations. The whale quota was revised downwards from 301 to 232. In my view this is still 232 too many for the country which gave us the Bruntland commission, a name synonymous with sustainable development.

Greenpeace again demonstrated a power structure which rivals national governments when Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked the British to rescind their approval to sink the rig. Meanwhile, Shell encountered widespread boycotts of its products in Europe, especially in Germany. But when Shell gave in, British Prime Minister, John Major, reportedly made livid by the corporate capitulation, described company officials as 'wimps', an adjective more usually directed against himself. By press time, the British Government had stiffened its opposition to landfill disposal of the rig in favour of deep sea dumping. Meanwhile, the ill fated Brent Spar had become an industrialized Flying Dutchman, forced to cruise with its oil burning tugs while facing rejection on land and sea.

But it is worthy of note that an activist group, totally devoid of any electoral mandate, or business responsibilities, had reached out to shape the political policies of two of the most powerful countries in the world. It was to score even greater success in political public policies on the other side of the world.

With its Atlantic media battle decisively won, the Greenpeace vessel, Rainbow Warrior II, sailed to confront the French Navy in the Pacific in what is probably the most worthy environmental cause of all, the stoppage of further nuclear weapons tests. The French, who had blown up Rainbow Warrior I in New Zealand almost ten years to the day, brutally seized the Rainbow Warrior II, provoking outrage from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and political capitals around the world.

Spectacular stunts which attract the media are at the core of Greenpeace's success. When fourteen activists were expelled from the Brent Spar during the skirmishes, nine journalists were also ejected, a quite astonishing ratio. If this trend persists, perhaps activists will soon bring along their own individual journalists, much like today's film stars have personal fitness trainers. It may have already come to this. The French actions were reported live by a BBC reporter on board Rainbow Warrior II. This lent dignity and credibility to Greenpeace by the most respected voice in international broadcasting and further tarnished France's reputation.

Meanwhile, a French professor, Pierre Vincent, writing in Le Monde, has pointed out that the Mururoa Atol is actually an extinct volcano. He raises some serious doubts about the stability of the Atol which has already endured 138 nuclear explosions since 1975, adding credence to Greenpeace's concerns.

Jacques Chirac should have learned the lessons of history from that master of intrigue, Talleyrand, who had served Napoleon as well as French royalty. When the Bourbons were restored to the French throne, Talleyrand summed up their arrogance with his now famous quote: "They know nothing, and they have learned nothing." The European Community could also say the same thing about the arrogance of the new President of France. Has he forgotten the odium of the world when France illegally sank the original Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira?

Few Europeans realize that Canada invented UN peacekeeping which later won a Nobel Prize for former PM Lester B. Pearson. Fewer still realize that Canada also invented Greenpeace activism when Vancouver's David McTaggart led the first protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1972 and later in 1985. This time he was accompanying the Rainbow II in the 12 metre sailboat Vega. If President Chirac persists in his planetary vandalism, he may yet unwittingly earn another Nobel prize - for Canadian Green-peacekeeping - for, unquestionably, Greenpeace has been far more effective in achieving its goals than current UN efforts in Bosnia.