Dell has stepped up the ante in the computer industries competition to show how they are becoming greener by announcing this week plans to become carbon neutral by 2008. It's certainly had the intended effect to generate a good amount of positive media.

Leaving aside the dubious nature of 'carbon neutral' marketing speak and the definitely less than perfect option of carbon offsetting (especially by planting trees) it is good that they are looking to increase the use of renewable energy in their operations and making their products more efficient.

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Posted by tomD at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr Octagon's latest single "Trees" is being used by MTV to promote awareness of the environment through the THINK campaign and $1 of each downloaded single will go to Friends Of The Earth on their BIG ASK campaign.

Respect!

Posted by Lisa at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At Greenpeace, we support Blog Action Day.

It's one of those simple ideas that can make a world of difference. On October 15th, bloggers around the world will focus on a single issue - the environment. Already, almost 6,000 blogs with a combined audience of over 3.8 million have signed up. The list includes some big names, like Lifehacker and Treehugger, but every blog counts. So whether your blog is big or small, you should sign up today!

Can we make a difference as bloggers? When one of my colleagues at Greenpeace Greece heard about blog action day, he sent me an email titled "10,000 were not on their couch":

the link comes from a national TV chanel. It is long but helps to have a picture of approx 10,000 silent people, dressed in black, gathered in front of the parliament because they are fed up with the destruction of the environment, after an initiative by bloggers. No political party, ngo or else involved
http://www.skai.gr/master_avod.php?id=58116

Yes, bloggers have real power. If you don't have blog, now's a good time to start one. If you have a blog, register it and help promote Blog Action Day. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll post more tips and ideas for blogging the environment.

See you in the blogosphere, Oct 15.

Posted by Andrew at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Here's an update from Jamie (Greenpeace China corporate social responsibility campaigner). She went with Greenpeace International Executive Director Gerd to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last Wednesday, and emailed me this afterwards:

My “date” with Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations

New York, September 19th, 2007. In September 2007, a few days before the United Nations high level meeting for climate change - in which Greenpeace China’s campaign director, Lo Sze Ping, is invited to address 70 heads of state (including Bush) about what we believe countries should do to protect the climate - Greenpeace is also invited by the office of the Secretary General to meet the Secretary General himself in private. When my colleague informs me that on behalf of Greenpeace China, I am to be part of the Greenpeace delegation, my first reaction is, “You have to be kidding me! I am just a 26-year old girl! What am I going to say to when I meet Mr. Ban Ki-moon?!”

For me, meeting Ban Ki-moon is the equivalent of meeting a rock star like Michael Jackson or the Beatles. For one, we are both Korean and he is currently probably one of the best known Koreans in the world. Moreover, I admire his values and the fact that he takes the problems of this world so personally.

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Posted by Andrew at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An international Greenpeace contingent attended yesterday's high level UN meeting on climate change. Athena was there and felt compelled to put down her thoughts on the meeting. Here they are:

My name is Athena and I have been called a climate “policy wonk,” having followed the climate negotiating process for almost 15 years. Today though I write as a mother...

While waiting for the opening of the UN High Level Summit on Climate Change here in New York, the cheerful faces of my three children Gab, Gio and Gavin keep flashing into my mind.

They have been my inspiration, my driving force...ensuring their safe future and a healthy environment for them to grow into have been at the core of my work with the environmental movement and with Greenpeace in particular. And Dr. Pachauri (head of the UN’s scientific body) once again outlined why we all, especially those parents, need to stay involved on this issue.

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Posted by Andrew at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A whole host of top notch bloggers are on the scene at the UN's high level meeting about climate change (starting today). From the UN press release:

Together these bloggers reach an audience of more than 6 million people a month, all over the world. Participants in the “blog day” hosted by the UN Foundation at the UN are: Brian Beutler, Gristmill; Jasmin Chua, Treehugger.com; Mark Goldberg, UN Dispatch.com; Blake Hounshell, ForeignPolicy.com; Joel Johnson, gadgets.boingboing.net; Ezra Klein, www.prospect.org/weblog; Sameer Lalwani, The Washington Note.com; Juliana Rotich, Global Voices Online.com; Kate Sheppard, stopglobalwarming.msn.com; Kay Steiger, Campus Progress.org; and Matthew Yglesias, matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com.

If you're thinking: High level what? What's that all about? Then click here. :)

Posted by Andrew at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[I'm posting this, but Eoin wrote most of it. I'm just the messenger! - Dave]

Important developments have unfolded in Japan since we wrote earlier this month about the threatened dugongs and plans to expand a U.S. military base on Okinawa's coast. The large marine mammals and their habitat on the north-east coast of Okinawa Island can be saved, but our window of opportunity to act is closing fast.

Shinzo Abe's recent resignation as Prime Minister of Japan, and the discovery of precious colony of blue corals in the airbase construction site have improved our odds of success.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed airbase site is open for public comment throughout September. After that time, the authorities will tell us "you've had your chance".

Can you send a message to the Japanese government right now, or forward this message to your friends by email and on facebook, myspace and hi5 to join our call to save the dugongs and stop the airbase. (There's heaps of background information you can blog about too!)

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Posted by Dave at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yesterday, a Greenpeace delegation met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

[ Update: Just posted Jamie's impressions of the meet. ]

Here's a first hand account from Greenpeace Executive Director, Gerd Leipold:

It’s official. You, our supporters, make all the difference. Today I met with the world’s highest official – Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Moon, a career diplomat, surprised me earlier this year when he put climate change at the top of his agenda. He has stressed the links between climate change and security. He clearly means it. Moon was composed and charming with a message determined and clear: We have the technology and the resources to fight climate change. We even have a real sense of urgency - as the impacts of climate change are starting to be felt around the world. What is lacking is political will. “We need you, Greenpeace, to mobilize public opinion and enable politicians to do the right thing.” - Are you ready? We are. We have our energy revolution scenario, that can deliver energy to the world, cut emissions and create jobs. And we know that only a stronger Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 will deliver the emission cuts the world needs.

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Posted by Andrew at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

( More photos. )

From the press release:

Greenpeace Canada has begun a blockade of the freighter Jaeger Arrow from their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, in Quebec's Saguenay River near Chicoutimi. Three Greenpeace activists are hanging from the ship's mooring lines while two other activists block the freighter in a zodiac boat to prevent its departure. "Save the Boreal Forest" has been painted on the hull of the freighter.

The 170-metre long ship is being loaded with pulp manufactured by SFK Pulp. The pulp is destined for processing at paper giant Stora Enso's paper mills in Germany and France. Stora Enso manufactures paper for many of Europe's major publishing houses.

"This blockade is a peaceful protest against destructive logging of the Boreal Forest and those companies who purchase unsustainable forest products," said Melissa Filion, a Greenpeace Canada forest campaigner onboard the Arctic Sunrise.

You can follow the story on the Greenpeace Canada website.

Posted by Andrew at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greenpeace activists in Brazil today chained themselves to the gates of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy (CNEN), placing a memorial plaque in tribute to the victims of the Goiânia Cesium-137 tragedy, the worst radiation accident in an urban area, in history.

Twenty years ago workers at the Goiânia scrapyard took apart a metal machine, found abandoned in an old radiotherapy institute. The scrapyard owner, fascinated by the glowing blue powder stone inside, took it home to give as presents to his family and friends. His daughter ate some, sprinkled on bread.

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Posted by Jo at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Anita Roddick, environmental actvist and founder of the Body Shop, died yesterday at the age of 64 of a brain hemorrhage.

Anita was the living proof that a business could do well by doing good. She drove her shops to reduce packaging, giving a discount for refills, shunned product testing methods involving animals, and used her highly aligned customer base as an activist force for dozens of causes, from saving the whales to introducting green energy.

John Sauven of Greenpeace UK called Roddick an ``incredible woman'' who would be ``sorely missed.''

``She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done in different ways, not just profit motivated but taking into account environmental issues,'' Sauven said.

``When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago,'' he added.

The world needs more of what Anita stood for.

More from the Guardian

Posted by brianfit at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Melanie, who works in our Anchorage office, justed emailed to tell me that was a (rather depressing) headline from the Anchorage Daily News last week. The news story was prompted by a US government study that paints a grim future for the world's largest land carnivore. From the article:

The loss of sea-ice habitat will be so profound for bear populations that regional efforts to protect them, such as restricting subsistence hunting or arctic oil and gas development, will not be able to prevent their disappearance, the government scientists said.

Moreover, the bears’ doom is irreversible, the study said. Even a dramatic effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would not be enough to halt the near-term warming trend and save the coastal bears. The species might manage to survive in its remnant outposts if long-term warming trends are reversed, scientists said.

“Things could be turned around so that they don’t disappear completely,” said Steve Amstrup, the biological study team leader for the USGS. On the other hand, Amstrup said, climate-warming models chosen for the study tended to be conservative, so the bears might disappear faster than predicted.

“As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear,” Amstrup said.

The article is too defeatist for me. I'm not ready to give up on polar bears yet, but it does point out that we need to act right now. Even if it is starting with small steps.

Update: Just noticed the story is also at BoingBoing with a great photo and some interesting comments, especially this one.

Posted by Andrew at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George Bush and John Howard did their best this week to try very hard to appear to be doing something about climate change at the APEC meeting in Sydney. With other pacific rim countries they declared some completely meaningless “voluntary, aspirational” goals for reducing emissions which is just polluting business as usual.

As Catherine puts it: "The Sydney Declaration is really just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change"

Read more »

Posted by tomD at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

© Roberto Sozzani

So what does a dugong do? Not much, except wander coastal areas from the east coast of Africa to Australia, and beyond, grazing on the seagrass of coral reefs.

Dugongs living on the coast of Japan's Okinawa island are threatened by the proposed expansion of a U.S. military base there. Construction of the airbase would destroy local coral reefs, the habitat of the dugong, and thousands of other creatures, including three species of threatened turtle.

Time is short, but we can still stop the airbase - throughout September, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the airbase site is open for public comment. We're using this opportunity to let the Japanese government know what the people of the world think - by delivering a petition of thousands of names to the environment and defence ministries, and calling on the government to establish a marine reserve in the area.

This wouldn't be the first time that construction at Henoko, in north-eastern Okinawa, has been stopped. In 2005, after a sustained protest by local people, and following the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior, plans for an airbase was shelved. If the military machine can be stopped once - through the voice of thousands worldwide, and through peaceful protest in Okinawa, then it can be stopped again.

You know what to do:
Call on the Japanese government to save the dugong and stop the expansion of the military base in Okinawa »

Earlier:
01 March 2005: Save the dugong - stop the US airbase »
10 March 2005: Greenpeace joins local activists to occupy test drilling platforms in an area where a proposed American military base would be built across important dugong habitat. »
12 March 2005: Greenpeace calls for dugong rescue in Japan »

National Geographic: Rare Japanese Dugong Threatened by U.S. Military Base »

Posted by Dave at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Here's some kick-ass good news from Indonesia. The Ulama (Islamic Religious council) of Central Java, the most powerful body in Indonesia when it comes to influencing presidential decisions, after a lengthy debate has passed a fatwa declaring the proposed Nuclear power plant in Muria, Java, Indonesia as HARAAM (forbidden).

The Ulama has called upon the Indonesian government to stop all activities related to the building of the nuclear power plant, including onsite research as it has caused tension and stress amongst the community.

A few of the arguments that led to this:

1. The harm (mafsadah) of the plant is much more grave than any benefit (maslahah)
2. The government is obliged to ensure peace amongst its citizens
3. The government plan to build the plant has caused insecure feelings and tensions in the community

This could mean an end to all future plans to develop nuclear power in Indonesia, so all ye folks who sell wind, solar, and wave power need to jump in there.

Posted by brianfit at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)