So, Japan has a new government. For all of us who have been single-mindedly pursuing a complete end to whaling for decades now, there's only one question that matters: what does this mean for the country's whaling policy?

I suspect the bureaucrats responsible for whaling have gotten a little fed up of questions in the press about the cost of the programme to taxpayers (about 60 million US a year), the continuing decline in sales, the continuing increase in unsold whale meat, and the mounting foreign relations disasters the "scientific research programme" trails in its wake. The whaling industry in Japan right now is a wounded beast, and like any wounded beast it's lashing back with abandon -- as evidenced by the arrest of our activists, Junichi and Toru, for daring to expose corruption in the whaling industry.

Today a new bit of evidence of a bunkering down by the industry comes in.

The Japanese Cabinet decided on September 12 to remove Minoru Morimoto from the position of International Whaling Commission Commissioner, and to replace him with Akira Nakamae, the chief director of the Fisheries Research Agency.

Mr. Nakamae has been alternate commissioner since 2003. To get some idea of what he thinks about whaling and the debate in the Whaling Commission, he is the guy who said at the 2005 meeting in Ulsan, Korea:

'As has been revealed this year, our side’s supporters are about to reach a majority soon. Some of you are so glad that some poor sustainable-use countries could not attend this meeting. However, next year they will all participate, the reversal of history, the turning point, is soon to come.'

Those "poor sustainable-use countries" would be the ones that Japan buys into the commission to vote against whale conservation.

Full text of Mister Nakamae's interesting speech is below.

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Posted by Brian at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Read more and find out what you can do.

Posted by Lisa at 3:53 PM | Permalink

Posted by Martin at 9:24 AM | Permalink

Make sure the EU answers the call to keep global warming below 2 degrees.

Tell your MEP that it's time to lead

You can even leave an answerphone message for your European leaders on YouTube. Make sure they feel the heat!

Posted by Lisa at 8:39 PM | Permalink

From Saskia, one of our political advisors in Brussels

Last week the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, the EU’s top official on all things fishy, had one of those naked moments, when he had to admit that the EU is not only doing bad, but doing worse than any comparable country, including the USA, Australia and New Zealand, in managing its fisheries.

I suppose none of us needed any further proof of this governments’ failings when it comes to managing European fisheries, but just in case you have missed some of the recent news:

-- The official figures of the European Union’s statistical office report that 80% of fish stocks are fished outside sustainable levels.

-- Last year, an expert study commissioned by the European Commission, the body charged with overseeing fisheries management in the EU, called the EU’s fisheries policy “an archaic form of governance […that has] allowed the satisfaction of demands by the present generation to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs from the living resources of Europe's seas."

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Posted by Lisa at 12:45 AM | Permalink

How much renewable energy could you buy for the 700 billion US dollars about to be spent bailing out failed banks?

Here's a quick calculation

Global wind market in 2007 - 37 billion dollars - 19 865 MW added
700 billion is about 19 times 37 billion, giving us 377 GW of new electricity
So that's 5-6% of global electricity demand switched to clean renewable fuel

And as an added bonus, once you'd spent the money you'd be left with 700 billion dollars worth of profitable generating capacity, rather than handfuls of worthless loans. In other words you'd have made a good investment in your future, and the future of mankind.

Posted by Martin at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

From Dean, onboard the Esperanza in Papua New Guinea

They say Papua New Guinea is the land of the unexpected and that’s exactly what researchers found in 1995. Scientists surveyed all things jumping, growing and breathing in the Kikori Basin, an area known as a biodiversity “hotspot” and one of the most important areas of forest and wetland life in the Asia-Pacific region. It’s also being logged right now and has been for 20 years by Turama Forest Industry, a company of the Rimbunan Hijau (RH) group.

The researchers discovered new, unique species restricted only to the Kikori Basin that are not found anywhere else in the world including:

• 12 new fish species in Lake Kubutu
• 28 new species of frog
• at least 20 new orchids
• 2 new palms
• a new bird – the New Guinea flightless rail

In 1999, four new species of mammal were discovered on Mt. Sisa including a new species of marsupial rat that is only known to exist in this particular area.

Around 60,000 forest people live within Kikori Basin who are subsistence farmers, hunters and gatherers. And although the people are small in height, they seem to live in a land of giants...

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Posted by Lisa at 3:23 PM | Permalink

Today is World Car Free Day -- a showcase of what city life could be if we used our feet more, cycled, and took public transport to get around.

Amsterdam, where I now live, has marked the occasion with a week of activities and some pedestrianized roads. Cycle lanes and bikes abound though, so it's hard to tell when there's a "bike-friendly-city" campaign, and when there's not.

Paris is a different story. The public bicycles there -- the grayish-brown Velib bikes parked all over the city -- have taken the city by storm. Now that there's a critical mass of cyclists on the roads, motors have begun driving with more care, and some have even swapped their cars for the two-wheel alternative.

There are road accidents, of course, but initiatives like the Velib and car free days have a civilizing effect on our cities that cannot be overstated. They also demonstrate that planners and public policy makers, when given enough encouragement, can do the right thing.

Did you drive a car today?

Posted by Eoin at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Amrit, an activist from India, on board the Rainbow Warrior talks about what they've been up to lately and why it's so important that we Quit Coal - to save the climate.

Tell Israel to Quit Coal!

Posted by Lisa at 2:02 PM | Permalink

Broken promises are what logging companies give to Papua New Guinea communities in exchange for logging rights. A Greenpeace team recently spent two weeks documenting life and conditions for local residents in three PNG logging concessions.

Also here's a 15 minute radio documentary that the team made about this issue. The people they interviewed are forest people. They are the voices from the forest. They speak a diversity of their own languages and survive only from food from the forests and waterways. There are no shops, or roads (except logging roads) - they travel by waterways and bush tracks.

Click here to find out more about this campaign and what you can do to help.

Posted by Lisa at 8:48 AM | Permalink

Chris Robinson, left, and Pete Wilkinson stop waste dumping in the North Sea. Photo: Pierre Gleizes

Chris Robinson died of cancer on the 17th of September at the age of 55.

Chris was a salty dog, a Greenpeace activist who spent his life on the sea, one of the original Rainbow Warrior crew and later captain of the Vega.

I find it hard to believe he's gone. He was the guy who could sail through anything -- from Pacific typhoons to Mediterranean storms in which the tiny Vega was doing 11 knots on bare poles. He ran inflatable boats under radioactive waste barrels being dumped in the sea. He challenged the French military again and again by sailing into their self-declared "exclusion zone" around the Pacific nuclear weapons test site at Moruroa. He went up against war machines and trident submarines. One activist who sailed with him said he was one of the few who you knew, if you put your life in his hands, he'd shepherd it safely through whatever it was you had to face, and hand it back to you.

Yet while he had the toughness of someone who cold sail into the teeth of an atomic bomb and not flinch, he possessed the gentlest of souls -- one you counted yourself lucky to have met.

He loved a laugh and a smoke and a glass of wine under an olive tree and the sound of a didgeridoo. He gave my son his first motorcycle ride.

I've known many people in Greenpeace who I considered heroes. Chris was a hero to them all.

Trusted, loved, and respected, he will be greatly missed. Fair winds, Chris Robinson, fair winds.

Chris Robinson, Lloyd Anderson, David McTaggart, Tony Marriner and Brice Lalonde on Greenpeace vessel "Vega" before heading to Moruroa to stop a nuclear weapons test.

[Spanish version of this post.]

You can view a memorial book which Chris' niece Prue and other members of the family put together including many of the posts here.

To have a copy of the book printed email Louise at Copy Captain at South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on the following contact details and she can advise you on costs to print and send it to you. Email contact - printing[AT-SIGN-HERE]copycaptain.com.au

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Posted by Brian at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (136)

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A short animated film about the feedback loops likely to lead to catastrophic climate change, by Leo Murray. The script, with extensive peer-reviewed references and additional information and links, is available at wakeupfreakout.org

Posted by Lisa at 11:21 AM | Permalink

The acquittal of our six coal activists in the UK continues to send ripples through the UK press and out into the world. I especially liked this piece from John Vidal in the Guardian, who points out that Greenpeace now has a four-nil record in jury cases against the Crown in which the activists have plead that they acted according to their consciences and that they were trying to prevent a greater crime.

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Posted by Brian at 9:23 AM | Permalink

Here's another blog from Dr. Uygar Ozesmi -Executive Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean

After the day of action the Rainbow Warrior woke up from the night stretching her limbs to get ready for the new journey to Turkey. A hearty breakfast to ones liking and a freshly brewed coffee was all we needed to get our brooms and mops to clean out the place and pick up every bit of dust and dirt. Clean and tidy we lifted the anchor and got out of the harbor.

A small navy gun boat made a circle around us for five minutes as we took course. Then it made a sharp turn and disappeared back into the harbour. It looked like a curious crow which lost interest quickly.

I began talking to the photographer on board, a french fellow, Pierre is the name and I discovered he had more than two decades under his arm following Greenpeace actions around the world. The ship is full of able and dedicated souls, all an ocean in themselves.

Looking out the horizon the alarms suddenly rang in a shrill sound for a fire drill... crew rushed to the muster stations - some rubbing their eyes from last night's watch. We got a full briefing on the fire teams and procedure together with man over board rules. Luckily the drill was announced on the notice board so we knew that it was training. Already the first day of the journey the campaign team had a series of important meetings to get ready for Turkey. The growl in my stomach announced that it was time for lunch...

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Posted by Lisa at 6:13 PM | Permalink

[ Five of the 'Kingsnorth Six' at the top of the 200m chimney. ]

From our press release (with small edits):

The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent last year by scaling the chimney and painting the Prime Minister’s name down the side. The defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ and relied in court on the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ – claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change.

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Posted by Andrew at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's a blog from Joanna, who is an Israeli volunteer on the Rainbow Warrior.

This was my first time sailing, my first time big scale action, and the first time getting arrested.

I boarded the Rainbow Warrior three days ago and before long found myself equipped with a roller, paint, overalls and on a zodiac charging out towards a huge mean coal boat. On the night before the action I got to know I was going to be the one painting the English message and after yelping with happiness I started to realise what it actually meant.

Next morning, after preparing all the equipment till way too late at night, me and my butterflies committed to getting properly prepared. Just as they were starting to really flap around in my belly all hope was lost - the police and navy had different plans for us. So I took off my overalls and tried not to be too resentful. But then stand-by mode was announced again and overalls came flying back on. In ten minutes we were already bouncing around in the zodiac. I couldn't stop smiling...

Then we saw our destination - a massive coal ship - and I couldn't help thinking about the likeness of the situation to David and Goliath, although I don't have the red hair...

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Posted by Lisa at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yesterday Steve Jobs announced Apple new iPod line up. Here’s the bit that really got our attention about the new models:

• Arsenic-free glass
• Brominated flame retardant-free
• Mercury-free
• PVC-free

It’s great to see Apple dropping toxic chemicals like PVC, BFRs and mercury in their latest products and a victory for everyone who supported our Green my Apple campaign. In May 2007 Steve Jobs stated that Apple would improve its environmental record by removing toxic chemicals by the end of 2008 and boosting recycling by 2010.

While these iPods may rock what would really shake up the computer industry is if Apple sticks to its promise and becomes the first company to make personal computers free of toxic PVC and BFR’s. That would be truly groundbreaking announcement.

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Posted by Tom at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is from Jo onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean - currently in the region as part of the Quit Coal tour

There we were sailing along towards the Ashkelon plant, trying to work out the best spot to meet the media boat that’s coming to film our protest, but a rather less welcome boat got there first. It was a navy boat, closely followed by a police boat. The police boarded, the media boat joined us and boarded too. Our quiet sailing ship became quite the buzzing hub for a while with 30 odd journalists capturing everything.

Then it started to get uglier – the hired media boat had to leave because the police were threatening to arrest him and take away his license. They were serious. We wanted to keep some journalists on board, but Israeli immigration policies are something else and it just wasn’t possible.

So then, as a press officer having lost our journalists, the stress became whether we would be able to make media deadlines and get the footage of the planned activities out in time? No internet here yet – though we’re working on it, so getting stuff out of the ship can be slow.

The team set off. Painted a coal ship...

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Posted by Lisa at 11:31 PM | Permalink

The following is written by one of our activists from PNG onboard the Esperanza

My name is Daniel Holland, I’m a freelance artist. My Dad is from Abau, Central Province and Mum from Popondetta, Northern Province, Papua New Guinea.

I live in Port Moresby and am a volunteer activist with Greenpeace. My first action was in the Pacific Ocean a few months ago, campaigning on the overfishing of tuna in the international waters between Pacific Island countries.

Now in my own country, Papua New Guinea, the Esperanza is here doing forest campaigning and I’m proud to be part of it. I’m in the climb team that climbed the
crane of the ship and hung the big banner that said “Protect Forests Save Our Climate’.

It’s a new experience and I like it.

I know exactly how these people feel, it’s painful. I had an experience a bit similar to these people.

Read more »

Posted by Lisa at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here are two lovely blogs from Dr. Uygar Ozesmi the Executive Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean

September 6th

Just two months ago we were part of the Arctic Sunrise Tour for the protection of Blue Fin Tuna and the creation of Marine Reserves in Greenpeace Med. Now we are part of the Rainbow Warrior Tour for the Quit Coal campaign. When we get to host a Greenpeace ship there is always great excitement. It is also a lot of work for the team, but they don't feel it because of their enthusiasm. The same enthusiasm is also shared by our supporters. The Rainbow Warrior is such a strong Greenpeace icon that I must say I was very excited.

During my trip form Istanbul to Tel Aviv, my mind was with the team and how the preparations were going. When I met them I was sure that everything was in order. They had prepared an exhibition to talk about the impacts of climate change. The music was playing, children were dancing with their mothers and some were jumping rope.

Along the pathway was the bridge up to the Rainbow Warrior. There was a crowd of visitors waiting for their turn to get on the ship. We were counting on a couple of hundred visitors, but this was beyond our expectations. That day we had more than 1200 visitors come to the ship! People got off with a big smile, having experienced a ship that symbolizes the struggle for a society in harmony with the planet. The ship had witnessed many environmental crimes and stood in resistance to those who do not care for the planet, blinded enough to commit crimes against nature and humanity. People on board gave the hope that there will be a future for all.

Read more »

Posted by Lisa at 10:41 PM | Permalink

More news on this shortly from our team on board the ship - but I just wanted to put this image up. 14 of our acitivsts were arrested and taken into custody in Ashkelon after protesting against the Rotenberg coal power plant construction.

Our photographer was arrested along with his equipment but hopefully we'll get some more pictures tomorrow along with a blog from Jo - who is currently on board as communications coordinator.

Image © Greenpeace/ David Bar Sela

Posted by Lisa at 7:05 PM | Permalink

Every year since 2001 scientists have been calling for reductions in the amount of big-eye and yellowfin tuna caught in the Pacific. But every year big fishing nations such as Japan, Taiwan, China and Korea have refused to pay attention to the warnings.

Last month Japan announced an approximate reduction in tuna fishing capcity of about 5 percent due to rising fuel prices and dwindling tuna stocks.

Now they have announced a suspension of ALL their longlining vessels. These target yellowfin and bigeye tuna.

atuna.com reports:

Tuna Japan Suspends Tuna Fishing Operations For All Vessels
Japan, September 4, 08

In an extraordinary meeting, the Japan Tuna Fisheries Cooperative Association (Tuna Japan) decided to suspend fishing operations of all its 233 member vessels...

... the duration of the suspension would run from 2 months to 2 years depending on each vessel's fishing plan. The majority of the distant water tuna long line operators in Japan belong to this association; the two other organizations for distant water longline fisheries also decided to follow suite.

...Mr. Masahiro Ishikawa, President of Tuna Japan confirmed the decision saying "we cannot make profit at all from our fishing operations because of the prohibitively high fuel prices" adding that it is also intended for tuna resources to recover. Mr. Masahirto Ishikawa called on tuna purse seiners to take concrete steps to reduce their catches to an appropriate level.

So this is good news for Pacific tuna but ideally we'd like to see Japan seriously cut back on their purse seiners too. The ever increasing purse seine catches - with fish aggregation devices - continue to wipe out the yellowfin and bigeye tuna because these fish get caught inside the huge nets that are set to catch the more common skipjack tuna.

Scientists are now calling for a 30 percent reduction for big-eye and 10% for yellowfin but this does not account for the amount taken illegally or the number of unreported catches. So, we're calling for a total effort reduction of 50 percent.

Posted by Lisa at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's some cool "fly on the wall" footage from the recent action in Papua New Guinea.

The following is written by Raoni Hammer - an activist from New Zealand on board the Esperanza - who took part in the action.

Three days of sunsets and sunrises, driving rain and sauna-like sun - perched precariously 40 metres up on top of the SV Harbour Gemini’s main log loading crane was an inspirational experience! Up high on the crane we had an amazing overview of the nearby rainforest and it’s abundant life, from the largest Harpy eagles and flocks of colourful birds to evening visits from hundreds of masquerading moths.

It felt like a privilege to be invited by the local resource owners to raise awareness of the situation on the ground, their rainforest being destroyed.

Everyday long canoes filled with villagers paddled around up and shouted and sang encouragement.

The other 3 crew of my climb team - all Papua New Guineans - were reveling in their role as crane occupiers, armed with flutes, songs and laughter we made sure there was never a dull moment between the seriousness of media interviews over the satellite phone.

It felt like an honour to be a messenger of this dire situation of these local clan’s livelihood to the world.

Posted by Lisa at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's an update from Dean on the Esperanza in Papua New Guinea

When we arrived here at Paia Inlet in the Gulf Province - a huge roar greeted the Esperanza crew from hundreds of locals lining the shore. There were people in small log canoes singing and dancing with joy. Some had even made their own protest banners - complementing ours. Tears welled in the eyes of our crew.

"Some of these people have been suffering under the logging company for 23 years" said Kemaru Garry Bissue, Chairman of the Kikori Environmental Association and landowner from Kibiri Tribe. They were very happy to see the Greenpeace ship.

The water of the Aiai River is muddy from soil running off the hills where the forest has been chopped down. The timber is dragged to waterways, piled on barges to fill the holds of enormous cargo ships, taken to China, made into plywood, furniture and outdoor decking, before eventually being thrown into a landfill or incinerated in a distant land.

Read more »

Posted by Lisa at 4:35 PM | Permalink

Here's a story from Jamie in the UK.

It's currently the dry season in the Amazon and, as the live webcast last week demonstrated, fires have been decimating large areas. The video crew weren't the only ones documenting the fires and last week we received images from another Greenpeace team who took to the air to photograph them and the devastated areas they leave behind. We've put together some of the most striking (not to say depressing) images into the slideshow below.

You'd be forgiven for thinking the images seem familiar, as this happens with depressing regularity. Fires are a natural feature in the lifecycle of many forests and some species even rely on regular firestorms to reproduce. But many of the fires in the Amazon have been started deliberately: a forest isn't really conducive to growing crops or raising cattle so this is the time of year when matches are put to the dry wood to open up new areas for cultivation.

While there's a certain stark beauty in some of Daniel Beltra's photos, it's one that comes at a very high price.

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

The Independent reports on the news that for the first time in human history the north pole can be circumnavigated.

"New satellite images, taken only two days ago, show that melting ice last week opened up both the fabled North-west and North-east passages, in the most important geographical landmark to date to signal the unexpectedly rapid progress of global warming."

Now would be a good time for an energy revolution, wouldn't you say?

Posted by Martin at 12:50 PM | Permalink