Statement from Ananth, International Programme Director:

You’ve probably come here to read a blog post written by our colleague Gene, in which he addresses climate sceptics by saying:

“Let's talk about what that mass civil disobedience is going to look like.

"If you're one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments into submission, then hear this:
We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work. And we be many, but you be few.”

Well, we’ve taken down that post from our website. It’s very easy to misconstrue that line, take it out of context and suggest it means something wholly different from the practice of peaceful civil disobedience, which is what the post was about. Anyone who knows Gene knows he’s an entirely peaceful guy. In the interest of transparency we have moved it off site to this location, where you can read the offending quotes in context and judge for yourself:

We got this one wrong, no doubt about it. I’m holding up my hands on behalf of the organisation and saying sorry for that. Peaceful action is at the very core of what we do, so any language that even comes close to suggesting that’s not the case is something we cannot support.

Gene in his blog asks: “What do you do when patient petitioning, protest marches and court orders fail? What do you do when all the protocols and cheat codes of democracy fail? This is what you do: you reclaim the language of democracy from the twisted bunch that have hijacked, cannibalized and subverted it.”

We need to reclaim the language of democracy and tolerance. A language that is clear and precise. A language that does not confuse integrity of protest and civil disobedience with anger. One which establishes the fundamental tenets of protecting the planet for all life forms.

The climate change debate is often characterised by more heat than light, and for that reason we all need to be careful about how we express ourselves.

Of course the anti-science brigade on the web has seized on the line in Gene's post and run with it (and will run and run and run), taken it out of context and run with it some more – it’s what the climate contrarians exist to do.

We do not look over our colleagues’ shoulders when they blog. That’s not what the web is about – and that means we’ll make mistakes. No doubt this won’t be the last one, but next time we’ll deal with it a little quicker.

Thank you for coming to the Greenpeace website, and while you’re here please take the chance to have a look round at some of the work we do.

And if you have any questions about what I’ve written here, feel free to drop me a line at: ananth[at]greenpeace.org, International Programme Director, Greenpeace International.

-- Ananth

The dirty coal industry keeps trying to convince us that they aren't all that bad but you only have to switch on the news to see the truth...

Over the Easter weekend a Chinese coal container ship ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef and now threatens the pristine and fragile environment with a massive oil spill. And this morning we heard the tragic news of a coal mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 25 people - with 4 still missing.

These are not unusual events either. There's a long list of fatal coal disasters in the US alone since the 1970s. And in China - these kind of accidents are happening all the time. Over 30 Chinese miners are currently trapped in a coal mine - with no signs of life as a dangerous build up of methane has hindered rescue efforts.

It's not surprising then that the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said the coal industry is "still unsafe". He also said that safety “is one of the many factors that goes into a decision on how to develop our energy resources”.

We're hoping he's looked into the ongoing safety issues surrounding nuclear power. And that he'll take into full consideration the impacts of coastal drilling.

Coal is the single biggest climate polluter and one of the dirtiest, deadliest substances out there -- but it's clean and safe renewable fuels and energy efficiency that we need to focus on - not other dangerous and destructive energy sources. We can meet the world's energy demands, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost the economy and create jobs without expanding the dirty fuel industries.

Don't take our word for it though. Check out our Energy [R]evolution and our Working for the Climate reports.

This short video clip from the Rachel Maddow show is a must-watch for anybody following our campaign to expose the climate denial industry's least known and most active moneybags -- Koch Industries.

By the way, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show is the second highest-rated program in its time slot on U.S. TV, behind only Fox News Channel's Hannity.

[via Kevin Grandia in the Huffington Post]

We just launched a French-language facebook group -- Nous demandons 100% d'énergie renouvelable pour Facebook! -- to compliment the vibrant English- and Spanish-language ones we started a few weeks ago.

It all began when Facebook announced it will build a massive data centre in Oregon, U.S., packed full of the latest energy efficient computers to serve the hundreds of millions of friends connecting on the near-addictive social networking website. We all love connecting with friends, and the company's energy efficiency initiatives are commendable -- but Facebook plans to run the place on electricity made by burning coal.

We think the company can do better than that -- it must! Thousands more Facebook members add their voices to the call every day, swelling the groups we only started a few weeks ago to almost 400,000 members in total today.

Here's what we're asking of Facebook:

1. Commit to stop using polluting coal power,
   
2. Use its purchasing power to choose only clean, renewable sources of electricity,
   
3. Advocate for strong climate and energy policy changes at the local, national and international level to ensure that as the IT industry's energy demand increases, so does the supply of renewable energy,
   
4. Share this information publicly on its website so its millions of users know the company is a climate leader.
   

Guest blogged by Jamie (original post on GP UK) -

It's three weeks since we launched our Nestlé campaign and, thanks to the fantastic support we've received, it's going from strength to strength. Nestlé's Facebook page is still dominated by questions about where the company gets its palm oil from. It seems that every attempt by their admins to change topic is another opportunity to turn the conversation back to deforestation linked to palm oil and other ethically questionable practices. Meanwhile, our Kit Kat video has sailed past an incredible 1.1m views.

Our orang-utans ask Nestlé to give them a break in front of Nestlé's Beijing headquarters.

Greenpeace USA has been coming up with some pretty fantastic videos lately, highlighting the links between fossil fuel industry lobbyists and public servants (a lot of them being senators) in the US.

As Greenpeace has been looking at the climate inaction promoted by the Koch brothers lately, they made this little video:

Early on Sunday a fire destroyed part of the Climate Defenders Camp in Indonesia on Riau’s Kampar Peninsula. The flames were spotted by villagers across the Kampar river in Teluk Meranti in the early hours of the morning. Luckily the camp's caretaker was not there at the time and no one was injured.

The camp was built in October 2009 with local help in order to bring attention to the cost of forest destruction to the climate, local communities and biodiversity. In the run-up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit our activists staged several actions around the Climate Defenders Camp before passing it on to the community in November 2009.

An image of the camp as it was:

What the camp looks like after the fire:

Recently, Argentinean president Cristina Kirchner decided to give the go ahead to build a coal power plant in Patagonia. Yes, a coal plant in the heart of PATAGONIA. Now I'm not sure about you, but the idea building a coal plant belching out CO2 and who knows what other toxic crap in the middle of the glaciers and water reserves of Argentina sounds like whatever comes after a bad idea to me.

Global warming is already a threat to the existence of the Andean glaciers. These glaciers are the main source of water for many communities in Argentina and the rest of South America. They are the most important water reserve for future generations of Argentinians and they are disappearing quickly. So, Greenpeace Argentina decided to take the President's trip to the U.S. as an opportunity to remind her that "A woman with long term political vision would not have endangered the glaciers and water reserves of Argentina." Check out the full ad and learn more about coal and the glaciers of Argentina.

peace.

You sent over 200.000 e-mails to Nestlé and all we've gotten so far is a lot of repetitive statements from the largest food and drink company in the world. Yesterday we took the message directly to shareholders - and delivered it every way we possible could: via protesting orang-utans, banner drops from the ceiling, our own WiFi network, an official speech to the shareholders and a mobile Twitter wall.

A group of 30 protesting orang-utans arrived at the entrance to the AGM just as Nestlé shareholders were beginning to trickle into the coffee tent to take a break before the meeting began. The security guard couldn't quite get the gate closed fast enough to keep the orang-utans out - although he did put in a gallant effort (obviously he doesn't have a lot of experience dealing with animals).

Meanwhile inside the meeting itself - just as the Chairman of the Board began to talk about Nestlé's profits over the past year our activists dropped from the ceiling and unfurled two banners directly over shareholders heads (reaction of the shareholders was a mix of screams and confused clapping). We wanted to ensure that Nestlé's continuing use of palm oil - and pulp and paper products - coming from the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands was front and center on the agenda.

Watch the orang-utans arrive - and our activists 'drop' in to the meeting:

Or, "Really, who needs a Climate department in an Environment Ministry?"

Mr Brabeck-Letmathe & our activist at the AGM.

Good question. After dropping into Nestlé's Annual General Meeting on April 15th to deliver the message that the largest food and drink company in the world is still using palm oil and paper products from forest destruction - we got a response.

Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe painted a very reassuring picture of what Nestlé is doing (or not doing) to address the products in it's supply chains which come from destroyed forests. His statement has been prominently displayed on the Nestlé homepage since the AGM where our activists at the meeting - and all of you supporting the campaign online - ensured that palm oil was a main focus of the agenda.

Guest blogged by Joko Arif - Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace Indonesia

Land is ready to begin planting for expansion of palm oil plantations in the concession area of PT Buana Adhitama © Greenpeace / Bina Karos

Vast, bald, deforested areas surround us, while in the background we can see the wall of surviving forest. Evidence of forest clearing is all around us so we have what we came for – but strangely we haven’t caught anyone red-handed today. There are no workers in sight. Our scouting team go ahead to track down the company in the act of destroying the forest while the rest of us stay behind to bake in the extreme heat. There’s not a single tree left, so there’s no shade. It’s noon on Friday April 23rd and we have found fresh evidence that palm oil supplier Sinar Mas is still in the process of destroying Indonesian rainforests.

Today, April 27th, Sinar Mas held its Annual General Meeting in Singapore and we presented the fresh evidence we collected over the weekend at a press conference just before the start of the AGM – but getting this new evidence was not easy.

We set out for Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan in Indonesia on April 23rd to meet other NGO friends to exchange information and to gather more data on what PT Buana Adi Tama (PT BAT for short), a subsidiary of notorious forest and climate destroyer, Sinar Mas, has been up to in the area.