• First up is EKO((b))logas, a blog in Lithuanian about climate change and eco activism. (I spotted this blog via our who-links-to-us log for the Greenpeace 7 steps energy efficiency campaign... I don't speak Lithuanian.)
• Matt Prescott's Ban the bulb blog is another excellent grassroots activism site, chock full of useful information about those ill fated incandescent lightbulbs that waste so much energy.
• I read Cursor.org's Media Patrol every weekday for news on U.S. politics and foreign relations. It's easier to read than a newsreader filled with RSS feeds.
• I don't know how Pepijn and Juliette find the time to keep their blogs updated, and still do such sterling work in the Greenpeace Forum. They're stars! Go visit their blogs and say hello!
• Wait, that's five already! :-P
  
  Still reading? Got a technorati account? Why not fave Greenpeace's MakingWaves blog (this one).

(technorati.com tag: BlogDay2007)

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This video is a little long, but it is an amazing view of the dangers faced by activists working in places like this.

From the Guardian's website:

Paulo Adário, the coordinator of Greenpeace's Amazonia campaign, who led the mission subsequently complained that 'We heard from the Mayor and all of the others that the Constitution does not exist in Juína, there is no right to go and see, no freedom of the press. It is completely unacceptable that ranchers, with the support of the local authorities, can violate our freedom of movement and freedom of expression in this way.'

Unfortunately such threats are both very real and very common in Brazil today. Over the past 30 years, 1,237 rural workers, union leaders and activist have been killed in Brazilian land disputes and only a tiny handful people have ever been convicted as a result.

I have huge respect for journalists and activist who put their lives on the line to get the truth out. But as Paulo reminded me by email:

We could leave the region with our plane and - that Tuesday - remove the two Opan guys. But the Enawene will stay there forever, and Opan needs to come back to help them. They are under threat, not us.

He's right. They've asked for our help, and brave people like that deserve it. One way we can help to keep them safe is to spread the word. So please forward this video around.

Survival International is also calling on people to write emails and letters (read mine here if you want an example). Also see the OPAN website.

Posted by Andrew at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As the narrator of this startling video states, "working in the Amazon forest is not for the faint of heart." In the past, people from campaigning organisations have been bullied by land owners and workers, facing intimidation, violence, death threats and even murder. The most recent example, documented in the video from Greenpeace Brazil, happened just last week and seeing footage of a situation verging on outright violence, I've found a new level of respect for the men and women who put themselves in the firing line.

Read more »

Posted by Jamie at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Kieran Mulvaney, sailing aboard the Esperanza, wrote the following for Undercurrents, the crew blog for our Bering Sea voyage.

Thirty-five years, eleven months, and eighteen days later, we finally made it.

On September 15, 1971, a crew of twelve set out from Vancouver Island in an eighty-foot halibut seiner called the Phyllis Cormack on a daring, even foolhardy, mission: to steam to the Aleutian island of Amchitka and protest, or even prevent, the detonation of an underground nuclear test. When the plan was first hatched, the group that organized the mission went by the name of the Don't Make a Wave Committee. By the time the Cormack set out to sea, they were calling themselves Greenpeace.

The Cormack didn't make it to Amchitka. President Nixon delayed the test, the crew put into the Aleutian port of Akutan to figure out next steps, and the US Coastguard arrested them on a technicality. But the mission was a success: although the explosion, dubbed Cannikin, went ahead, it would be the last on the island: a further four tests were scheduled but canceled in the face of the enormous protests that found a voice in the Greenpeace voyage.

And yet, ever since, a circle has remained broken, a path unfinished. Almost thirty-six years have passed, the island has become a wildlife sanctuary, and a kind of calm has returned in this most remote of realms, and yet, no Greenpeace ship had completed the Phyllis Cormack's journey and reached the shores of Amchitka.

Until today.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Independent last week:

An eight-month investigation by Greenpeace into the land scam, revealed that the Brazilian land reform agency, INCRA, had set up large settlements in rainforest areas instead of placing them in already deforested areas, and settling urban families who promptly sold logging rights to major timber companies.

"Instead of helping, the official efforts are putting in place mechanisms to ensure the supply of timber to loggers. This opens the door to further forest destruction and climate change," says Greenpeace's André Muggiati.

A prosecutor took up the case, but of course the government said we were off the mark. Now a federal judge has ruled the case has merit. The judge also ruled that INCRA was operating improperly, without regard for environmental laws, and that no further settlements are allowed without the approval of the Brazil's federal environmental agency.

Link: Amazon forest carved up in resettlement scam

Posted by Andrew at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's getting a little silly and a lot hotter in the Arctic these days. Did you hear about the Russian flag planting thing? And how some of the footage that was shown on certain TV stations turned out to be from the movie Titanic? That story inspired us to make this (entirely fictional) little movie...

Sign our petition to tell them all: Hands off the Arctic!

Posted by Andrew at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

British cluster balloon pilot Mike Howard flies over Germany's second largest emitter of CO2, a Vattenfall coal plant, powered by 600 black and white balloons.

Greenpeace's blueprint for an energy [r]evolution calls for urgent reductions in coal's role in our energy mix.

[ Want to see the video? Go on then: Watch they guy fly high over a coal plant with only balloons to keep him in the air. -- Andrew ]

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Result! One country down, two to go. Norway and Japan are the only two countries left flying in the face of world opinion, after Iceland's fisheries minister, Einar K. Guofinnsson was quoted by Reuters as saying

"The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales".

Guofinnsson said he won't issue a new quota until the "market conditions for whale meat improve" and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured. Presumably, the 5,000 tonnes of whalemeat currently sitting in Japan's coldrooms will need to get sold first.

I had a sense this might happen - while I was at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Anchorage this year, the newly elected Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, practically disowned her country's pro-whaling commissioner, saying "we are sacrificing greater interests for lesser ones in this issue". She was referring, of course, to Iceland losing tourism revenue for the sake of a ridiculous whale hunt.

Read more »

Posted by Dave at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Global activism group Avaaz is looking for help in pushing the World Trade Organisation to stop the plunder of our oceans. As a recent mailing puts it:

Often, the issues that affect the most lives don't make the headlines. This month, we have an opportunity to do something big about one of them: the global fishing crisis.

Fishers in developing countries are catching fewer and fewer fish--because of massive overfishing by industrialized fishing fleets from rich countries, fleets subsidized with tens of billions of Euros every year. As a result, fish populations are now collapsing around the globe, and could soon be pushed beyond recovery.

But our oceans don't have to die. This September, the World Trade Organization will release a new proposal for global fishing rules--and right now, trade ministers are deciding what those rules should be. If enough of us urge our trade ministers to support a better system, we preserve our oceans for future generations--and for the one billion humans who rely on fish for protein today. Click here to send your trade minister a message in support fairness and sustainability:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/make_fishing_fair

Ultimately, we believe the answer to the problems of pirate fishing and overfishing would be a global system of rigorously enforced Marine Reserves -- areas that would be protected from destructive human activity until they can recover. You can read more about the problems of overfishing and pirate fishing, as well as the Marine Reserves solution, at our main website. But take action with Avaaz first.

Posted by brianfit at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Despite the best efforts of the British Airports Authority to injunct it out of existence, the Camp for Climate Action was held in a field just a short hop from the perimeter fence of Europe's busiest airport, Heathrow. A week of workshops, seminars and entertainment about low-carbon living was capped off with 24-hours of direct action which kicked off at 12pm on Sunday.

Minor scuffles with police clad in riot gear and mounted on horseback didn't stop the various actions taking place, ranging from banners being hung from bridges over nearby motorways to marking out where the proposed third runway will cut through the nearby village of Sipson. But the focus for protesters was BAA's offices which were blockaded by happy campers who turned the overnight occupation into something of a party, despite the drizzle and unseasonal cold.

Monday morning saw a plethora of actions popping up across the country when BP, carbon offsetting companies and nuclear power stations were targeted by protesters. Because of the high profile injunction, media coverage has been phenomenal with some surprising support from the right-wing press and even appearances by campers on daytime chat shows! But whether the collusion of industry and government can be swayed remains to be seen.

More details on the proceedings over on the UK blog.

Posted by Jamie at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Parental warning: Video contains nudity. (But not exactly anything that I'd call shocking.)

Greenpeace Switzerland and artist Spencer Tunick teamed up for this, ahem, unusual project. Really well done. Big thanks to all the volunteers who bared all in 10 degrees C. Full story on the Greenpeace website.

Update: For the record, I can neither confirm not deny the presence of a certain famous tech industry CEO at the shoot. ;)

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In the last version of our Guide to Greener Electronics, Sony came bottom of the pack, mainly due to bad recycling policies and double standards on product take back in the US. Yesterday Sony announced a new US recycling scheme. Shame it's not worldwide but better than nothing.

Who says shining a bright light on bad corporate practice doesn't bring results?

Posted by tomD at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've ever eaten the Chinese delicacy, shark fin soup, you've had a taste of ocean destruction.

Sharks are greatly valued for their fins which are sold for high prices in Asia. Shark fin soup is served at Chinese weddings and banquets to symbolise wealth and prestige.

The market demand for this one part of the shark has given rise to shark 'finning,' a practice in which the fins are cut off a captured shark and the rest of the animal is then dumped, often alive, back into the sea. Sharks (unlike most other fish) have only a few young at a time and so take a long time to recover from exploitation.

Read more »

Posted by brianfit at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've been seeing some misleading buzz in the blogoworld today, in part I think thanks to shoddy reporting by FOX.

First the bad news, global warming is still a reality we have to deal with. As you can see from the graph above (with the adjusted figures), our planet is heating up. The graph (courtesy of NASA), shows global annual mean surface air temperature change. "The dotted black line is the annual mean and the solid red line is the five-year mean." (NASA)

So what is all this fuss about 1934 being the hottest year on record? Here's what happened. Steve McIntyre sent a note to the folks at NASA about an odd 1999-2000 jump in data for North American monitoring stations. NASA looked into it, made an adjustment a few days later (and sent McIntyre a thank you email).

FOX, and others, pounced on this, saying, McIntyre "forced NASA to admit it was wrong when it said that 1998 was the hottest year on record". The FOX report goes on to say, "In fact, five of the hottest 10 years on record occurred before World War II."

What the FOX anchor somehow failed to mention is that these changes are for US data only. For the world as a whole, 2005 is still the hottest year on record, just as NASA has said all along.

See Real Climate for details and discussion. See Media Matters to watch the FOX report. McIntye's blog is here. The data in question, including a US only temperature graph, can be found on NASA's website.

Posted by Andrew at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This made me very angry this morning – a leaked UK government memo on renewable energy in the Guardian reveals how officials are already preparing excuses, spin and plotting because they fully expect the UK to miss the 20% renewables by 2020 European target. Why? Because they say it's too expensive!

They are the very same officials who are happy to propose spending 3 billion pounds to widen a little bit of UK motorway (at £1,000 an inch) to "ease congestion".

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with how companies like Exxon, working with the Bush administration create a false sense of debate about global warming.

But at long last, there are signs the US mainstream media is finally catching on. Newsweek's latest cover story, "The Truth About Denial", catalogs how a, "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change". From the article:

Through advertisements, op-eds, lobbying and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not warming; measurements indicating otherwise are flawed, they said. Then they claimed that any warming is natural, not caused by human activities. Now they contend that the looming warming will be minuscule and harmless.

"They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry," says former senator Tim Wirth, who spearheaded environmental issues as an under secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress."

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I feel a little bit ashamed but, as I have already said, I can't resist to have a look at the Apple rumours sites when there is a Steve Job's Keynote.
For those who are not Mac fans, it may be useful to know that Apple doesn't stream live the conferences when they launch new products, so all of us good folk meet in chats and in rumours web pages where we crave to read some reports of Steve's speech.
Last Thursday I decided to stay a couple of hours longer in the office and from 7 pm (central Europe time) I was ready to read some news from the Steve's keynote that was taking place in the Apple headquarters.

After 10 minutes MacObserver reported:
"Steve says that recycling has been kept in mind from the ground up. Says iMac is great in this area."

As I understood later he was speaking about the new iMac case and screen: the display is now made with glass, and they replaced the plastic at front side with aluminium (the back side is still in plastic). Ok, it's nice to hear Steve saying something about the environment, but to be honest these updates are not revolutionary at all. So I was quite surprised when the morning after I found out on my RSS reader that so many Mac Blogs were reporting it as a great announcement for the environment.

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

A couple weeks ago, Nature published a study confirming what computer models have long predicted, that global warming is causing changes in precipitation patterns. I wrote it up under the headline, "More heavy rain, predicted" with the UK floods as a backdrop. After the floods subsided, one of my colleagues here at Greenpeace suggested changing the title.

But I left it since I knew, in the big picture it was true. Scientists predict climate change will cause more floods and, though it may seem paradoxical, more droughts.

Then came the South Asia floods. Homes destroyed, thousands dead, millions affected. (You can donate here to help with relief work.) Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article titled, "Across Globe, Extremes of Heat and Rain", which starts:

A monsoon dropped 14 inches of rain in one day across many parts of South Asia this month. Germany had its wettest May on record, and April was the driest there in a century. Temperatures in Bulgaria reached 113 degrees last month and 90 degrees in Moscow in late May, shattering longtime records.

The year still has almost five months to go, but it has already experienced a range of weather extremes that the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization said yesterday is well outside the historical norm and is a precursor of much greater weather variability as global warming transforms the planet.

We need to tackle climate change at the source. That means being smarter with our energy. Some people are already taking action. Want to help? With the 7 steps, we make it easy.

Posted by Andrew at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While writing a feature on pollution from Chinese e-waste yards, Kevin, from our science unit, sent me some links to scientific papers on the e-waste pollution. Normally these are quite dense but a couple of things jumped out from reading this study:

Electronics-dismantling laborers in China are taking up very high concentrations of heavy polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. One worker had by far the highest concentration (3100 parts per billion) ever reported.

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"The struggle of people against power," wrote Milan Kundera, "is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Washington dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima 62 years ago today, resulting in the deaths of over 140,000 people, almost all of them civilians.

In his speech at the Peace Memorial Park this morning the major of Hiroshima criticized America for failing to disarm it's nuclear weapons, and warned his own government to keep to the "no war" tradition enshrined in Article 9 of Japan's Constitution.

Though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock says it's five minutes to midnight, there are also some signs of hope. A friend now working in Greenpeace in Japan wrote to say that the documentary “White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki” made by Steven Okazaki will be shown on prime time television in the United States this week. Significantly, this is the first time such a large U.S. audience will be exposed to such an in-depth recount of experiences of living and dying under the atomic clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Meanwhile peace activists around the world continue exposing and disrupting nuclear weapons sites with the same creative confrontation Greenpeace earned it's name for.

The beautiful photo of floating umbrellas was taken at the 50th commemoration of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. The river was used by victims to try to cool their burns.

Posted by Eoin Dubsky at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Here's another update from Daniel (one of our climate policy advisers). Title is his choice. I'm never sure when he's joking. Dry sense of humor and what:

Finally, Bush is doing something for the climate. On Friday, he announced that he wants to hold a conference with the 15 or so biggest CO2 emitters in the world on September 27th-28th in Washington.

This is excellent news as it saves me - and no doubt countless others in Environment Ministries’, think tanks and other NGOs an extra flight to the United States. On September 24th most of us will already be in New York, for a high level meeting on climate change that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is hosting.

Flying being about the worst thing any of us can do to the planet, this is the first time I know off where Bush is really taking action to reduce carbon emissions. Not flying to the US one extra time will save me the emissions of several years of (average) car driving. (Yes, flying really is that bad...).

Read more »

Posted by Andrew at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From today's Globe and Mail:

Nearly 100 countries speaking at the first UN General Assembly meeting on climate change signalled strong support for negotiations on a new international deal to tackle global warming.

There was so much interest among worried nations — many facing drought, floods and searing heat — that the two-day meeting was extended for an extra day so that more countries could describe their climate-related problems, how they are coping, and the help they need.

In the words of General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, "We now have the momentum". Let's use it. Sign up to the 7 steps today. Let's not just change our own lightbulbs, let's outlaw energy wasting ones all together.

Posted by Andrew at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After twenty years out of fashion, the term 'cold war' has become the hot favourite in Fleet Street once more. Not just because diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK distinctly frosty at the moment, but Russia's current Arctic adventures are lowering the temperature even further.

A Russian mini-submarine is currently exploring the ocean floor beneath the Arctic ice cap, partly as an attempt to claim more territory and extend her borders - according to the Observer, a symbolic flag will be planted on the sea bed. But it's also about grabbing a share of the oil and gas deposits that are thought to be lurking in the murky sediment. Some claim that 18 per cent of the world's oil reserves lie there and the dollar signs are starting to light up in people's eyes. And it's not just the Russians eyeing up this sunken treasure - Canada, the US and even Denmark (through its territory in Greenland) are rumbling about their own rights.

The horrible irony is that it's because the Arctic ice cap is melting that these deposits are accessible. Before now, the cost of extraction and lower oil prices made it not worth the hassle to go drilling up there, but now it's becoming economically viable to go oil hunting. Burning this oil will increase greenhouse gas emissions, warming the atmosphere and melting the cap still further, so even more areas are opened for exploitation. You can kind of see the logic.

On the Greenpeace UK blog, we've already heard this week from Aqqaluk Lynge of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and his first-hand tales of how climate change is wrecking the polar communities. Now a new geopolitical struggle threatens to eradicate their culture along with the rest of the ice cap. Surely there's a better solution to international tensions over dwindling fossil fuel supplies? There certainly is, a much more convenient one.

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

This video from Greenpeace UK takes a look at why renewable energy and energy efficiency are the convenient solution to energy needs - arguing that nuclear power is a dangerous waste of money. Favorite line from the video: "Reaching for nuclear power is like smoking cigarettes to keep the weight off". (Watch)

Posted by Andrew at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)