Greenpeace Italy didn't miss the opportunity of the grand opening of continental Europe's first Apple store to ask Steve Jobs to make Apple more eco-friendly. They staged a "Steve and Eve" tableau outside the store in Rome and at various monuments in the city, riffing on the biblical temptation story to try and entice our favourite computer company to create a better recylcing programme and stop including toxic chemicals that other manufacturers have agreed to phase out in their product line.

They launched a version of the Green my Apple site in Italian at the same time. If you parla italiano, check out their blog.

Posted by brianfit at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by brianfit at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's an absolute gift when companies who are being less than kind to the environment have an advertising campaign that, with a few tweaks, can be subverted to expose their dodgy deeds. Such a treat came in the form of the Kleenex 'Let It Out' adverts that have been showing in various countries (here's an example for those who haven't seen it) and the guys in the US and Canada running the Kleercut campaign jumped on it.

Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex, Andrex and other big name tissue brands, are chewing their way through the Boreal Forests of North America, all to make the stuff we wipe our nether regions on and flush down the toilet. Is that a sensible use of natural resources? Of course not, so in the latest action a crack team of activists were dispatched to New York City where a camera crew were filming material for a new Kleenex advert.

Thanks to Shedwa for sharing this video of what happened...

Posted by Jamie at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Apparently under some pressure, our agent there has decided she can't represent us. And without an agent it is all but impossible for us to take the ship into port. So we're not being officially blocked by the government, but are being kept out none the less.

Background - Our ship, the Esperanza, was more than 500 miles from the whaling fleet when a fire broke out on board their factory ship. But we responded at full speed to their location and rendered what aid we could. After 10 days without engines, they managed to get underway again.

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Posted by Andrew at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Twelve activists, from eight countries, have managed to get inside the security perimiter of a nuclear power plant at Belleville Sur Loire in France and scale the cooling tower. Notable in this video (in French) is the complete lack of any security personnel whatsoever. (More here from Greenpeace France)

To be honest, I think I'd prefer to see our banner-hanging sprees foiled by security than know that a potential source of dirty bomb material can be gotten into with equipment little more advanced than a ladder.

And if you're of the school that says "ok, it's a risky technology, vulnerable to break-ins by unsavory types who might take an interest in dirty bomb or fissionable material, but at least it doesn't cause climate change," you may want to read this article in Business Week:

Is [nuclear power] really as clean as supporters contend? A report, released on Mar. 26 by a British nongovernmental organization called the Oxford Research Group, disputes the popular perception that nuclear is a clean energy source. It argues that while nuclear plants may not generate carbon dioxide while they operate, the other steps necessary to produce nuclear power, including the mining of uranium and the storing of waste, result in substantial amounts of carbon dioxide pollution. "As this report shows, hopes for the climate-protecting potential of nuclear energy are entirely misplaced," says Jürgen Trittin, a former minister of the environment in Germany and a contributor to the report. "Nuclear power cannot be promoted on environmental grounds." [...] "The assumption has long been that the [greenhouse] effect is zero, but the evidence shows otherwise." The report comes as British Prime Minister Tony Blair is pushing to build a new generation of nuclear plants in the name of curbing global warming.

Environmental groups like Greenpeace, the Rocky Mountain Institute and Germany's Öko-Institut have argued in recent years that nuclear power comes with hidden carbon emissions. But the Oxford Research Group study is the most quantitative and up-to-date advancement of this assertion...

So lets see. It's not safe. It's not a solution to climate change. Even the Nevada Nuclear Test Site is a non-starter for storing the waste. What exactly is left to argue for Nuclear Power?

Ah, of course! It's "too cheap to meter." Oh wait, that one fizzled years ago, didn't it...

Posted by brianfit at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

For some time I've been looking for software that will produce maps of the world where the size of territories is distorted by some relevant metric (population, carbon emissions, GDP per head etc). Now I've found the World Mapper project, which while it doesn't let me upload my own data or generate my own maps has got a wide selection to look at.

Here's a map of known species extinctions since 1500 CE (current era)

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Posted by Martin Lloyd at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Want a glimpse of just how big a Blue Whale is? Check out this "life-sized" Blue Whale banner from The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

This is an extremely cool concept: it's really, really hard to visualize how big these creatures are.

In a lifetime of whale watching, I have seen one blue, off the coast of Iceland. I called my son that night, who was five at the time, to tell him I'd seen an animal bigger than a dinosaur.

"Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww."

"His tongue is as big as a car"

"Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

He wanted to know when he could go to Iceland. The answer, of course, is "Just as soon as Iceland stops whaling."

And that brings us to today's news about Icelandic whaling: Back in 2003 when we brought the Rainbow Warrior over to Iceland to talk with people about the issue, 90% of the public supported Iceland's "scientific" whaling program. Earlier this week, a Gallup survey asked the question "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the Minister s decision to start commercial whaling again?" the result was a 50-50 split. So the numbers are moving in the right direction, and our challenge now is to keep them moving the right way until the government does the right thing, and ends both commercial and scientific whaling in Iceland forever.

If you too, want to see a blue whale in the wild, and you want to protect the endangered finn and minke whales which Iceland hunts, join the Iceland Whales Pledge, which has ammassed millions of dollars in potential tourist income, against a whaling industry which currently loses money. All you do is promise to visit Iceland if the government stops whaling.

And believe me, you'd be hard pressed to find a more beautiful spot from which to watch the whales. In the spring on the North side of the island, the sun shines past midnight and you can sit in a hot spring high on a hill, and watch the humpbacks breaching in the bay below. Pledge today, and join us there for the very big party we're planning to throw when the whales of Iceland are saved forever.

Posted by brianfit at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday Al Gore got to do what so many of us want to do and laid out the truth on global warming to sceptics in the US congress. His questioner had ten minutes, of which 9 minutes and 41 seconds were used to attack Gore, leaving 19 seconds response.

The response may have taken a little longer, but it's the part of the discussion that's going to be remembered. Watch it here.

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Mike Fincken is aboard the Rainbow Warrior as part of the Middle East Peace tour. Here's his personal blog of a week in his life:

Wednesday 07 March

On the last of the four flights connecting Cape Town to Aden I awoke to the shaking of the airplane moving rapidly down the runway. I awoke confused. I could not tell if we had just landed or were about take off, until the front of the Yemeni airplane lifted up and my stomach sank. I drifted off again. The trolley ran down the aisle and stopped against my foot, a piece of sweet bread was placed in my hand. The trolley passed me by, heading down toward the back of the plane, my headed nodded forward and the sweet bread hit the cabin floor.

Following my day-and-half commute to work, it was a welcome sight -the Rainbow Warrior. Lit up at night, lying quietly alongside in Aden harbor. The crew were mostly tucked away in their bunks, but a few familiar faces were there to greet me. Canadian Phil, (the coxswain who had made the dramatic rescue of the three Sirens off Corsica during the first week of my last voyage on the Rainbow), drew my big black suitcase over the gunwale and onto the steel deck. He carried it through to my cabin - I had arrived home from home.

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Posted by brianfit at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Funny post on boingboing today on scary but unlikely terrorist plots. My favorite (of course):

Terrorists could infiltrate the world's car companies and manufacture large, fuel-inefficient vehicles like Hummers. Once America has gone all SUV, the resulting carbon emissions would contribute to polar melting and global warming, causing devastating hurricanes through the southwest, killing and displacing millions of Americans. Ban car companies now, or the terrorists have won.

Here's mine: Terrorists could release toxic substances into our food, our water, our air - that bio-accumulate over time. Slowly poisoning us all.

Ha, ha, ha. That could never happen.

Posted by Andrew at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You have to ask what drives someone to climb a 250 metre (820-foot) smokestack to make a statement. But then you have to ask what drives society to spend money converting power stations to coal when we know our planet is choking on CO2.

Here's an unusually detailled glimpse behind the scenes of a Greenpeace Non-Violent Direct Action, this one in Porto Tolle (Rovigo) Italy. It gives a sense of the kind of attention to detail, safety precautions, skill and bravery it can take to make some waves.

This plant was slated for conversion to coal as part of a plan from Italian energy giant ENEL that would have raised Italy's coal dependence from 17 to 24%.

In an inexplicable outbreak of sanity, the Italian government agreed to turn down ENEL's request for an increase in their carbon emissions cap. In effect, this means the Porto Tolle plant will get no emissions license and cannot convert to coal.

The agreed cap will, however, allow the conversion of a second ENEL plant near Rome. If I were them, I'd watch my roof.

--b

Posted by brianfit at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's all been rather anti-climatic really. We didn't expect yesterday's vote to replace the UK's nuclear weapons would be defeated, so there was no surprise when Tony Blair got his way and the vote to replace Trident went through. Tony gets to go ahead and build his new weapon of mass destruction – the Blair Bomb, his legacy. But only because of help from the Tories. That somehow feels hollow too.

“It’s not the end of the story by any means,” said Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn immediately following the vote. “This is a very big rebellion.”

Indeed, we’re counting on you rebels. The vote passed with 409 in favour and 161 against. That’s 88 Labour MPs voted against Trident replacement, 95 voted for the rebel amendment earlier, that's the biggest since the Iraq war. Blair’s proposal also prompted MPs to quit their posts. We might yet convince ourselves this is good news.

And those Labour rebels are right to be concerned. By going head with Trident today, in 20 year's time not only will the UK have a new nuclear weapon, there will be more nuclear weapons states in the world. Blair cannot preach to other states to ‘do as I say, not as I do’. Far from making the world a safer place, Blair’s lust for nukes will encourage others to follow his dangerous and unnecessary example.

And secondly, only 24% of the public support the government's plans to replace Trident and 51% think that the final decision to replace the Trident should be made through a public referendum.

You're right Jeremy, it is far from over. It may have Blair’s name on it, but Gordon Brown, prime minister in waiting, is going to pay the price.

Posted by Jamie at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got a letter from the government the other day.... It was in response to a petition I'd signed asking the UK government not to go ahead with the plans for a Trident replacement system. I don't know how many people signed the petition but it's probably rather more than the 69 people who have signed this one (at time of writing).

There are some bits I'd like to highlight

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Posted by Martin Lloyd at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

That's the title of an article in today's New York Times. From the article:

Historically, fishermen in coastal towns, like Taiji in southwestern Japan, hunted whales in nearby waters. But things changed after the Commodore Perry’s so-called Black Ships forced an isolationist Japan to open up in the 1850s. Back then, the United States used whale oil lamps, and part of Perry’s mission to Japan was to secure the rights of American whalers in the Pacific.

As whaling became knotted with Japan's traumatic opening to the world and its subsequent drive to modernize, the Japanese adopted American and Norwegian whaling vessels and techniques. Some coastal towns were transformed into whaling stations, including Ayukawa, when the Toyo Whaling Company started operating here in 1906.

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Posted by Andrew at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have some good news from Russia or, at least, the potential for good news.

Back in September, our Partners in Crime report revealed how Finland is importing vast quantities of timber logged illegally in neighbouring Russia. According to federal law, all forestry management plans must undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment - in the republic of Karelia these assessments are not being done yet the local government continues to hand out logging permits.

However, this week the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency in Russia has ordered an immediate investigation into the problem, appointing a commission to report back next month. This is a huge step forward and acknowledges the scale of the problem - of all the timber felled in Karelia, the majority is illegal.

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Posted by Jamie at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Mike Townsley

Money, money, money ... it makes the world go around. Iran yesterday issued a new bank note emblazoned with the standard nuclear insignia of electrons whizzing around an atomic nucleus, like New York diplomats orbiting the UN Security Council.

While the diplomats seek to increase sanctions in a bid to force financial hardship on Tehran and enhance domestic opposition to Iran's uranium enrichment plans, Russian nuclear scientists are evacuating Bushehr because the cash strapped country has failed for two months to meet payments for the country's first nuclear power station.

It had been expected that nuclear fuel would be supplied by Russia this month for the Bushehr nuclear power station, however, according to Atomstroiexport, no money, no nuclear fuel.

Read more

Posted by Richard at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some hints if you are applying for a job at Greenpeace

• Do take the time to write a cover letter, preferably one that explains why you want the job . Working for us is a big step, if you've not thought about it properly we're not interested
• Do not write the words 'I am an excellent communicator' in your cover letter. Communicate something excellently instead - I promise I'll notice
• Keep your CV clear and focused on the vacancy you are applying for - I am not going to pick the relevant paragraph out of four pages of padding
• Read the job description, if your CV doesn't match it we're probably all wasting our time
• Do not try and convince me that your job as a shop floor sales assistant was some kind of executive position, if I find out in the interview I'll be mad, if I find out after I hire you I'll be furious. Spare us both the hassle and be proud of what you achieved; you never know, I might view a customer service of the month award or a record of hard work done well in a good light...

I and my team are currently reviewing 45 CVs, of which maybe 10 will make the cut and be considered for a first round interview. The standard of most of them is abysmal, not necessarily in terms of the skills people have, but in how they communicate themselves. So if you want to work for Greenpeace - take note.

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A while ago I wrote about how I'd been learning all about IUU fishing. That's Illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries. It's one of the biggest threats to the world's fish stocks, which is why it's better to refer to it by the less bureaucratic name of 'Pirate Fishing' or just 'Stealing Fish'.

Well now I can tell you why I was doing all this research. Greenpeace has just published a consolidated global blacklist of fishing vessels who have been sanctioned for breaking fisheries regulations.

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Posted by Martin Lloyd at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kathy Sierra is a visionary among web and applications developers, who includes gratuitous puppy pictures in her presentations. She claims they induce a chemical response in the brains of her audience that make them pay better attention. I think she's just got a soft spot for puppies.

She delivered the keynote address at the SxSW conference here in Austin, Texas, where Greenpeace has been nominated for a Web award for the Green my Apple site.

She wrote an appreciation of the campain at her must-read blog, Creating Passionate Users, calling it a "novel, inspiring approach" to helping Apple create a cool, green product with the help of its fans.

I had a chance to talk to her after the speech, thanked her for the blog mention, gave her a button, and lamented that I had really hoped to get a picture of her hugging her Mac for our Green my Apple Flickr group, but it was all packed up. With a long line of folks still wanting to get their 30 seconds of face time, she said she'd love to, and unpacked it!

When the gal who wrote the book on creating passionate users is one of your passionate users, you know you´re doing something right.

Come on Apple -- if you won't introduce a 100% take back policy or phase out of hazardous chemicals in your product line for us, then do it for Kathy! And all your users like her who say "We love our Macs, we just wish they came in green."

Posted by brianfit at 2:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zeina, our E-waste campaigner, writes:

Two months ago like today, I was queuing at the entrance of the Moscone north in San Francisco with the rest of the APPLE aficionadas hoping to hear that Steve would be revealing the NEW green APPLE products. Disappointedly that day, we ONLY got this cool new phone BUT nothing on a greener product from the Master of Innovation and Design within the electronics industry.

Today I am on the plane heading north west from Amsterdam across the ocean then going South aiming to land in Austin Texas so I can attend and participate in the South by South West (SXSW) Festival where the grenmyapple.org is a finalist for a web award...

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Posted by brianfit at 2:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well how about that. Austin, Texas had a brand new Apple Store open up today just as some members of Team Green My Apple hit town to (hopefully) collect the SXSW Web Award for the Green my Apple website. I reckoned I should drop by and make friendly.

I helped out with the Grand Opening by making sure this image from the Green my Apple website was on a few of the machines.

For our Hug Your Mac campaign, you're supposed to download the campaign wallpaper onto your mac and take a picture. But looky: this mac wanted to join the campaign so bad that it was already displaying the campaign message when I walked up to it:

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Posted by brianfit at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A little blog for my fellow nerds... Nick in New Zealand sent me this amusing link this morning. As the faithful Googlebot dutifully tried to gather up news about The Esperanza arriving in Sydney (yay!) and our intention to return to Tokyo, it accidentally truncated the headline to read "Greenpeace Ship Heads to Japan to Continue Whaling". It seems that perhaps robots can't entirely replace the human race after all... Asimov can rest in peace.

Posted by Adele at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For years, the fisheries regulators have met at international meetings and talked about clamping down on pirate fishing industry. One of the things everyone knows is needed is a global database of suspect fishing vessels - an industry blacklist. But somehow years went past and no one got around to setting it up.

So we went ahead and did it ourselves. It took about 10 weeks and cost about 5,000 euros to set the site up. We launched it today in Rome at a biannual UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's Fisheries Committee meeting. Apparently it caused quite a stir. : )

To go with the blacklist, we also set up a spoof site: fishing-vessel-whitelist.org, to point out that the world also needs a list of legitimate/legal fishing vessels. Our team at the meeting is passing out bookmarks with the blacklist address on one side and the whitelist on the other.

You can find the site at blacklist.greenpeace.org.

And read more here. Story behind the photo is here.

Posted by Andrew at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More of a press release than a blog post, but do tell your friends...

The campaign against the Governments proposed Trident Nuclear renewal will take to the Thames tomorrow (Thursday) when The Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise docked in the shadow of Tower Bridge plays host to a 50 strong choir.

The choir ‘Sense of Sound’ will perform a piece composed by Damon Albarn. Entitled "5 Minutes to Midnight" the performance will represent a peaceful demonstration against renewing Trident and against Britain possessing nuclear weapons. Directed by Hannah Eidinow with visuals designed by Robert del Naja of Massive Attack, and contributions from Brian Eno, "5 Minutes to Midnight" follows the launch of www.no-bomb.com an anti trident website, announced last week.

"5 actors will join the choir on the Arctic's deck in a cycle of meditations using public statements, quotations, reports and statistics on the British government's part in this debate," said director Hannah Edinow.

Opposition is growing to the government's efforts to rush through a decision on Trident renewal, with a House of Commons vote expected on Wednesday March 14th.

Greenpeace director John Sauven said: "It's not too late to stop Tony Blair wasting billions on new nuclear weapons. Trident is a cold war relic designed to destroy Russian cities and has no place in 21st century Britain".

The event is planned to start at 6.30pm at Shad Thames, Southbank, SE1 and will broadcast live on the internet from 7.00pm see www.greenpeace.org.uk where it can be accessed for 24hrs

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There always exist those determined to push the very limits of their cars to the max. But here's a Mother Jones article about a new breed of competitors: "the hypermilers".

We glide for over a mile with the engine off, past a gas station, right at a green light, through another green light—Wayne is always timing his speed to land green lights—and around a mall, using momentum in a way that would have made Isaac Newton proud. "Are we going to attempt that at home?" Cathy asks Terry, a talkative man who has been stone silent since Wayne executed the death turn in his car. "Not in this lifetime," he shoots back.

Wayne is paying attention to the road, not the banter. He's had to turn the engine back on earlier than he usually does after taking the death turn. "I hit the turn at 50, 51," he says. "I should have hit it at 52."

Sheesh! Could just buy a bike you know.

Posted by Andrew at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Every morning I have a quick browse of the news on Greenpeace and a specific search for news on Greenpeace and Apple to see what's being reported about Green my Apple. Often there's something interesting or amusing but occasionally there's a gem hidden in the assorted articles. This mornings gem comes via Business Week - "Hugging the tree huggers" - that details how many corporations are now working with green groups.

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Darren Barefoot writes:

We built this little flash game for DeSmogBlog, a site dedicated to 'clearing the PR pollution that clouds the science on climate change'. They're a serious bunch, and we wanted to lighten things up.

The goal is to sort the celebrities according to their greenness (is Travolta better or worse than Schwarzneggar?). Caution: banjo music and farty sounds ahead.

It's a cool clever little flash game, but the real kicker is this:

Use our Source Code and Make Your Own Version

Have you got, uh, mad Flash skillz? Replace our celebrities with other stars, politicians or your friends and neighbours! We're making the source file for this game available under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike 2.5 Canada license. That may sound scary, but it's pretty simple. Check out this page for a plain language explanation.

Here are the source files:

* Source files for Stars and Stinkers (ZIP, 4.8 MB)

How cool is that? What a great way to set off a family argument about whose footprint is smaller. "If Aunt Bessie replaces her incandescent bulbs with CFLs next week, she'll move one slot closer to the Gore side of the scale."

Posted by brianfit at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)