From the AP story: "President Bush on Thursday urged 15 major nations to agree by the end of next year on a global emissions goal for reducing greenhouse gases."

Sounds very proactive of him. But wait a sec. There are already globally agreed emission reduction targets. They were set in Kyoto, Japan... 10 years ago. Hmm. Maybe no one told President Bush about the Kyoto Protocol, or perhaps it has just slipped his mind.

If you run into him, please point out that the Kyoto Protocol entered into force (became legally binding) on 16 February 2005. It commits industrialised countries (like the USA) to cut their combined emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008 - 2012.

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Photo by KG4CHW. License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Cindy Sheehan spoke with Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow yesterday about the day her son Casey died in Iraq, campaigning to hold Bush and Congress to account for the Iraq war, becoming a leading peace activist, and divisions in the movement.

She wrote a sort-of resignation letter to the US peace movement on Monday, in which she wrote: "When I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'right or left', but 'right and wrong.'"

I think Cindy is right to take time now to withdraw, reflect, and perhaps retool for another crack at it some day. I always found her story about moving from grieving mother to antiwar activist profoundly challenging. Above all, it has lessons about love of enemy -- the soldiers and mercenaries who've died invading Iraq, Iraqis and foreign fighters involved in the quagmire there. And now it reminds us to love ourselves too.

Sometimes peace groups and sustainability campaigns could do with a bit more of that peace internally, if they want to last or be a model for more people to join. So look after yourself Cindy -- and thank you!

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

More from Daniel, one of our political advisors, on changes at the World Bank:

Bush has done it again. The US President has put loyalty ahead of merit by choosing Robert Zoellick as the new head of the World Bank. I have known Zoellick for a while. He was Bush's trade representative from 2001-2005. In that role, he pursued free trade at all costs at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2003, he started a WTO attack on Europe's genetic engineering restrictions.

In 2003, at the failed WTO talks in Cancun, Mexico, Zoellick famously threatened developing countries, that the US will pursue market access for US corporations to developing world markets in whichever way they see fit. I remember listening to his press conference with a certain shiver running down my spine.

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This morning Keiko (press officer for Greenpeace Japan) sent me an article from the Asahi Shimbun (a major Japanese newspaper). It makes me wish I understood Japanese culture better. If this was in a UK or US newspaper I'd suspect the writer was being cleverly sarcastic, but I'm not sure they really do sarcasm in the Japan. Here's the start of the English version:

When Japan bowed out of commercial whaling operations 20 years ago, it opted to conduct "scientific whaling" instead.

The controversial strategy seemed to offer an opportunity to learn more about whales at a time of worldwide concern about declining stocks of these gracious mammals.

So what has Japan learned?

Well, it has caught and slaughtered more than 10,000 whales in pursuit of mostly sketchy and hotly disputed data about whale populations. But that seems a meager result for two decades of research.

Meantime, whale meat has ended up in the marketplace just as before. This has coincided with moves in some parts of Japan to reintroduce children to the joys of whale meat in their school lunches.

At any rate, it is good to see the issue being more seriously addressed in Japanese media. In the year's past it's been mostly ignored or portrayed from a strictly nationalistic point of view. I can think of lots of reasons this has happened, but think the whale love wagon did its small part to open up the debate.

Posted by Andrew at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This photo was taken on the 23rd. I'm told that the Ark is almost now almost finished.

Today, 14 activists also reached the summit, 5,137 metres above sea level, where they unfurled a banner reading, "G8: this is the point of no return. Save the climate now". Beate Steffens, one of the summit team, said, "If these leaders don't act now, we will very soon reach a point where climate change gets out of control".

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The Rainbow Warrior is currently on a three-month expedition in the Mediterranean, calling for the creation of marine reserves in the region, as part of a global network of protected areas covering 40% of our seas and oceans.

Sebastian Losada filed this report:

The bluefin tuna season doesn't seem to have started yet in the waters that extend off the Libyan coasts. Some catches have already taken place, yes, but just a few compared to the levels we will possibly witness in the coming weeks. Two-hundred purse seiners will try to take as much tuna as they can from the Libyan fishing ground before the fishery is closed on July the 1st. That's why they come to these waters: the last refuge in which an important subpopulation of bluefin tuna still survives.

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Posted by brianfit at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace activists in Finland spent the night 80 meters in the air on a crane at a nuclear power plant under construction in Olkiluoto. The protest is a direct reaction to the quality problems at the construction site, which has lead to over one thousand reported breaches of safety standards.

TVO, the company that ordered plant, estimated in the application to the Finnish government that a 1600 MW reactor would cost EUR2.5 billion and take four years to build. Now the costs are exceeding four billion euros and the project will take at least six years.

The project was supposed to require no public subsidies. In reality it is reliant on an export guarantee financed by French and Swedish taxpayers and a dirt-cheap loan from public banks.

As the Finnish government begins preparing a long-term climate strategy, it needs to take a hard look at nuclear power's track record of failing to deliver on promises of being the cheap, clean solution to climate change.

Finland needs a plan to phase out existing reactors. They're really not comfortable places to sleep. More images of the occupation from Flickr.

Posted by brianfit at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Daniel has just sent me a leaked internal document from the G8 negotiations. I don't know where he gets these and I'm not going to ask. The original is a MS Word document with track changes revealing edits by the Bush administration.

I've uploaded a .pdf copy of the leaked G8 draft here. There's a Reuters story on it here. And here's some off the cuff commentary from Daniel (one of our political advisors):

On May 24th, German Chancellor Merkel sheepishly admitted that the G8 may not agree on how to deal with climate change when they meet in Heiligendamm from June 6th-8th. She had probably been reading the US comments on the G8 climate document. Merkel prides herself on getting on
with Bush. But like Bush’s friend Blair, she was wrong to hope that Bush would change his oil-trenched mind on climate change. It doesn’t make it better of course, but this is a classic case of told you so.

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This just in from our colleagues in Mexico:

Hi all,

I'm very sad to inform you that the son of one of our indigenous allies against illegal logging in the Great Water Forest [in Mexico] was murdered last week by four loggers. Yesterday we had a press conference with Ildefonso Zamora, father of Aldo Zamora who died on Tuesday, May 15th. During the conference we called upon Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico, to act to arrest Aldo's killers and to guarantee the security of Ildefonso, his family and all the people of the community (San Juan Atzingo).

I would like to ask your help to pressure the Mexican Government to act immediately to grant justice to Aldo, Misael (Aldo's brother, who was also injured) and his family.

Thank you very much for your support.

Remember to complete your signatures at the end of the letter.

Patricia

UPDATE August 3 2007:

There are still 57 well known and fully identified illegal loggers in the area.
Justice will not be complete until the are all in jail.

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Posted by brianfit at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)

As you've probably already heard, Paul Wolfowitz has announce he's resigning from the World Bank at the end of June. While some are still lauding his 'accomplishments' and others pondering the man's next career move, mostly folks are anxious to know who's replacing him.

Daniel, one of our political advisors, has a few ideas. Here's his two cents:

In 2005, I was asked what I would say to Paul Wolfowitz, if he called for my advice as the new president of the World Bank. I could only think of one word: "Resign". Last week, he finally did. The champagne having been drunk, the chase is now on for who shall replace him on July 1st.

Tradition has it, that the World Bank president is always American, personally chosen by the US president. Of course, this "tradition" simply reflects global power relations when the Bank was founded 60 years ago. It has no place in the 21st century.

Together with over 200 other organizations, I therefore think that - shock, horror - the World Bank President should be chosen by merit.

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Karli, our oceans campaigner just back from leading our Southern Ocean Whale Expedition, writes:

Two years ago, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior visited Henoko in Okinawa, Japan. The purpose of our visit was to support a local protest against the construction of a new airbase for the US military. The proposed airbase was to be constructed over a coral reef, the home of the last remaining dugong population in Japan.

This is the 21st century. It is mind-boggling that anyone still considers that it is OK to destroy a coral reef with the construction of anything, and to add insult, the proposed construction is an airbase for the military – in a community that is deeply concerned with peace. The habitat of Japan’s dugongs, as well as abundant reef and seagrass species, should be the site of a marine reserve – not a reserve for marines.

With the Rainbow Warrior, we helped to raise the issue to a new level with international media attention helping the cause of local protesters, who had occupied the drilling platforms day in, day out for over a year already. Shortly after, the original proposal was scrapped. But a new proposal, still impacting the marine area that the dugongs depend on, replaced it.

Now, the protest against the airbase construction has reached a crucial point. The Naha Defense Facilities Administration Agency is about to begin an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed airbase. We are demanding that this EIA is a sound and transparent assessment, and involves the local community.

The local protest groups are taking this opportunity to gather international support to stop the airbase and save the dugong. They have set up an online petition, giving you a chance to have your say on this issue.

© Roberto Sozzani

Please read and sign the petition, and help spread the word.

Thanks in advance!

Posted by brianfit at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Thursday, I found myself at Portcullis House, an imposing edifice that sits across the road from the main Houses of Parliament building in London. The occasion was a panel discussion hosted by Greenpeace and (deep breath) the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, to discuss the crisis in the Congo rainforest. As the name suggests, it's a collective of MPs from all parties with a special interest in that part of the world who try to make sure issues affecting the region remain on the political agenda.

The special guest stars were representatives from two Congolese organisations that work to protect the forest and the people who live there, so it was an excellent chance for MPs, civil servants and UK campaigners (including me) to hear first-hand reports about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how the World Bank's policies are affecting both the forest and the people. Through working on this campaign over the past few months, I've learnt a lot about what's happening in the Congo rainforest, but listening to these guys really brought home how things are hanging in the balance.

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Posted by Jamie at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thousand schoolchildren send an SOS for whale protection and launch the Migrating Human Whale Project from the shores of Loreto Bay National Marine Park in Baja, Mexico.

This is the first of eight Human Whale aerial images involving nearly ten thousand schoolchildren from Mexico to Alaska leading up to the International Whaling Commission
meeting in Anchorage on May 28.

If you want to add to the chorus of whale defenders worldwide, join the Big Blue March May 27th. Wear something blue!

Posted by brianfit at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exxon announced in February that they had given up funding climate sceptics (or skeptics, for you Americans) to great fanfare. But when our researchers looked into their tax records we discovered that Exxon was in fact lying. They'd abandoned a couple of high-profile institutes, but continued funding 14 organisations in the "Crisis? What crisis?" racket.

Since 1998, Exxon has spent more than 22 million US dollars trying to undermine the scientific consensus that Global Warming is real, that it's related to human activity, and that their own product is one of the chief culprits.

This prompted one wag, Greenpeace pal Gillo, to write an impassioned appeal for a little pocket money, in "Dear Exxon, I am a climate sceptic:"

Dear Exxon, I *AM* a climate skeptic, I might not have the charm of the American Enterprise Institute and I am definitely more boring than the Heartland Institute, but you need someone who supports you in the bloggers community! Dear Exxon, we are buddies, I don’t need $2.1 million but isn’t it possible to put me in the list for your 2007 grants?

If bloggers had been around in 1938, I suspect the equivalent would have been a signup form for the Neville Chamberlain Hitler Appeasement Fan Club.

Posted by brianfit at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While politicians and bureaucrats talk, activists in Germany presented evidence of environmental crime at the Brandenburg Gate.

They set out 17 dead whales and dolphins, which were collected in the last weeks along European coasts. Why 17? It's the number of dolphins and whales that die every 30 minutes all year round in our oceans, mainly due to bycatch.

This grisly fact underscores the need for four things:

-New thinking in fishery policy in order to minimize bycatch

-A network of protected areas for our oceans

-The International Whaling Commission meeting next week in Alaska needs to deal with all threats to all species of whales and dolphins. In some cases, even governments which support whale conservation at the IWC turn a blind eye to whale deaths being caused by their own policies.

--Maintenance of the moratorium on commercial whaling to counter the wider environmental pressure on these animals and our seas.

Want to make a statement with people all over the world? Wear a blue t-shirt and join the Big Blue March this Sunday, May 27th!!!

Posted by brianfit at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Down here in New Zealand we like to say we're very clean and green but the truth is ... well ... we're not as green as we'd have you believe.

The Prime Minister has of late spouted forth some very green sounding rhetoric telling us all how she wants "sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity" and that "we could aim to be carbon neutral". Well great but meanwhile, Genesis Energy a State Owned Enterprise responsible for a coal fired power station that is our single biggest point source of CO2 emission, is busy spending up large on a PR campaign portraying themselves as all clean and green.

Here's our take on their TV ad.

Posted by Nick at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Athena is the face of Greenpeace's climate and energy campaign in Asia. She has just returned from Kyoto, where she led a team pressuring the Asian Development Bank to put their money where their mouths are and invest in Clean Energy. Here's her round up.

2 weeks ago I welcomed myself back to the city of Kyoto with high expectations: for the Asian Development Bank to honour the spirit of one of the most important environmental agreements in history – the Kyoto Protocol.

I finally got to see Kyoto on the last day of my visit to this historic city. A visit to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple and a walk along Gion made me appreciate its beauty – something I missed10 years ago during my first visit. The people of Kyoto should be proud of their home. The ADB could have made them even prouder, but they were a few steps short…

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Richard Wibley, a former Greenpeace ships capatain, passed away last week. Steve Shallhorn, who runs the Greenpeace Australia office these days, posted this reminecense:

I worked with Richard Wibley for 6 months in 1989 along the east coast of the United States. Richard was Captain of the M/V Greenpeace as it did a tour of American coastal cities, campaigning on issues ranging from the offshore drilling of oil to nuclear disarmament.

As it turned out, most of the fuss of that tour surrounded a campaign to rid the oceans of nuclear weapons. The focus of the Nuclear Free Seas campaign in the United States was the Trident missile, a 38 Billion dollar program to build a new missile that was to be launched from both American and British submarines.

Richard’s skills as a mariner were put to the test during two high seas confrontations with the United States Navy. Let me tell you how.

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Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

The future of the whales will be decided in Anchorage, Alaska, in a couple of weeks time.

As a committed Whale Defender, we need you to make your voice heard once again. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

"The 59th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has begun its preliminary meeting in Anchorage ahead of the key decision making week from May 28th - 31st. Your delegation will be representing not only your government, but your electorate. We ask that you ensure that your delegation is briefed to vote for whale protection at this important meeting."

Posted by Dave at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

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Three Filipinas are attempting to be the first Asian women to reach the Everest summit. They're delayed by the weather at the moment, but are determined to continue. From their blog:

The Kaya ng Pinay Everest Team support group has reached Chinese Base Camp here in Tibet. We're all here preparing to go up to Advanced Base Camp to meet the women and the big buzz here is our Filipina climbers because of the record that they're about to set.

The women, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao, will be traversing Mount Everest, meaning they will be climbing from Tibet and going down in Nepal. This has never been done by any woman so the three women will be setting a world record by doing just that. So a lot of people are talking about that here at base camp.

As you can see from the banner, they are also calling for action on climate change.

Separately, a Greenpeace sponsored expedition to photograph evidence of glacial melting in Himalayas recently had to turn back when they found the mountain path ahead had been wiped out - update from that team here. Millions in China and India depend on the water from Himalaya glaciers.

Posted by Andrew at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Each 5th of May, Japan celebrates Children’s Day, or more specifically Boy’s Day. But this May 5th, 6 women from different sides of the world braved discomfort and made a stand to make a change. The 6 women were Solar Generation delegates working with Greenpeace to pressure the Asian Development Bank to fund the energy revolution at their annual meeting in Kyoto. To get our message across and to bring some colour to what was otherwise a boring meeting, we decided to stage a performance in keeping with our surroundings at the meeting's opening reception.

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Posted by Martin B at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The latest IPCC report came out today. This is part of a six year process involving thousands of scientists. As Climate Progress points out:

This report has to be signed off on by 120 governments, including the United States, and oil countries like Saudi Arabia. And they can veto any word. So you can take to the bank anything that all those countries agree to.

If you like going straight to the source, you can read the IPCC summary for policy makers on their site (pdf). Our (somewhat shorter) take on it is here.

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

So, back at the Kyoto International Conference Centre. I, Athena, Greenpeace International’s Asia climate campaigner, was here in December 1997. I was one of many, negotiating a historic agreement: The Kyoto Protocol . It still is the only legally binding global agreement aimed at stopping climate change. Today, ten years on, I am here to attend the 40th Annual General Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) . I am here to deliver a simple message. If the ADB wants to honour Kyoto, it must agree concrete steps for saving the climate at this historic place. It must decide to quit coal and put all its resources into funding a sustainable energy revolution in Asia.

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Posted by Martin B at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace Brazil is doing some very cool stuff in the climate campaign section of their website. Not only do they have chillin' tunes for download and a "Túnel Interativo" - they have the coolest interactive Flash movie I have seen in at least a month. (Language options are on the right.)

Posted by Andrew at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(Photo: Copyright © Greenpeace)

49 Greenpeace activists this morning staged a protest outside the Greek Ministry of Development demanding incandescent lightbulbs to be outlawed and replaced with energy saving CFL bulbs. The action launches Greenpeace's energy efficiency campaign in Greece.

Our plan to save the planet from catastrophic climate change (the energy [r]evolution) involves a huge uptake in renewable energy and energy savings. Energy efficiency is 50% of the mix, and we believe we can do it! It's an outrage that governments have been dragging their feet so long to outlaw energy wasters like the incandescent lightbulb.

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last year I decided to raise money for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) by having a party with my friends and getting them to give me money for all kinds of things. I put on a showing of the movie "Deep Blue" by the makers of the Blue Planet series, provided food and drinks, offered tarot card readings and games with prizes and in return my friends gave me their hard earned cash. I ended up raising over $200 and for an evening filled with fun and friends I felt it was an incredibly easy way to raise money for saving whales.

I'm going to do it again this year and have just sent off for my free Save The Whale Week party pack. If you're interested in partying for whales, check out the WDCS "Save The Whale Week" website for more details.

Posted by Lisa at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and not the kind that gets stored in beer guts! Homer Simpson was right: beer really is the solution to, and cause of, all life's problems. I was amused to read this morning that Australians have found yet another use for the country's most famous beer (which only homesick Australians actually drink) - scientists from Australia's University of Queensland and brewing giant Fosters have combined to research a project which will produce clean energy from brewery water waste.

It is expected the fuel cell will be running by September and Fosters has said the technology will be used to power all of the breweries and wineries owned by the company in due course.

More here: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007226620

Now they just need to come up with a way to produce energy from the huge amounts of beer the Australian cricket team consumes....

Posted by Adele at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is not our site, this is the REAL Apple site:

We're reading Steve Job's Statement now.

Update, 21:29 CET: Here's our reaction.
Digg it! Hugg it!

And Check out this from Mac User. We especially liked the graphic:

More breaking news as it happens at the iBuzz page.

Man, a Webby Award and half a campaign win in one week. This is like too much ice cream!!!!!!! Woo Hoo Apple Users everywhere: you've done it!

Posted by brianfit at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Click for bigger

Ever the busy bees, Zeina here in Amsterdam and her Toxoid team had a thought that maybe Apple could use a handy schematic of just what the company needs to do to leap out of last place in our Electronics Ranking and rocket into that superhero zone that they're so comfortable in: the lead.

So here it is, Apple, the recipe for a perfect 10 out of 10. The Think Different ticket to environmental sainthood.

And for the rest of us, after we've finished chanting, let's write to Steve to ask him to do the right thing, hug our macs, and create some kick-ass content between now and May 10th to let the Apple Board of Directors know WE LOVE OUR MACS, WE JUST WISH THEY CAME IN GREEN!

Posted by brianfit at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

A Greenpeace team is in the Himalayas documenting the impacts of climate change on the glaciers of the world's highest mountain. They've brought some old photos with them, and will hopefully be able to document before and after shots of a glacier.

John normally runs the photo desk here at the Greenpeace International office. As you might have gathered, there's a lot of "desk" involved with the job, but for the moment work has taken him far from the comforts of our Amsterdam office.

Here are his personal updates and photos:

20th April 2007 - Lhasa, Tibet

I can hardly believe it, after months in the planning, here we are, the Greenpeace team checking into the Lhasa Youth Hostel, for relaxation after the 6 hour flight from Beijing. Suddenly being in Lhasa the difference between Beijing at 600 meters and now at 3600 meters means my poor brain and muscles are craving oxygen and a kind of dizziness, headache and lethargy has taken over me.

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

Green my Apple has won the Webby Award for best activist site of the year. This means we need to figure out some way to divide the goofy springy award thingamawhatsit between all the Apple fans around the world who have donated their time, their creativity, their blogs, banners, ads, and t-shirt designs asking Apple to become the Green leader we know they can be.

The winners were chosen from nearly 8,000 entries from 60 different countries.

The judging panel consisted of: David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, and R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg.

It's a victory that has a bittersweet taste, in that the Webby Awards celebrate a world made possible by the very electronics industry which our e-waste campaign is challenging, and which our Green my Apple project is but a part.

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Posted by brianfit at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Mordechai Vanunu, who exposed Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme to the world and went to jail for eighteen years for it, was convicted yesterday of the crime of speaking to foreign journalists. At issue was not what he said, but the simple act of speaking to them. His lawyer's comment says it all: "We do not consider this appropriate for a democracy in the 21st Century."

Posted by brianfit at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)