Via the BBC I just found this rather wonderful image. It shows the explosion of types of mammal species that happened over time. If you download the complete pdf file (it's 1.6 MB) you can zoom all the way down to the individual species.

The tragedy is that this explosion of diversity is now being put into reverse, the next decades will see this tree becoming less, not more dense as man made extinctions wind back the evolutionary clock. Unless of course we do something about it.

Posted by Martin Lloyd at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spinal Tap is reuniting to play at the Live Earth shows.

OK, it's official. When Spinal Tap decides to get involved in efforts to stop global warming, we know we've got a critical mass of people who get it.

This represents perhaps the greatest communications victory of the decade for all of us who toil in the fields of cautionary messages and doom and gloom alarmism. This, surely, is the guarantee that the 7-7-7 concert will have every man, woman, child, (along with that unique rockstar mix of all three) on the planet committing to do their part. When we've touched the hearts and minds of fictional spoof bands from the 1980s, we have reached deep into the soul of the popular zeitgeist, and clutched it by the t-shirt.

We may need to do a teeny bit more work on messaging what needs to be done, though.

Lead singer Nigel has committed to doing his personal part to combat global warming by ...taking his jacket off.

Back to work, people.

Posted by brianfit at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Back in my home country (the US) some of the more weasely politicians say we shouldn't commit to binding CO2 reductions (as in the Kyoto Protocol) until rapidly developing nations (like China) also make binding commitments - because (it is said) with their fast growing economies and large populations these developing nations are the climate polluters of tomorrow.

Meanwhile, some in Asia protest that the West created the climate change problem, not them - so the West should do something about it.

OK, it's true that the average Chinese person currently consumes one third of the energy that an average European consumes and one seventh of an American's consumption. And it's true that some Asian nations are building far too many new coal plants. But playing the blame game gets nothing done (which is probably what some people want).

You probably hear all the time about environmental groups in Europe and the Americas pressuring their governments and corporations to act on climate change. You've probably heard about Al Gore and the ground swell of activism in the West.

Well, there is also a surge of climate activism in Asia, with our offices there helping to lead the way.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's an article in the Washington Post about our campaign against Amazon destruction through soy plantations. Some of you may remember us locking horns with McDonald's in the "McAmazon" campaign; this is a nice glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes and how consumer pressure and web activism drove McDonald's themselves to become the force-carriers against Cargill in a fascinating game of power billiards in which the weakest player of all was a national government.

--b

New Allies on The Amazon
McDonald's, Greenpeace Unite To Prevent Rainforest Clearing

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; Page D01

It was an unusual group to be sharing a small boat making its way up the Amazon River.

There were four environmental activists from Greenpeace -- Brazilians and others who flew in from Europe for the trip. And there were four corporate leaders of McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, from its Chicago headquarters and from Europe.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Monday Eoin and I took part in Greenpeace actions in the Netherlands for our Forest campaign and we've taken a little time out of our busy week to write about it especially for you!

Logging in parts of Asia is now entirely out of control, due to the insatiable appetite of timber industries, a lack of governance, and corruption at all levels of administration. A staggering 80% of the world’s ancient forests have already been destroyed or degraded and what remains is mostly under threat from illegal and destructive logging.

EU member states play a key role in fuelling the international demand for illegal and destructive timber and they must legislate to ensure that it is not sold in Europe's DIY stores, furniture shops and wood yards.

Read more »

Posted by Lisa at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Can you spare a moment to answer 12 questions for our energy efficiency campaign. The questionnaire is mostly about incandescent light bulbs (symbol for a bright idea in cartoons). They waste over 95% of the electricity they consume!

If the link above doesn't work, it means that enough people already replied. There's another copy of it here though -- go on, have your say!

Greenpeace's plan to avoid global climate change disaster, the Energy [R]evolution, requires huge uptake in renewable energy and savings made through energy efficiency. Indeed, 50% of the climate-saving plan is about energy efficiency.

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Under a (literally) stormy sky Greenpeace activists staged a "die in" today at the annual general meeting of Asia’s largest privately owned power utility - China Light and Power (CLP). Local activists where joined at the Hong Kong protest by representatives from communities in the Philippines, Tuvalu and Australia that suffer from coal industry pollution and climate change.

CLP derives most of its electricity from coal, and CLP’s CO2 emissions in 2006 were the highest in 14 years.

The twenty activists blockaded entrances at the meeting venue, enacting scenes of the climate devastation already being caused by CLP’s record levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Activists lay in front of 9 huge tombstones to symbolise the human cost of CLP’s activities across the Asia-Pacific. Two activists were able to get into the meeting as shareholders, and took their message directly to CLP's chairman.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EU and G8 ministers were meeting in Berlin to talk about energy efficiency, and we wanted to make an impression. So we took 10,000 old fashioned energy wasting incandescent lightbulbs and crushed them with a mechanized roller.

 

Watch the video | Change your lightbulbs and make your own video

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From our Green my Apple E-zine. Want to join in the fun? Sign up for your copy here.

(Thanks to Hugo for this month's Greenmyapple News image)

You've been nominated for a Webby Award!

Congratulations to all of you who have contributed material to Green my Apple. Your collective efforts have been recognised by the Webby Awards: we're finalists in the Activism category!

Winning the campaign is, of course, much more important than winning an award. But winning a Webby would put even more pressure on Apple to do the right thing. And the "People's Voice" awards (the one we can vote for) will be announced May 1st, one week before the Apple Annual General Meeting!

Click here to cast your vote for Green my Apple. Let's make sure we're on the red carpet for the "Oscars of the Internet." After all, Gore went to the real Oscars, and look what happened to the debate on climate change! ;-)

Let your voice be heard! And tell others to use theirs. We want to see the iBuzz page covered in blog links and del.icio.us tagged encouragement to vote for the website you've helped build with your t-shirt designs, banners, blogs, and posters: and which is dedicated to reducing the e-waste mountains of Asia and Africa.

Put on the pressure: Apple AGM is coming up!

On May 10th, the Apple Annual General Meeting will take place at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California. Two environmental resolutions filed by investors calling for Apple to improve their policies on take-back and the use of hazardous chemicals have already been nixed by the Apple board of directors. But that doesn't preclude the great, wise, and good leadership of Apple taking their own measures to improve. Apple didn't budge from last place in our recent Green Electronics ranking, in which Chinese manufacturer Lenova leapt into the lead.

The time is now, Apple fans! Let's turn up the pressure by hitting the blogs, storming technorati, and getting the word out far and wide that we want to hear about a new, green Apple on May 10th.

Posted by brianfit at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You don't have to be a superhero, you know...

Ecozone.tv »
Efficiency how to: 12 clever ways to save lots of electricity and money »

Posted by Dave at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Townsley writes:

Today the UK Government will announce an inquiry into revelations that for over 30 years, body parts of nuclear industry workers who died in suspicious circumstances were taken for medical investigation without the consent of the families.

According to British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd (BNFL) the practice is "historic not current. The sampling of autopsy material began in the 60s and ceased in the early 1990s."

Historic? Burke and Hare are historic, Frankenstein is historic (oh and fictional), Mengele could even be considered as historic, but the early 1990s is recent ...

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm listening to the UN Security Council climate change debate via live webcast. I haven't followed the whole thing, but most speakers are saying the same thing: Climate change should not been seen as an environmental alone. It's a security issue, it's an economic issue, it's a sustainable development issue.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General just started his speech with, "Throughout history, people have fought over natural resources". His theme, that sustainability and conflict prevention (peace) are inevitably linked, is the same message we've heard from the US military.

Read more »

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

When I lived in Italy on an olive farm (that phrase must be said in a wistful voice), it was well known that Italy kept the truly best olive oil for domestic use, and exported the rest. That included oil that was imported from other countries, repackaged as Italian, but which no self-respecting Tuscan would use for anything other than mopping a floor.

Well that's not the only thing Italy exports that they won't have at home.

Not a single commercial nuclear reactor is operating in Italy. But guess what? Italian energy company ENEL is peddling nuclear power outside of Italy like bad olive oil.

Our colleagues were protesting in five Central European capitals today, accusing the Italian government of exporting nuclear risk to Slovakia, where ENEL is currently working to complete two reactors at the Soviet-designed Mochovce nuclear power plant.

Like the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear plant, Mochovce was first drawn up by Czechoslovakia's communist government in the 1970s. It was a really bad year for nuclear reactors.

Jan Rovensky of Greenpeace told radio Czechia "It's a Soviet construction from the 70s, and this old project doesn't even have the containment that protects the reactor in case of accident. So we hope that even people who support nuclear energy should be against this project because it's really dangerous."

So how about it, nuclear energy supporters? If the argument goes that modern nukes are safe and that's why you support them, the logical conclusion is that older nukes are dangerous and ought to be opposed. What say we sit this one out and let you campaign against Mochovce, while we continue our efforts to let people know that nuclear energy is not an answer to climate change, and that we can achieve a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050 without it.

Posted by brianfit at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The decision to formally resume commercial whaling is being seriously re-thought in Iceland - as can be seen from an interview with its Prime Minister Geir Haarde. From Reuters:

Haarde, facing elections on May 12, said the government must factor global criticism into its decision-making.

"It's an equation with several elements in there -- one is the market, one is world public opinion, one is tourism and so on -- and we have to weigh all these together, and the different interests, before we come up with a new decision," Haarde said.

The global outcry is obviously having an effect. Add your voice by signing the Iceland Pledge (to consider visiting if they end ALL Iceland whaling).

Posted by Andrew at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The World Bank is (rightly) taking a lot of heat recently. Not just for the apparently improper role Bush backed World Bank President Wolfowitz had in getting a promotion for someone he was romantically involved with. There is that. As well as the World Bank's complicity in the destruction of our world's second largest rainforest (the Congo).

Really though, hypocrisy on climate change is the major charge of the day. Wolfowitz has said, "If you are living on the edge, climate change can push you over", and that the World Bank should "climate proof" its projects. But the World Bank’s spending on fossil fuels continues to dwarf its comparatively miniscule investments in sustainable renewable energy - a mere USD153 million in 2006.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was taught a lesson today that I suspect will live with me for a long time. To cut a long story short, I had written an article for the website about the Congo rainforest. A Belgian colleague asked me to change the wording in one paragraph as it could be perceived as offensive to African people.

My initial reaction was to be a little defensive, both because I believe that I am culturally sensitive and also because sometimes I can be a little possessive about my writing. The conversation in my head was full of indignation, the very suggestion that I wasn't being culturally sensitive was in itself, offensive.

Read more »

Posted by Richard at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Francesco Galanzino has run the Gobi Desert, the Atacama Desert, and the Sahara as a Greenpeace volunteer, to raise the alarm about Global Warming.

His latest endeavour: a 42 Km (26 mile) marathon at the North Pole. Francesco and fellow professional and amateur runners faced temperatures of -30°C, which meant they had to pause and thaw their eyelashes from time to time. (Click the picture for a bigger version and have a look at the frozen mascara he's wearing.)

Francesco arrived second and opened an "Energy Revolution" banner for Greenpeace on his arrival at the finish line.

This is the stuff that the Greenpeace spirit is made of: individuals willing to face any challenge to make a stand for our planet's future. Thanks, Francesco, for this inspiring statement. It's a great reminder of just how many ways we can each make a difference, whether we're doing the extraordinary by racing at the top of the world, or the ordinary by changing the light bulbs in our own homes. Common to both is the knowledge that the actions and choices and statements we make as individuals are what the future will be shaped by, and the belief that we can all, in whatever way, make a difference.

Here's to the spirit of Francesco!

Posted by brianfit at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Now here's a story you don't see everyday in the Israeli press:

Two weeks ago, Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior dropped anchor in Israel. Members of the organization in Israel and those who arrived on the ship attempted to convey their determined, consistent message regarding the danger of nuclear technology to the Israeli public.

What makes the current visit special is the fact that it is part of a campaign taking place in many countries in the region, including Iran. It may sound naive but it makes sense for all the nations in the region to heed the warnings of the green organization...

In Israel, it is particularly important to hear the organization's message because of the policy of silence adopted by local environmental organizations regarding all nuclear matters.

Posted by brianfit at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've launched an India specific version of our blueprint for an energy revolution. India's carbon dioxide pollution per capita is a fraction of that in countries like the US and Australia (as you can see from this graph), but its large population and growing economy make it important for them to get their energy development right.

According to Greenpeace India climate and energy campaigner Srinivas:

The Indian scenario up to the year 2050 was developed to address how India can combat climate change while maintaining development. Assuming an average economic growth of 3.9% for the following decades in a business as usual scenario, CO2 emissions will increase three folds by 2050. The Energy [R]evolution scenario provides practical solutions to increase renewable energy usage and decrease energy consumption by 50% by incorporating energy efficiency measures. The combination will reduce our CO2 emissions to around 1000 million tonnes, stabilizing it at the present levels and helping India tackle the menacing impacts of climate change.

Posted by Andrew at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace Southeast Asia has launched a new website aimed at getting the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to change its ways. The ADB is a publicly-funded institution but is not held accountable to the public. It funds coal plants and other environmentally damaging projects - while the opportunities for renewable energy are abundant and under utilized.

From the Greenpeace Southeast Asia website:

There is a need for the Asian Development Bank to make a difference in saving Asia from the impacts of climate change, it must phase out coal and fossil fuels from its financing package and exclusively adopt a 100% renewables portfolio for the energy sector.

You can help - tell the ADB to join the energy revolution and support renewable power sources - not coal. Its donor countries are all over the world. It could be your money they're spending.

More background on the ADB here.

Posted by Andrew at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a marathon negotiating session the latest IPCC report on the effects of climate change is out. As Grist puts it, the "bad bits" of climate change will far outnumber the "good bits". I've posted some of the reports key findings here. To sum up, unless we get smarter about our energy production quick, the consiquinces will be horrific for wildlife, ecosystems and people.

As the Christian Science Monitor reports:

Global warming will affect societies around the world through more prolonged droughts, more intense rains and flooding, changes in the timing of seasonal rainfall and snowmelt, and a projected increase in the spread of animal- and insect-borne diseases, scientists say.

But it will affect plant and animal species even more dramatically. A shift in climate zones could lead to extinction of some species and the spread of others, according to a report set to be released Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

By contrast, the Scotsman article sounds almost a bit smug:

Orange groves in the Highlands, bananas by the west coast lochs and warm winter cruises. The shape of things to come?

THE year is 2040, and the English are pouring across Hadrian's Wall.

Rising tides in the North Sea have overwhelmed the Thames Barrier and, with the city wiped out, rich Londoners are heading for the hills. Especially the Scottish hills, where the climate is remarkably like that of the Dordogne of a few decades ago.

Fortunately, the scenario they portray is only thought likely by a handful of scientists. The IPCC report itself gives timeline that is alarming, but shows there is still a window of opportunity for us to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Posted by Andrew at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you'll have noticed:

1. The Defending or Oceans trip has come to an end, and so has the blog
2. Since the end of the expedition in Sydney, the Esperanza sailed all the way to Sydney.

Well, in case you don't know, Andrew got a new blog rolling - Defending whales, where you can keep up with the Esperanza's activities in Tokyo, as well as the wider whaling campaign. Of course, Andrew has also shunted the responsibility on to me, so I'm gonna be Mr. Whale for the next few months. But now is not the time for blubbering - there's work to be done!

The Esperanza was initially stopped from entering Tokyo, but has since arrived into Yokohama, in Tokyo Bay.

Defending whales Blog
Defending whales main site

Posted by Dave at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In recent years, we've put a lot of effort into highlighting the threats facing what remains of the world's forests in North America, South America, and South East Asia. But there's one major area we haven't touched on for some time now: Africa. That's all about to change, however, and you'll be hearing more about what we've been up to in the coming weeks and months.

But first let's set the scene. The forest of the Congo basin stretches across central Africa, about two-thirds of which lies within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but also covers parts of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. And it's huge: only the Amazon rainforest is bigger. Millions of people depend on it for their survival, including semi-nomadic pygmy communities, and it's another biodiversity hotspot: forest elephants and three of the great ape species - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos - all form part of a rich ecosystem.

It's a story familiar from other areas of our forest work, but all this is being threatened by our old friend, industrial logging. Huge tracts of the forest are being opened up by logging companies with hunters and miners following in their wake into previously inaccessible areas.

Read more »

Posted by Jamie at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's 50 feet in diameter, and off Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro. The Greenpeace activists also had a giant banner made to look like a ruler measuring sea level rise (it was originally going to go on a building, but that didn't work out). Aerial shot of the life ring here, picture of the ruler here.

Posted by Andrew at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm expecting to hear a lot of scary stuff about climate change this week, and for quite a while to come. The problem is so huge, the consequences are so dire... There's a danger that people will forget it's a man made disaster, and one we can still do something about.

So, some recent remarks from the head of the UN Environment Program are a welcome reminder that with smarter energy policy and use, we still have time to fix our climate. As reporter under the headline, "Global warming happens: but is it 'catastrophic?'":

"I'm a bit preoccupied that the media, having contributed to every day making another doomsday news headline, then in six weeks time will declare it hysteria and move on," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program.

Still, Steiner said it was clearly right to use words like "catastrophe" to describe effects such as a projected rise in sea levels in coming centuries that could swamp Pacific island states or cities from Shanghai to Buenos Aires.

"It is legitimate to use those words in specific scenarios," he told Reuters. "But does that mean that the whole climate change debate should be about doom and gloom? No, because we are finding that we can do something about it."

Umm, but soon, as in right now, is when we need to do something.

Posted by Andrew at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Shark fins drying on the upper deck of longline pirate vessel in the South Atlantic.

Earlier this year an issue was raised over on our Ocean Defenders Blog concerning the sale of Shark Fin Soup on Amazon.com. Greenpeace has since contacted Amazon and requested that they remove all products containing shark fins from their website.

It is with great pleasure that we can now tell you that Amazon has taken all of these products off their website! This is a great response from Amazon and we'd like to commend them on taking such a bold step.

The shark finning industry kills up to 73 million sharks per year and continues to threaten the survival of these cartilagenous critters. Additionally It has recently become evident that the disappearance of sharks has detrimental effects to broader marine ecosystems. We hope that other companies will follow Amazon's lead and stop selling Shark Fin Soup.

Read more »

Posted by Lisa at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Activists from Greenpeace India beamed messages on to the cooling towers of thermal power plants across the country.

Australian PM John Howard in bed with the coal industry.

Greenpeace SE Asia's map of the Philippines indicating tragedies from 1991 to 2006 triggered by extreme weather events such as typhoons and increase in rain fall. This list of tragedies include the Legazpi Mudslide and the Guinsaugon, Leyte Landslide which the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters declared as 2nd and 3rd of the World's Deadliest Disasters of 2006, respectively. A total of 2,511 people were killed and almost 800,000 families were affected.

Hong Kong Legislators Choy So-yuk, Wong Kwok-hing, and Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, Patrick Lau Sau-shing from four different parties make a stand with Greenpeace China to unanimously support government action for better climate change policies.

The Climate Ark in the Muntplein in Brussels, Belgium, where the International Panel on Climate Change is meeting.

Posted by brianfit at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's one from Mike:

Its official! Carbon dioxide is a pollutant in the US (some think it's a pollutant from the US). Well now it's a five judges against four official pollutant - the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can and should regulate the emissions of four greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, from new vehicles. The US Clean Air Act dictates it.

After eight years, the Court called the Agency on abdication of Responsibility, and dismissed as nonsense a range of EPA excuses for inaction. The EPA played a number of poor get-out-of-jail-free cards - which met with eloquent derision in the Supreme Court ruling and were dismissed as Jokers.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Climate is very hot in the press these days (yes little joke there), so I'll do an occasional roundup when I see interesting stories.

The big news right now is the US Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency can and should regulate carbon dioxide pollution (or at least come up with a defensible reason not to). Mike is blogging about that so I won't cover it except for this excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle about how the ruling helps the California government's own efforts to cut down on car pollution:

State Attorney General Jerry Brown said that the court, by ruling that the Clean Air Act applies to emissions that cause climate change, strengthened California's defense of its groundbreaking law requiring new vehicles sold in the state to meet gradually tighter standards for greenhouse gases, starting with the 2009 models.

The ruling "makes it very clear that California has a right to regulate greenhouse gases,'' since the federal government has historically allowed the state to exceed federal standards in regulating air pollutants, Brown said at a news conference. But his interpretation was quickly disputed by an auto industry lawyer.

Heh. I bet it was.

Read more »

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

You want to hear some bad news? Well then its a good week for you. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is meeting in Brussels to finalize their latest report.

In the lingo that is to say: "The Working Group II will be presenting its contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report." For short the: "IPCC AR4 WG2 report". And the picture it paints is not going to be pretty.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My name is Mahi and I work on EU policy on climate and energy in Brussels. This is probably the dullest job in Greenpeace, since everything in the EU moves extremely slowly and involves a painful amount of talking and listening and then some more talking.

I monitor and analyse the work of the EU institutions and try to challenge EU decision-makers to implement progressive solutions. One of the key assets of this job is that I get to work very closely with inspiring campaigners in the European offices. Jointly, we try to move the most difficult or obstructive governments on EU climate issues. The highlight of this work is when we actually succeed and get climate-friendly elements in EU legislation. Then, we know that these will be set in law for 27 countries and will have a knock-on effect to the rest of the world.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi, I'm Stephanie Tunmore and I am a Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace International. I've been with Greenpeace for almost 18 years in various roles - receptionist, campaign assistant, press officer, corporate campaigner, project team leader – but for the last few years I have been focused on Climate Change Policy. I am still motivated by the same anger at injustice and inequity that led me to join Greenpeace all those years ago but these days I find myself much closer to the source of the problem – the politicians and policy makers. It’s a sometimes frustrating, sometimes deeply satisfying role.

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Andrew at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Usually mistaken for one of the students of the Solar Generation project, I am actually working for Greenpeace since 2003.

After I finished my studies in Economics (believe it or not, there are economists working at Greenpeace!) I decided not to join my fellow students who went to work for the big cooperations (and who are now earning big $$$), but got my first serious job at Greenpeace - and never left. For a year now, I have been coordinating the Solar Generation project, which supports students all around the world to campaign for clean energy and energy efficiency on their schools and universities.

I consider myself lucky to give young people a chance to speak up to politicians at conferences all over the world. It's amazing to see the power of the voice of the youth and to see the impact they are having.

Posted by Andrew at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Posted by Andrew at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by Andrew at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi all. I am from Minnesota, which, I am sorry to admit, is part of the United States. I am doing my best to manage in the heat and insanity of life in Washington DC. Since 2006, the country seems to have begun to come to its senses, but the climate hasn't improved at all. I am the proud father of a 2 and a half year old boy, who I think has a better facility with numbers than our President. Well, in fairness I bet the President knows that a 6 is a 9 when turned upside down. But I wonder if he has the imagination to turn a 4 into an H?

I love being part of the International team. I am continually amazed by how much a small group of dedicated people can positively influence international negotiations. If any of you have a question about whether some piece of information gleaned from some obscure source now means that Bush is about to change his position on climate change. The answer is no. He is not. Feel free to call me and ask any time, but rest assured, when he really changes his position, we will send out an e-mail or two.

Posted by Andrew at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Andrew at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)