I challenge you to watch this and not smile. Activism with a sense of humanity -- and humour. Sign me up.

Posted by brianfit at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

All the Apple users in the Greenpeace office here in Amsterdam are hiding behind the clean lines of their Apple monitors, squirrelling away their iPods, and placing their arms protectively about their iBooks.

But despite the fact we're going head to head with Cupertino, we're not confiscating anybody's precious Apple. We've just launched the Green my Apple campaign.

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Posted by brianfit at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Off the coast of Indonesia researchers have found sharks that walk on their fins and shrimp that look like praying mantis, along with a bunch of other new species.

Photos on National Geographic, which goes on to say:

Scientists have clocked the shrimps' arms moving at 23 miles (37 kilometers) a second as they snare small fish and other reef critters. The speed and force has broken aquarium glass.
"That's a lot of power, by the way," McManus said. "These guys are the terrorists of the coral reef ... They are really powerful, dangerous animals."

Among the new fish species are several types of "flasher" wrasses, named for the brilliant pink, yellow, blue, and green colors males display to entice females to mate.

All the new species were discovered in less than six weeks, which McManus says is a remarkable feat. That many are sizable creatures like fish is even more impressive.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that all of these cool critters are threatened by dynamite and cyanide fishing by locals and the likely introduction of commercial fishing. What to do? Along with better fishing methods, Conservation International is calling for a network of marine reserves.

Posted by Andrew at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting news. When Richard Branson gets something into his head, he usually goes with it. From the BBC:

The Virgin boss said he would commit all profits from his travel firms, such as airline Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, over the next 10 years. "We must rapidly wean ourselves off our dependence on coal and fossil fuels," Sir Richard said.

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Posted by Dave at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Rex Weyler writes: "[September 15th] is the 35th birthday of Greenpeace. Some of the founders have passed on: Irving Stowe, Ben Metcalf, Davie Gibbons, John Cormack, and Bob Hunter. A new generation of environmentalists face challenges that we did not imagine thirty-five years ago when a little fishboat departed from Vancouver, Canada to sail into a nuclear test zone. The following accounts of that voyage are from my book: Greenpeace (Raincoast Books, Rodale Press): As May Sarton says: “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.”

Read the rest at Common Dreams...

Posted by brianfit at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

© Greenpeace/Christian Åslund.

I used to enjoy eating cod when it was still sustainable to do so, but that was quite some time ago now. The cod fishing quotas in the Baltic Sea are far higher than what is recommended by scientists. Then add the illegal catch - as much as every third cod is caught illegally! Despite the desperate situation the industry seems strangely unconcerned. One of the big players is Unilever, who have not yet explained how they will tackle illegal cod fishing. In fact, they don’t do much at all.
Send them a reminder that they should clean up their act.

Right now the Arctic Sunrise is out on the Baltic Sea as part of the Defending Our Oceans project, have a look at the blog.

Posted by Irene at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here in the UK this week the Guardian newspaper has been trumpeting its exclusive extracts from a new book by George Monbiot, campaigner and columnist extraordinaire. It probably won't rate alongside The Hitler Diaries in terms of literary scoops but the book, Heat, looks like a goodie.

It examines how Exxon Mobil is behind all those bodies and foundations that have been discrediting the science behind climate change. Hardly revolutionary stuff, but more interesting are the links with the tobacco industry who pioneered exactly the same campaigning techniques to try and nobble any suggestions that smoking might cause cancer.

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Posted by Jamie at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

18 August 2006 - A local fisherman stands ankle deep in oil spilled on the beaches near his home. The spill began on August 11 when Solar I, a Petron-chartered single hull vessel carrying 2.1 million litres of oil sank in the Guimaras Strait, about 500km southeast of Manila.
© Greenpeace

I somehow missed posting the month in pictures weeks ago. So here it is!
August: The Month in Pictures »

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Posted by Dave at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo by Michelle van Kampen on flickr.com

This is something I spotted while responding to someone on Flickr.com. I noticed that Michelle van Kampen had posted a photo of a dead seabird. When I enquired, she posted a news story about it.

Interestingly, all of the media reports say that pollution probably isn't to blame. However, Niall Hatch from BirdWatch Ireland reckons that these birds were the result of a later breeding season than normal - when the fledglings left their nests, and went looking for food, they met with rough sea conditions, and were unable to feed. I've emailed Niall for more information, haven't heard back yet.

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Posted by Dave at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mahi Sideridou, in our European Unit writes:

The European Union is currently trying to decide on the future of its energy sector. The European Commission is asking for people's opinion on a number of energy issues, so that it can develop new policies.

Europe could and should do much more to start a global energy revolution. It should be committing itself to protecting the climate by embracing renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and conservation. It should be phasing out polluting and dangerous technologies, like nuclear energy and coal.

This is your chance to tell the European Commission what you want your energy future to look like.

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Posted by brianfit at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google and the United National Environmental Program have teamed up - and are using Google Earth to show areas of extreme environmental degradation worldwide.

The UNEP overlay for Google Earth includes successive time-stamped images illustrating 100 areas of extreme environmental degradation around the world. From the deforestation of the Amazon to the fallout of raging forest fires in Sub-Sahara Africa and the decline of the Aral Sea in Central Asia, this before-and-after imagery spanning the past 30 years offers users an online resource for learning about the environmental crisis zones around the world.

Google Earth
(After Installation, look in the "Featured Content" menu tree under "Layers" and select "UNEP")

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Posted by Dave at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sunday Times and Friends of the Irish Environment (FOIE) have revealed that the Irish government and the state forestry company, Coillte are sitting on a ticking time bomb. It's been discovered that phosphorous and nitrate silt leaked into an Irish river, causing an algae bloom that asphyxiated most of the pearl mussels downstream. Pearl mussels are a protected species under European law, and Ireland has the largest remaining population. This has caused a moratorium on logging in areas near the species, and public exposure of just how much artificial fertiliser is used in growing Sitka spruce trees in bogland.

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Posted by Dave at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace bought five top-brand laptops this summer and asked an independent laboratory to test them for toxic chemicals. The brand-new laptops were taken apart and tested for nasty stuff brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC), and lead.

Looks can be deceiving:
Of all the laptops tested, Apple’s sexy new MacBook was the most contaminated, with a concentration of 262 mg/kg of the toxic chemical TBBPA, a form of brominated flame retardant.

...And corporate statements often are too:
Results for HP revealed high levels of a number of chemicals in its components, in particular the highest levels by far of PBDEs (a class of Brominated Fire Retardants) including something called decaBDE. HP's website claims it removed decaBDE from its products years ago.

HP needs to ask its suppliers some tough questions. Lead was also found in the soldering.

This Greenpeace report (PDF) published today details all the results of the tests. More background information about this and our campaign against e-waste available here and here.

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

(AFP report) British arms manufacturer BAE Systems is designing "environmentally friendly" weapons, including "reduced lead" bullets, "reduced smoke" grenades and rockets with fewer toxins, The Sunday Times said...

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Posted by brianfit at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

US public watchdog the Environmental Working Group has lambasted McDonald's for giving away 42 million toy Hummers. Yes, 42 million.

McDonald's often emphasizes its "long-standing global commitment to environmental protection and leadership". So why did they give away 42 million toy Hummers in Happy Meals? The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth cut a deal with General Motors to sell future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military. Use the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic™ to say what you think of this misguided marketing marriage:

Create your own "supersize me" message »

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Posted by Dave at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

CNN reported that a Republican lobbying organisation, which has Exxon as one of its clients, is linked to a spoof YouTube video, which makes fun of Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". Funny how much skeptical climate propaganda is linked to Exxon isn't it? Way to go CNN!

Posted by Lisa at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know this is what you have all been looking forward too - cleaning up beach trash! And tomorrow is International Coastal Cleanup Day. Woo hoo!

I'll be honest though. I am far too lazy to go all the way to the beach to pick up garbage. Instead, I'm going to pick up some litter around where I live. A lot of this would get washed or blown into the canals and end up in the ocean anyway.

More about Coastal Cleanup Day.

Posted by Andrew at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You've got to love journalist Greg Palast. You might not know who he is, but you damn know well the consequences of his work - he's the journalist, who, while working for the BBC, uncovered the voting fraud in Florida, during the 2000 US elections.

Now's he's just escaped proscution for filming Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery - as Palast jokes, "I have sworn to Homeland Security that we no longer send our footage to al-Qaeda — which, in any case, can get a much better view of the refinery and other “critical infrastructure” at Google Maps."

He continues:

Of course, this was never about our tipping off Osama that Louisiana contains oil refineries. This has an awful lot to do with a petroleum giant’s sensitivity to unflattering depictions of their plants which are major polluters along Louisiana’s notorious “Cancer Alley.”

Read the full story on Greg's blog: Reporter Palast Slips Clutches of Homeland Security »

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Posted by Dave at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spectacular photographs of a disturbing subject: the forest fire infernos raging across the rainforests of Indonesia and Brazil. The fires are aggravated by global warming. Then they aggravate global warming. Loop and repeat.

Posted by brianfit at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

© MacGabhann Architects

Ever thought about grazing sheep on top of your house?

The Venice Biennale is on at the moment in... well, Venice. I've been reading about the Irish entries to the exhibition - and it's all very interesting. At first glance, the architects seem to be creating a kind of construction haute couture - but when I looked deeper, they seem to be both practical and imaginative in addressing the burning issues of day. Ireland's population is growing rapidly, and the infrastructure and housing market are only barely keeping up. And while there's demand for housing, a certain well-off strata of society maintain countless holidays homes on the beautiful west coast that remain empty much of the year, adding to the hellish 'Bungalow Blitz' that has quite a few people upset.

Indeed, while I sit here in a house in on Ireland's west coast right now, I'm surrounded by empty houses that have lain dormant since the end of August.

Now, however, two County Donegal architects, Antoin and Tarla MacGabhann, have come up with a novel way of 'hiding' houses - using hydraulic systems to hide holiday homes when not in use...

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Posted by Dave at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fat Freddy's Drop keyboard player Dobie Blaze and trombone player Ho-Pepa check out an arm piece of a colossal squid - the largest squid in the world. © Phil Freeman 2006

New Zealand band Fat Freddy's Drop has got in behind the bottom trawling campaign this week by doing what they do best. The band has released a funky new video remix of one of their songs cut in with images and footage from the deep sea.

Dobie Blaze, Fat Freddy's Drop keyboard player and a keen recreational fisherman, is particularly concerned about the impact of bottom trawling on deep-sea life and the future of fishing. He and trombonist Ho-Pepa made a special trip to giant squid expert Steve O'Shea's lab to check out the evidence for themselves..

You can help them spread the word by bombing it on videobomb and rating it on youtube.

If you want to grab a copy and email it on you can download it here

But wait there's more!

The band is also auctioning 6 limited edition autographed Protect Deep Sea Life t-shirts online to help raise money for the campaign. You can bid online at this week if you live in New Zealand or Australia..

Posted by Nick at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The BBC reports that Steve Irwin fans may be engaging in 'revenge attacks' against stingrays:

Dead stingrays with their tails cut off have been found in Australia, sparking concern that fans of naturalist Steve Irwin may be avenging his death.

Mr Irwin, a TV personality known as the "Crocodile Hunter", was killed while diving in Queensland when a stingray's barb stabbed him in the chest. Since then, 10 stingrays have been found mutilated on Queensland beaches.

OK, it could all be unrelated to Irwin's death. But to be on the safe side let me say: Keep your hands off the stingrays. Really, you are an idiot if you think this is what Steve Irwin wanted. It is a shame he died - my condolences to his friends and family. Of all people, he knew the risks.

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Posted by Andrew at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Such was the headline in one online story about the news from our Dutch colleagues, who have found high levels of gender-bending phthalates in sex toys sold in the Netherlands. Seven out of eight sex toys sampled, including dildos and vibrators, contained phthalates in concentrations varying from 24 to 51 percent!

Phthalates are used to soften plastics. They also mimic human hormones and can damage reproduction, cause liver and kidney defects, and upset the body's ability to regulate hormone production. There is some evidence they cause cancer.

In 2005 the EU banned the use of the phthalate DEHP in children's toys because of its damaging effect on young children. One of the issues there was that many toys spend a lot of time in the mouths of children, accelerating the leaching of chemicals and their uptake in the bloodstream.

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Posted by brianfit at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've a habit, when travelling, to sink myself into a copy of The Economist. Hardly holiday reading, I know. This rather interesting article about the growth of light rail systems in the USA appeared in the current issue - but, as the article asks, will Americans abandon their cars so easily?

"Portland, Oregon, is a fabulous city, at least when it's not raining. Trees line the streets, the microbrews are full-bodied, cyclists abound. And then there is the 44-mile (71km) MAX light-rail system, started 20 years ago. Over $1.6 billion went into developing the MAX, mostly from local and federal governments. The handsome payoff includes Portland's perpetual reputation as among America's nicest places to live, and some $4 billion-worth of development near the stations. Since 2001 the MAX has even whisked people from the airport to the centre of town in just over half an hour for under $2—the first “train to the plane” on the west coast."

The Economist: All aboard!

Posted by Dave at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Glad to see that even MTV is ringing environmental alarm bells!

Posted by Lisa at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)