Forty years of Friends of the Earth - in pictures

May 1971: Friends of the Earth (FoE) member Ann Davidson, of Sutherland, Scotland, places an empty bottle among 2,000 outside the headquarters of Schweppes Ltd. FoE was protesting against bottles being dumped in the countryside Photograph: PA/PA Archive

October 1973, London: Supporters of Friends of the Earth protest against the motor car outside the exhibition hall at Earls Court, which was staging the international motor show Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch/Corbis

January 1978: FoE leave a giant Coca-Cola can outside the American Embassy in London as they called on the American president, Jimmy Carter, to support moves to place a deposit on all beer and soft drink containers Photograph: PA/PA Archive

February 1979: Friends of the Earth stage an anti-fur demonstration in front of Harrods, London
Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer

April 1980: Friends of the Earth protest outside the headquarters of the Department of the Environment over the proposed dismantling of the British allotments system Photograph: PA

April 1984: Friends of the Earth protest against pollution and acid rain in Whitehall
Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer

July 1990: A Save the Whale demonstration in the sea by Friends of the Earth in Brighton, England Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch /Corbis

March 1992: Protesters from Friends of The Earth watch the bulldozers move onto the water meadows site on Twyford Down in Hampshire preparing the way for the M3 motorway extension Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA

1996: A Mini inside a greenhouse at an exhibition organised by Friends Of The Earth called Art Bypass, Newbury, Berkshire. The mile-long arts event aimed to explore 'the reality of what motorway madness will mean for the landscape recently cleared to make way for a dual carriageway' Photograph: Andrew Drysdale/Rex Features

July 1998: Campaigners from the Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth are joined by a mutant lobster for the launch of a new campaign against the import of foreign spent nuclear fuel Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Archive

December 1997: A protest outside the American consulate in Kyoto, Japan, urges the United States to tackle global climate change at the UN climate talks Photograph: Thomas Cheng/AFP PHOTO

January 2001: Protesters from the Green party and Friends of the Earth simulate global warming during a protest outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Archive

March 2004: A Friends of the Earth protester dressed as Tony Blair outside the Houses of Parliament. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the announcement that the commercialisation of GM maize fodder crop would be given the go-ahead Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Archive

May 2002: Friends of the Earth campaigners Helena Moor 27 (left), and Emma Hughes 21, campaign for safety data on pesticides to be publicly released Photograph: PA/PA Archive

January 2005: Local residents and South Bedfordshire Friends Of The Earth supporters along the B4032 Soulbury Road at Linslade, Buckinghamshire, opposing the construction of the Stoke Hammond to Linslade Bypass Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

May 2004: Protesters from Friends of the Earth handing out spoof chocolate bars at the Cadbury Schweppes annual general meeting (AGM) in London. They were highlighting concerns over the demand for the preservative palm oil which is leading to rainforest destruction Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian

November 2005: A masked man, meant to represent EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, is held on a neck chain by a member of Friends of the Earth during a demonstration in front of EU headquarters in Brussels. They wanted to ensure Mandelson made no excessively generous offers on cuts in farm subsidies at trade talks Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

June 2005: A traditional butcher, baker and green grocer are taken over by Tesco as shareholders arrive for the AGM Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian

February 2005: Two women from Friends of The Earth dressed as scarecrows hold hands outside parliament as part of a demonstration against GM crops Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Getty Images

December 2005: A Montreal resident looks at a pamphlet left behind by the environmental group Friends of the Earth outside the United Nations climate change conference in Montreal. The group installed a 50 metre (164 feet) mosaic, made up of more than 3,000 tiles, to demand that negotiators formally accept and enforce the Kyoto protocol Photograph: Christinne Muschi /Reuters

April 2006: Members of the international Friends of the Earth group hold Israeli and Jordanian flags as they row kayaks in the Jordan River near Kibbutz Gesher. Water diversion has turned the Holy Land's Jordan River into a sewage canal, environmentalists warned, as they launched a campaign to rescue the waterway where tradition says Jesus was baptised Photograph: Baz Ratner/AP

2005: Thom Yorke (left), lead singer of Radiohead, poses with European environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, to launch Friends of the Earth's Europe-wide climate campaign, the Big Ask. Yorke called on governments and the European Union to commit to year-on-year emission cuts Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

December 2009: (From left) Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth International, Dorothy Guerrero from Focus on the Global South and Canadian author Naomi Klein announce the winner of the Angry Mermaid award, given to the company which they claim has done the most to sabotage effective action to tackle climate change. Monsanto received 37% of the votes ahead of Royal Dutch Shell (18%) and the American Petroleum Institute (14%) Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP

March 2011: Members of Friends of the Earth and Ecologists en Action demonstrate in Madrid against the World Bank practice of supporting coal and oil-based industrial development. Placards read: 'Enough with coal' and 'We demand climate justice now' Photograph: Pierre-philippe Marcou/AFP

August 2008: An aerial view shows people forming giant letters that read 'Act the f*ck now' during the filming of a video clip on the beach in Oostende, Belgium, as part of the 'SOS Klimaat' climate event, organised by Friends of the Earth to bring attention to climate change Photograph: Kurt Desplenter/AFP