20Th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value

Sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them. The oldest art objects in the world – a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old – were discovered in a South African cave. Containers that may have been used to hold paints have been found dating as far back as 100,000 years.

Cave painting of a horse from theLascaux caves, circa 16,000 BP

Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia,Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya, and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.

In Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of Biblical and religious truths, and used styles that showed the higher glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art of Catholic Europe.

Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space.

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Greenpeace

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Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 40 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Greenpeace focuses its work on world wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling and anti-nuclear issues. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals. The global organization does not take funding from governments, corporations or political parties, relying on more than 2.8 million individual supporters and foundation grants.

Greenpeace evolved from the peace movement and anti-nuclear protests in Vancouver, British Columbia in the early 1970s. On September 15, 1971, the newly founded Don't Make a Wave Committee sent a ship, Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace for the protest, from Vancouver to oppose United States nuclear testing in Amchitka, Alaska. Later the Don't Make a Wave Committee took the name Greenpeace. In a few years Greenpeace spread to several countries and started to campaign on other environmental issues such as commercial whaling and toxic waste. In the late 1970s the different regional Greenpeace groups formed Greenpeace International to oversee the goals and operations of the regional organizations all over the world. Greenpeace received international attention during the 80s when the French intelligence agency bombed the Rainbow Warrior ship in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, one of the most well-known ships operated by Greenpeace. Later Greenpeace turned into one of the largest environmental organizations in the world. Greenpeace is known for its direct actions and has been described as the most effective environmental organization in the world. Greenpeace has raised environmental issues to public knowledge, influenced both the private and the public sector. Greenpeace has also been a source of controversy; its motives and methods have received criticism and the organization's direct actions have sparked legal actions against Greenpeace activists.

On its official website, Greenpeace defines its mission as the following:

- Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace by:

Catalysing an energy revolution to address the number one threat facing our planet: climate change.
Protecting our oceans by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing, and creating a global network of marine reserves.
Protecting the world’s ancient forests which are depended on by many animals, plants and people.
Working for disarmament and peace by reducing dependence on finite resources and calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Creating a toxin free future with safer alternatives to harmful chemicals in today's products and manufacturing.

Greenpeace thinks that nuclear power is a relatively minor industry with major problems, such as environmental damage, risks from uranium mining and unresolved questions concerning nuclear waste. According to Greenpeace the slow construction times, construction delays, and hidden costs, all limit the mitigation potential of nuclear power. They also argue that binding massive amounts of investments on nuclear energy would take funding away from more effective solutions. Greenpeace views the construction of Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland as an example of the problems on building new nuclear power.

Greenpeace aims at protecting intact primary forests from deforestation and degradation with the target of zero deforestation by 2020. Greenpeace has accused several corporations, such as Unilever, Nike, and McDonald's of having links to the deforestation of the tropical rainforests, resulting in policy changes in several of the companies under criticism. Greenpeace, together with other environmental NGOs, also campaigned for ten years for the EU to ban import of illegal timber. The EU decided to ban illegal timber on July 2010.