In even more from the slightly-irrelevant-Iceland-whaling news desk, the Iceland Review has excitedly revealed the shocking news that Homer Simpson's supervisor in Sector 7G of the Springfield Nuclear Powerplant is actually Icelandic (despite the considerable anomalies, as wikipedia points out, of being raised in Cincinatti in one episode, as well as being proudly African American).

Apparently Carl's name is spelt the more Icelandic way "Karl" in the episode where Homer uses a terminator-style system to scan potential husbands for his wife's ill-fated chain-smoking sister Selma. (If my memory serves correctly, Carl is rejected as a potential husband for Selma due to the unfortunate fact that he is not Lenny, his co-worker. Why Lenny is also rejected remains a mystery).

I wonder what Carl would think of his nation's resumption of commercial whaling? He *does* work in a nuclear powerplant, and was a member of the secret powerful sect the Stonecutters, so it's unclear where he'd sit on this one. However Marge is impressed by him and he is also schizophrenic, so you just never know.

If any member of the Simpsons' writers would allow me to interview Mr Carlsson I would be very grateful to pick his brains on the matter.

Posted by Adele at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the weekend I was randomly and socially checking my email ...ok ok I was working... but then so was my Campaign Director, Mads, as was evidenced by a particularly amusing email in my inbox. Our Nordic Oceans Campaigner Frode Pleym has been immortalised in a cartoon in Icelandic daily paper Morgunbladid. (Sources tell me this is the second time this has happened but I have yet to track down the first cartoon, probably Frode has bought them all up and they're stashed under a pile of very boring campaign documents where no-one will ever be brave enough to look).

In the cartoon Mr Pleym is force-feeding fresh (and seemingly raw) whalemeat to the Icelandic Fisheries Minister and his whaling buddy Kristjan Loftsson (they look nonplussed at his choice of cuisine).

The headline says "Whaling for Kristjan" and "Greenpeace says there is no market for whale meat". Frode is apparently saying to the unfortunate dining party "You have to eat this yourselves, down to every last gram". Obviously we've made quite an impact in Icelandic media.

I texted Frode upon seeing the cartoon and told him he'd better get in touch because Billy Idol had called and wants his haircut back. No reply so far.

Posted by Adele at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a UK review on climate change, British economist and government advisor Sir Nicholas Stern has said that "climate change represents the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen," but that there "is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally." Which is exactly what we have been saying all along (while getting accused of "climate porn"). The scientific and moral cases for acting against climate change have been known for some time - but ironically, it's taken an economist to spur governments into action. Show me the money...

Read more on the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change »

Greenpeace UK: Climate change: We still have time! »

Posted by Dave at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite being evicted yesterday from Mac Expo we returned today undeterred from our mission to spread the word for a Greener Apple and get Mac users involved to help change Apple for the better.

Not being allowed inside meant we handed out our information to visitors outside the venue tube station and on the pavement outside the venue. Several Mac fans showed their wholehearted support by giving our green version of the Mac Guy a hug. Several young Mac fans leaving the Expo took a t-shirt to spread the word for a Greener Apple at their next destination – the Regents Street Apple store. I wonder if they will be allowed in?

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Remember, remember, the 4th of November. Will you be wandering around London on that day? Worried about climate change wreaking catastrophic planetary destruction? Terrified you might not be able to get tickets to the next Glastonbury music festival? Not sure which you should be worrying about more?

Fret no more! We'll get you and a friend backstage at the next Glastonbury for free as our guest bloggers. All you have to do is persuade more people than anybody else* to come to Trafalgar Square on November 4th and stand up against climate chaos.

"PAPT" are in the lead, with 11 team members. Think you can do better? Enter the competition and start inviting your friends. »

Credit: Video made and given by unknown Glastonbury-goer after the 2005 deluge

Posted by Dave at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I was sitting through lectures about supply chain management I never thought they'd end up being useful like this. Still business is all around us as they say, so here goes. In a comment below David from Tokyo points to some Japanese figures about the size of their whale meat stockpile. I have a few comments about those but I'd like to start by pointing out that in the year from 1 August 05 to July 31 06, the stockpile grew by 445 tonnes.

Looking at the numbers from 1 September 05 to August 31 06 the growth is 469 tonnes. Or to put it another way, either David's translations are wrong or that stockpile is getting bigger on a year by year basis. If anyone wants to look the original Japanese (which I can't read) is here.

To address his point - that doesn't suggest Iceland will be able to sell them much.

However this movement is pretty minor in the scale of things. For more about the exciting world of supply chain management and all the numbers, read on.

Read more »

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Canadian Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn admitted last June that, "bottom trawling does damage to the [fish] stocks, and it does damage to habitat". And yet, the Canadian government is one of the few countries blocking a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling. (More info and how to help here.)

Minister Hern has even gone so far as to say people supporting the ban (including George W. Bush) are "extreme environmentalists". How weird is that? Bush an environmentalist?

Along with the rest of us, many Canadians are truly puzzled by this turn of events.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We love our Macs but Mac Expo doesn’t love Green my Apple

After a very small trial run yesterday at the Regent Street’s Apple store the Green my Apple team took the message to London’s big annual Mac shindig –Mac Expo.

We had our official stall explaining the campaign – our volunteers outside were handing out real organic green apples to spread the word outside and encourage people to stop by the stall and show their support for a better greener Apple.

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (53)

It's widely assumed by many people that Icelanders and other whaling nations want to go whaling in order to make money. I'm pretty sure that there are people in Iceland, Japan and Norway who think this too. So I set about working out whether there is profit in whaling - and how much that might be.

Here's what I've learned

Read more »

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

War. Huh!Good Lord! What is it good for? Well here's a better use for an AK47 than I've ever seen: slap six strings on it, tune up, add a Bazooka restrung as a bass, missile casing drum kit, and you got yerself a three-Peace Band.

Now all we need to do is figure out some similarly useful musical repurposing of those 480 US nuclear weapons in Europe and we'll be laughing. Tell you what, let's just tell the lead vocalists in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the UK to send them home while we think about that, shall we.

Posted by brianfit at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you work in IT you pick up what's called 'domain knowledge' - which is to say information about whatever industry you happen to be providing IT for. It's why I can tell you about world rally cars, direct mail order businesses, selling servers, the UK hotel market and all kinds of other odds and ends. Since I joined Greenpeace my domain knowledge has expanded into even weirder areas.

Lately I've been expanding my domain knowledge illegal fishing, that's pirate fishing to you and me. Here's what I've learned so far...

Read more »

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not content with the popular Green my Apple website we hit London today to take the Green my Apple message in to the real world at the Mac Expo in London, which starts tomorrow. Like the committed activists we obviously are we hit the streets early for a bit of a warm up the night before by heading over to Regent Street and the Mac Mecca of the London Apple store.

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

© goecco.com

One of our Oceans campaigners, Sarah, has just pointed out this posting to Galley Gossip. A user called "goecco.com" has linked to their Flickr.com account, with some absolutely amazing but horrifically graphic photographs from the last few days, showing a whale being slaughtered .

Watch the slideshow »
Browse the photographs »
www.goecco.com

Posted by Dave at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We've soft-launched the new Greenpeace discussion forum! Greenpeace loyalists will remember the fun we had over the years at the old GCC, where we

• named the Greenpeace ship "Esperanza" in an online competition
• found a volunteer ("Polecat") to go to the Amazon to help indigenous people
• recruited more than 60 million USD in potential tourist income to Iceland if they'd stop whaling (that's now more than 90 100 million and climbing!)
• provided an activist resource for user-run campaigns from New Zealand to Italy to Finland
• held open forums with Greenpeace staff and campaigners
• cranked up the volume on countless Greenpeace actions with a fabulous network of multipliers
• and ran or created an entire suite of Greenpeace actions that originated with the community rather than in-house

The forum also provided, of course, a great sounding board for supporters to question Greenpeace about its policies and decisions, and for Greenpeace staff to sound out the community on new ideas and innovations.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Photo by Peter Essick/Aurora/Getty Images (via National Neographic site)

Some good news is always nice to hear and having just read that 13,000 square miles of land in Canada has just been declared a national park I thought I'd share the love a little. The unamed park is a pristine wilderness that is almost 4 times as big as Yellowstone National park in the U.S! It is an area that connects boreal forest to northern tundra and includes the world's 10th largest lake.

This is the first step of many needed from the Canadian federal government to protect priceless land throughout the Territories. For a decade, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has been working with communities, other conservation groups and governments to identify important ecological and cultural lands so they can be protected before large scale industrial activities get underway.

Looks like their hard work is beginning to pay off!

Read more here on National Geographic

Posted by Lisa at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah the ozone hole. I remember years ago when, going door to door for Greenpeace USA, I could barely find anyone except NASA scientists who even believed the thing existed.

Yet, just last Wednesday, the Antarctic ozone hole reached an all time big. But not to worry say scientists. This year's unusually large hole was due mostly to an extended South Pole cold spell. As the San Francisco Gate reports, the overall situation is looking good:

In fact, separate measurements show the amount of ozone-depleting bromine and chlorine gases at the surface peaked around 1995, and has been declining since then, mainly because of international restrictions adopted under the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A living fin whale. © Greenpeace / Aguilar

The slaughter has started - with the senseless killing of a 20m-long endangered Fin whale that its hunter, Kristjan Loftsson plans to land tomorrow - in order to show it off to the world. I don't know what to say, really. Iceland, which appears to have given in into Loftsson's one-man anti-whale lobby, really has thrown the toys out of the playpen on this one. The international communitty is pissed off, Iceland seems intent on making a mockery of its membership of the IWC, and apparently even the Environment Minister acknowledges that the lack of operating license for Kristjan Loftsson’s meat processing plant in Hvalfjoerdur is causing something of a problem. What do do with all the dead whale now that you've got it??

In addition to the other 38 whales that Iceland plans to kill, there's nearly another 1,000 that Japanese whaling ships are planning to bump off in the Southern Ocean - starting from next month.

So far, 84004 people have taken the pledge:

“I would seriously consider taking a vacation in Iceland rather than somewhere else if the Government of Iceland stopped whaling. I would be willing to receive an email about the options available for Icelandic tourism, an email that would be sent to me if the Government of Iceland ends its whaling program.” Take the Iceland whales pledge »

Read on for media coverage of the killing of the endangered fin whale...

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

01 January 1986: Dead whale at whaling station, Iceland.
© Greenpeace / Jeff Canin

A quick update - Iceland's plan to return to commercial whaling appears to have backfired a bit, with dozens of nations condemning the move. I've pasted together some media updates, plus details of what's been happening on our blogs.

First tho, the pledge. So far, 82956 people have made the pledge. Have you?

“I would seriously consider taking a vacation in Iceland rather than somewhere else if the Government of Iceland stopped whaling. I would be willing to receive an email about the options available for Icelandic tourism, an email that would be sent to me if the Government of Iceland ends its whaling program.” Take the Iceland whales pledge

There's reports in the Icelandic media suggesting that the return to commerical whaling is already causing problems:

"Already there are signs of whaling affecting tourism in Iceland negatively. Iceland’s government decided to resume commercial whaling last Tuesday. Heimir Hardarson, marketing director of whale watching company Nordursiglingar in Húsavík, northeast Iceland, says tourists have already started canceling trips to Iceland." Iceland Review: Whaling is affecting tourism »

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just spotted this via P45, a biting multimedia satire of the conservative armchair bloggers that have supported the invasion of Iraq and the search for the mysterious "weapons of mass destruction".

The War of the Words: The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders »
"When America needed them, they were there. They had honor. Courage. And a lot of spare time. A Documentary by Paul H. Henry"

The War of the Words: The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders »

Posted by Dave at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

© Greenpeace / Jack Noble

]It's nearly two years since the 2004 tsunami that caused such devastation in the Indian Ocean. After the terrible loss of human life, it's easy to forget the environmental damage, and how it can affect the lives of tsunami survivors who were once dependent on the reefs for food and income. In Phuket, Thailand, divers from around the world are working to restore the ruined coral reefs. And here's how they're doing it.

"The technique requires tiny fragments of coral to be grown in netted cages suspended in the sea, protected from grazing fish and strong currents. This improves the coral’s chances of survival. The first crop has been transplanted onto badly damaged reefs at Koh Phai, a small island near the resort of Krabi on the west coast. The divers will now apply the method to other reefs off the islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where thousands of holidaymakers died. They have also created an artificial reef and may use specially designed concrete cylinders with many crevices to create beds for coral larvae to grow." The Times(UK): Coral transplants rebuild reefs wrecked in tsunami »

Phuket Marine Biological Centre
Rebuilding the reefs in Thailand »

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Spotted in the British newspaper The Times:

A complete ban on cod fishing is the only way to prevent the species from dying out in the North Sea, scientists said last night. The much-trumpeted European rescue plan for cod is failing, the official committee of European fisheries experts will tell governments on Friday. Stocks of cod — Britain’s favourite fish — are still so depleted in the seas around the UK that there should be a complete ban on catching the fish throughout next year. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) will also give warning that fishing of other species of fish, including haddock and plaice, will have to be severely curtailed if cod is to be protected.The Times: The end of cod »

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

© Greenpeace/P.Rastenberger

This morning in Finland - some of our Finnish friends projected the message ‘Energy Security = Renewables’ onto the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland, which was stuffed to the gills with EU leaders having informal an EU summit is taking place. Is that a bit like those casual Fridays that some offices have? No suits, and they're all flopping around in jeans and t-shirts?

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark Fiore has done a bunch of great E-cards for us over the years. We had nothing to do with this one, but I sure wish we did ;-). If you don't know his website, http://www.markfiore.com check it ouf for the lighter side of the daily doom and gloom.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Bush administration has just asserted it's right to militarise space. The new US space policy states

"The United States is committed to the exploration and use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity. Consistent with this principle, 'peaceful purposes' allow US defence and intelligence-related activities in pursuit of national interests."

The Register have the details

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Spotted on boingboing.net - Google are in the processing of putting a flippin' enormous solar power system on the roof of their headquarters. There's lots of in depth information in the announcement on of their supplier's website, EI Solutions, but it doesn't tell whether or not any of this solar energy will be used to power the massive server farms that Google runs - some 450,000 machines. It'd be pretty satisfying to know that when I Google something that the energy used was coming from the sun...

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Around twenty years ago off the coast of Inish Mor a basking shark rose up out of the water and terrified an eight year old boy who had been taken fishing by his father. The vast shark with it's enormous mouth was almost the size of the fishing boat, and the boy cried and shuddered and asked to be taken home. Twenty years later the boy has grown up, has children of his own and a rather different problem.

Read more »

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace International proudly presents
A will Flash for Cash Production
Written, produced and directed by Richard Hanson

PULP FISHIN

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looks like that old nugget, Sellafield reprocessing plant, is back in the news again, this time for leak that was discovered in April 2005, eight months after it had started:

"About 83,000 litres of acid containing 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium escaped from a broken pipe into a sealed concrete holding site. The operator of the Cumbrian site, British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing."

"The court heard that the leak should have been detected within days rather than the eight months it took. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Openshaw said British Nuclear Group Sellafield 'did not have a good safety record'."

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am so tired. Not because of the long day or the sort of late hour, but because the Icelandic fisheries ministry issued a permit to hunt 39 whales for commercial purposes. It is. Just. So. Frustrating. Why do they do this? You tell me, there is not even a market for it!

I was in Iceland a couple of years ago, where the old whaling ships, the Hvalur fleet, lies in the port of Reykjavik as rusty relics of old times. Across the jetty was a whale watching boat. It was just so obvious: whaling is something of the past! And still here we are… boy was I stupid.

Andrew posted the story here

And hey: sign the pledge will you please? We're never giving up, but for now I'll just go home and… mope.

Read more »

Posted by Irene at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

© Greenpeace/Lombardi

Well, with all this talk of "climate porn", some of our activists in Amsterdam have gone one better - they've set up a "Green Light District" in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light District by replacing the red light bulbs with green, energy efficient ones, and taking over a few of the windows - dressed normally, of course!

It's all part of a Dutch campaign for to get 1 million extra energy efficient lightbulbs installed in the Netherlands.

12 steps to a more energy efficient home »
Energy efficiency »
Visit www.1miljoenspaarlampen.nl (in Dutch)
Red Light District wordt Green Light District (in Dutch)

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

At 07:46 East Coast Time on the 17th October 2006 in the United States, a momentous event occurred. The 300 millionth American was born. Or as some people in the US have been pointing out, they most likely just walked across the border. The media not surprisingly prefers the baby story; a photogenic child untainted by the dirty politics of US immigration so we'll stick with the script. 300 million seems small potatoes compared to the enormous populations of China or India, both well over a billion people and still growing, but it is the average US citizen's consumption of resources that makes 300 million such a frightening milestone.

Read more »

Posted by Richard at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is tuna:

This is also tuna:

© Greenpeace/Alex Hofford

The current webbie on the Esperanza, Richella, has been writing about tuna today. Funny this, as I'd been thinking about tuna myself the last few days (yes, I think about fish a little too much, but probably not as much as certain people I know in the UK office).

In this modern world of fast food and supermarkets, we live far from our sources of food - both geographically and philosophically. When we sit down and eat a steak, we don't think of the animal that it came from, because we never laid eyes on the poor dumb beast.

Likewise, if I'm with friends and the conversation turns to food, then fish, there's a "Hush! Don't mention fish in front of Dave, he's against us eating them". Well, it's not true - I love eating fish - that's why I'm so concerned about the state of the world's fisheries. I explain this to my companions, and detail what's relatively 'safe' to eat, and what's not.

Later in the evening, someone will sidle up to me; "Dave... it's ok to eat tuna isn't it. I mean, it's not like it's really fish, is it?"

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Here's the top photos from Greenpeace photographers during September. Some sobering stuff...

Above:

19 September 2006 - Aerial view of the mud gushing out of a Lapindo Brantas Inc. gas exploration well in Sidoarjo, East Java. The situation is slipping beyond control and called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to hold Lapindo and its shareholders, Bakrie Group, Santos of Australia and Medco Group, fully accountable for one of Indonesia's worst industrial disasters.

Posted by Dave at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This one slipped by me, despite my having been at last year's Forest Rescue Station in Finland. Finland, you see, has managed to win the Golden Chainsaw Award, which we reserve for the worst forest crime offenders.

Between the the 1950s and 1970s, birch trees were considered 'flora non grata' by foresters as they didn't have any commercial value. So, they were cut down and poisoned to reduce their numbers. In some areas, were sprayed with the deadly defoliant Agent Orange - yes, the nasty stuff from the Vietnam war.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Dave at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This bit of feedback from one of my personal heroes, Kathy Sierra, made my day:

Greenpeace takes a novel, inspiring approach to a campaign to make Apple 'green'. Rather than attacking the company, it encourages Apple fans to get involved creatively as a way to "help" Apple design a "new, cool product."
The first words on the main page of the campaign are, We love Apple.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth' opens in Holland today. You'd think that with the world approaching a literal melt down you wouldn't need a movie to get people's attention. But there's the rub - these days there are so many things to be worried about that - well - who has time?

Seth Godin, who knows a thing or two about marketing thinks that climate change needs rebranding. He puts it this way...

"1. the name.

Global is good.
Warm is good.
Even greenhouses are good places.

How can "global warming" be bad? " (see the whole post)

Read more »

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There was a fairly stiff article in today's Independent (UK):

"Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind over-exploits the world's resources - the day when we start living beyond our ecological means."

That's it, folks today was Overshoot Day. According to Global Footprint Network, October 9th was when we began using more than our fair share of the Earth ­when "humanity started eating the planet".

Assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural resources that can be used sustainably each year, October 9th is the date on which we've used it up. We've gone into the red, and the interest rates have started kicking in.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pete Willcox, first skipper of the Rainbow Warrior, wrote this homage to activist Bruce Abraham:

Bruce Abraham died yesterday. I do not know the details.

I met Bruce in 1983 in Seattle, when we were there getting ready for that summer in Alaska. He wanted to join the crew, and came with us on the day trip from Lake Union to downtown Seattle. It was a tricky docking, with a good breeze blowing us off the dock. Bruce talked his way onto the bow and somehow into the position of throwing the heaving line to shore. The monkeys fist flew off the bow, right towards some picture windows of an overlooking restaurant. As the pilot and I gasped, Bruce at the last second gave a little flick of his wrist, and the heaving line fell gently on the dock. I hired him on the spot as third mate.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Xiao Wei, vocalist and guitarist from Chinese band 'Catcher in the Rye'

I was born in Beijing, a big noisy city without forests and faraway from the oceans. I have a Rn'R band named "the Catcher in the Rye". Now we are volunteers of GREENPEACE. This year I joined the "Save the paradise forests" action by GP in Papua New Guinea. It was really an unforgettable great experience for me in my life. Yes, it change my mind!

When I put on the t-shirts "Save the Paradise Forests" or "Forests Patrol" or "Defending our Oceans", I can feel the honor and the duty. When I tell the story about my green trip to PNG on TV or on the radio, I can feel the listeners are touched. Now I am writing a song in both Chinese and English about Greenpeace. I think the music can touch more people's hearts and awake them to cherish the nature and do something they can to save it. I think everyone can do something for the future. We chose recycled papers for the cover of our new album. I do believe in the power of music.

Every time I saw the beautiful lovely stickers of ocean Animals on my Gibson guitar box, I say to myself "Go on, you do it better!"

Posted by Adele at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm originally Australian (watch out for the flies Nick!), but have lived in Amsterdam where I worked as a webbie for Greenpeace International. This involved a particularly interesting trip to Korea working out of a "love hotel" and trying to wean the lead campaigner off his addiction to fermented cabbage. When I got sick of living on cheese and being 2 feet shorter than everyone else in the Netherlands, I moved to Sydney where I worked at Greenpeace Australia coordinating the web work for the Defending our Oceans expedition. What was a 'year long journey' has become 15 months, so happily I'm still here and still coordinating. I'm based in lovely Stockholm (that's a slightly longer story). I am pleased to report I'm now apparently of average height and cheese is in rich supply.

Posted by Adele at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A random Ocean Defender moment... while the Esperanza (affectionately referred to from now on as just The Espy) is out battling pirates, Chinese band 'Catcher in the Rye' are Defending our Oceans armed with nothing but an electric guitar. The band performed at a huge concert in Beijing on 2nd October, proudly wearing Defending our Oceans tshirts. Rumour has it they're even writing a song about Greenpeace. You can check out more pics on the Catcher in the Rye blog. Feel free to leave them a message, although it's a tad tricky to figure out in Chinese.

Posted by Adele at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

That's the headline from a SeaWeb article. No wonder the fishing industry is called, "the most energy-intensive food production method in the world today."

According to the study the world's fishing fleets burned 50 billion litres of fuel in just one year at a cost of, "620 litres per live weight tonne of fish and shellfish landed". The study didn't even include freshwater fisheries or illegal, unreported or unregulated fisheries (what we call pirate fishing). So in reality their figures are probably a massive under estimate.

Ironically, climate change is one of the bigger threats to ocean ecosystems.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watch the music video - then see the documentary!

Talk about edgy! London rapper Example's new video is shot in the radioactively contaminated post-nuclear zone at Chernobyl. While he there, Example also filmed an 18-minute documentary in the post-apocalyptic ghost towns and their deserted schools, hotels and funfairs - places frozen in time for twenty years.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

© Greenpeace/Ingrid Frankhauser

Just been looking at photographs from the Mirno More peace fleet trip on the Greenpeace Austria website, with lots of happy faces on board a Greenpeace yacht in the Adriatic.

Mirno More means "peaceful ocean" in Croatian, and is organised every year by an Austrian social NGO, Started 15 years ago following the Yugoslavian war, to give refugee children from the war regions a possibility to hook up with their origins while spreading the peace message.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Developer, marketeer, salesman, consultant, copywriter, communications specialist and now project manager. I've done a lot of things in my time - some of them well. The carefully posed photograph doubtless gives me away as what I am - the lurking corporate presence at the heart of Greenpeace. I have worn suits for a living, I have given many, many powerpoint presentations including one entitled 'Mutating babies for fun and profit' which was received with what can only be described as shock and awe by a lecture room full of business students who had come to hear about ethics.

Everything in the above paragraph is true. Anything else I write - well - you take your chances.

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rémi Parmentier, longtime Greenpeace activist and once branded as a "nasty little agitator" writes today in his blog:

When I read that the North Korean authorities claim that their underground nuclear test has not "resulted in any leak of radiation", what comes immediately to my mind is this photo of the venting of the US Baneberry "underground" test in the Nevada desert in 1970. Greenpeace was the first, in 1981, to leak this now iconic picture; it was Allan Thornton (from Greenpeace at the time) who put his hand on it in Washington DC.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

© Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers

Not a typical Greenpeace photo, eh? Where's the hairy chap in orange overalls? Sorry, but this is a model wearing Spanish fashions made without the harmful chemicals commonly used in the textiles we wear every day. The photo is from the launch of website substitutionworks.com in the European Parliament in Brussels. We're calling on EU decision-makers to make the substitution of hazardous chemicals a requirement under the new EU chemicals law, REACH, which the Parliament votes on soon.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)