# Operation Save the Arctic Operation Save the Arctic was a 2012 hacktivist campaign run by Anonymous in support of Greenpeace's anti-drilling push, dumping thousands of oil company emails on Pastebin under the #OpSaveTheArctic banner. The two-phase leak targeting Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Gazprom and Rosneft turned a corporate advocacy fight into one of the most visible eco-hacktivist ops of the year. ## Origin The wider push began on June 7th, 2012, when Greenpeace launched Save The Arctic at the Rio Earth +20 summit in Brazil, calling for the North Pole to be designated a global sanctuary and drawing pledges from more than 100 celebrities[3]. Anonymous picked up the cause on June 27th, 2012, when CyberZeist (Twitter handle @le4ky) posted a Pastebin release billed as 'Phase I of Operation Save The Arctic,' claiming to expose roughly 300 email accounts tied to Exxon Mobil employees[3]. Anons then used those addresses to sign the Greenpeace petition, and the hashtags #OpSaveTheArctic and #SaveTheArctic started climbing on Twitter[3]. Greenpeace itself did not organize the hack, but on June 29th, 2012 the group posted a welcoming tweet acknowledging the Anonymous action[2]. The same day, cybersecurity outlet Cyber War Zone uploaded a YouTube walkthrough of both phases and a companion blog post telling readers how to help[1]. - **Platform:** Pastebin / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Anonymous (CyberZeist / @le4ky) - **Date:** 2012 ## Overview Operation Save the Arctic, tagged online as #OpSaveTheArctic and #SaveTheArctic, was a hacktivist operation Anonymous ran in mid-2012 to piggyback on Greenpeace's Save The Arctic campaign against oil drilling near the North Pole[3]. The op paired old-school Anonymous tactics, pastebin dumps of hacked corporate emails, with an advocacy twist: leaked addresses were used to sign the Greenpeace anti-drilling petition on behalf of oil company staff[3]. The format was simple and repeatable. A spokesperson going by CyberZeist would publish a Pastebin communique framing each dump as a new 'Phase' of the operation, followed by hashes and email lists. Supporters on Twitter then amplified the leak with the #OpSaveTheArctic tag, treating the hack itself as the meme[3]. A companion YouTube explainer titled 'Official Anonymous #SaveTheArtic – Phase 1 and 2' packaged both dumps for a wider audience[1]. ## How It Spread The op moved fastest on Twitter, where CyberZeist and sympathetic accounts pushed the Phase I dump under #OpSaveTheArctic in the last days of June 2012[1]. Coverage from cybersecurity blogs and the informal Anonymous news network fed the hashtag, and Greenpeace's own June 29th acknowledgment gave the campaign a mainstream signal boost from the NGO it was targeting the industry on behalf of[3]. On July 16th, 2012, CyberZeist published a second Pastebin note as 'Phase II,' this time claiming more than 1,000 additional email accounts pulled from Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, and Russian majors Gazprom and Rosneft[1]. The Phase II post also admitted that some Phase I data had been reused by third parties for phishing schemes, which pushed the story from environmental Twitter into infosec press coverage[1]. Outlets including The Daily Dot, Wired, The Next Web and WebProNews wrote up the second leak, cementing Operation Save the Arctic as one of the more visible eco-hacktivist actions of 2012 before the hashtag activity faded later that year[1]. ## How to Use Participation was less a meme template and more a call to action: post the #OpSaveTheArctic or #SaveTheArctic hashtag on Twitter, share links to the Pastebin dumps, or reuse leaked oil executive email addresses to sign Greenpeace's anti-drilling petition[3]. On YouTube the common convention was to repost or remix the Cyber War Zone explainer clip framing the leak as an environmental protest[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Operation Save the Arctic? It was a 2012 Anonymous hacktivist campaign that leaked oil company employee emails on Pastebin to support Greenpeace's anti-Arctic drilling push[1]. ### Where did Operation Save the Arctic come from? It grew out of Greenpeace's Save The Arctic launch on June 7th, 2012, and was formally kicked off by Anonymous spokesperson CyberZeist with a Pastebin dump on June 27th, 2012[1]. ### What does Operation Save the Arctic mean? The name framed the hack as environmental protest: Anonymous positioned the leaks and petition sign-ups as an operation to pressure oil firms drilling near the North Pole[1]. ### How do you use Operation Save the Arctic? Supporters typically shared the #OpSaveTheArctic or #SaveTheArctic hashtag, reposted the Cyber War Zone YouTube explainer, and signed Greenpeace's petition using leaked oil executive addresses[2]. ### Is Operation Save the Arctic still popular? No, the hashtag activity faded after the July 16th, 2012 Phase II dump and the op is now mostly remembered as a 2012 Anonymous case study[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4aTq3ZU970]() 2. [https://x.com/i/status/218740836240867330]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/operation-save-the-arctic]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/operation-save-the-arctic Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library