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April 29, 2010The Cool IT campaign has just unveiled Version 3 of the Leaderboard, our third assessment of Information Technology (IT) companies’ efforts to fight climate change. If the world is going to end its reliance on dirty energy, sweepingly incorporate renewable energy into our electricity grid, and boost energy efficiency, IT companies represent a key link in the chain to get us there.
Rivers of oil spreading over the ocean after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform Explosion
Five times more oil a day than previously believed is spreading into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown-out well of a sunken drilling rig, according to AP. A drilling rig leased by the oil company BP exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast last week in roughly 5,000ft of water after burning for two days. Now a new leak has been discovered in the pipes a mile below the ocean's surface. According to the article, BP is disputing these new alarming figures. "The US Coast Guard and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) experts now estimate that 5,000 barrels a day of oil are spilling into the gulf - rather than the 1,000 previously estimated.". The news was discovered after test control 'burns" were undertaken to "burn off" the oil. No more fires were lit overnight, and President Obama has said the US Department of Defense will be available to help manage the spill.
The Waikato Times (New Zealand) reports that the 'burning tactic' came after "crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil on the sea bottom 1.5km below." According to BP today a relief well will be drilled to relieve pressure from the blowout site, but this would take months to prove effective. A dome-like device is also been considered to cover oil rising to the surface by pumping it to container vessels, but again BP confirmed that this would take time.
Reuters have quoted GP in a 'factbox" about the potential environmental impacts of the spill, which includes a big threat for the Atlantic population of bluefin tuna, as their eggs float near the surface around this time of year. "We expect a spill like this could dramatically decrease the amount of bluefin tuna larvae that are surviving," said John Hocevar, the Oceans Campaign director for Greenpeace USA. Other animals which are in danger include species of bird and sea turtles.
Read more about the oil spill in our campaign blog from Greenpeace USA which includes a slideshow of the explosion.
President Obama has recently called for more offshore drilling as part of the US energy future but this growing disaster could have repercussions in the energy debate in the US.
Photo Credit: © Sean Gardner / Greenpeace
Yesterday morning around 7 o'clock Greenpeace activists entered a test field of the Flemish Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research in Wetteren, close to Ghent. They sowed organic flowers on what a few hours later would turn into the first Belgian field with genetically modified maize MON810. A tripod with the climber was installed in the field, as well as banners with the message "Sow safely or not at all" ("Zaai veilig of zaai niet").
Thirty Greenpeace activists in Stockholm have shut down the office of state-owned energy company Vattenfall, calling for 100 percent renewable energy © Greenpeace / Johanna Hanno
In Stockholm Greenpeace activists have occupied the offices of state-owned energy company Vattenfall, blocking employees from entering, ahead of the annual general meeting (AGM). Drums painted with radioactive symbols block the doors, and there is a banner on the roof, calling for 100 percent renewable energy and condemning investments in coal and nuclear. The company's press officer said "[w]e agree with Greenpeace's concerns about climate change. We are today one of the players in Europe that invest the most in renewable energy. And we are pressing on, but it will take time." However, Louis Tillman of Greenpeace Sweden replied "[a]s Europe's fifth-largest electricity company, Vattenfall would be Sweden's most powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Maud Olofsson [the Minister for Trade] has had over three years to begin the necessary transformation. But instead of investing in energy technology, we risk now new nuclear reactors in Sweden and many more coal plants abroad." Thirty activists from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland and Sweden are involved in the action, and so far they have not been removed.
Emma Stoner has been the crew photographer on the GE-Free Future Tour, his entry is about her experience.
We arrived in Spain, the 'heart of GE in Europe' in the blaze of a Spanish sunset. It was nearing the end of the road for us, only 2 stops in Spain after two and a half weeks on the road. We were all tired but excited to have taken the bus so far and into a country where GE is so predominant. Spain produces 80% of all GMO in Europe and is home to 76,000 hectares of land used for the cultivation of GE crops. Our visit to the Spanish farm was scheduled for the following morning so we checked into our hotel to catch up on some sleep.
12/04/2010 Greenpeace Staff in Spain
Greenpeace Eco-farm to instill rice-pride amongst Thai youngsters
Thailand's first ecological rice farming camp for kids has been launched by Greenpeace in an organic rice farm in Ratchaburi as part of a project to demonstrate sustainable agriculture solutions and to educate and inspire the youth to value healthy food, land and community through experiences in ecological farming.
07/03/2009 A child gets ready to plant a rice seedling in a bid to create the first ever art on a rice field in Thailand. The 10-rai rice field in Ratchaburi province will grow into a beautiful art in the next 4 months to show an image of farmers wearing straw hats and using sickle to harvest rice.
Greenpeace activists who shut down Hay Point coal terminal in Australia last year have been fined, national news reported. Photo: © Greenpeace / Hamilton
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced his government will postpone its carbon pollution reduction scheme (known as the CPRS) until the end of 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol is due to expire. Rudd backed away from his biggest election promise, citing parliamentary opposition to the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and "slow global progress" on tackling climate change. The decision, he said, would “provide the Australian government [in 2012] with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change" - although it is not clear how the level of action taken by other governments will in any way improve Australia's "position" with regard to climate change, which Rudd referred to earlier as the “great moral and economic challenge of our time.”
Australia is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the world, and has some of the highest per capita carbon emissions of developed nations. As the world's leading coal exporter, Australia also gets 85 percent of its electricity generation from coal, accounting for 42 percent of the country's CO2 emissions (not including that which is exported).
Crew photographer Emma Stoner signs the GE Free Future bus. The bus has been touring through Europe as a living petition, calling for a GE Free Europe. This entry is about her experience.
Being the on-board photographer for the GE Free Future bus has been a fantastic, inspiring and totally unpredictable experience so far. I was particularly interested in this project as I've been concerned with food related topics for some time, following and sometimes documenting, food mapping guerilla gardening and planting activities of transition town movements and eco communities in London where I live. People are thinking about the future of food supplies and demand for local organic produce is increasing.
One of my favourite webcomics, xkcd, put this image online a few days ago. It speaks for itself: there's more than meets to eye in our oceans.
Want to help protecting them? Sign the marine reserves petition.
(image used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license)
24/04/2010 Greenpeace protest outside BASIC meeting in Cape Town
The BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) met in South Africa on Sunday to discuss how to speed up a process of finalising a global agreement that would require rich nations to cut carbon emissions and reduce global warming by 2010. Greenpeace Africa political advisor Themba Linden said in a statement: "Greenpeace urges the governments gathered in Cape Town to take the opportunity to make a clear and unanimous call for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to avert catastrophic climate change." The story appeared in France 24, after being picked up by the news wire AFP.
Greenpeace volunteers were present displaying banners reading “climate change needs BASIC
leadership” on a boat directly opposite the 12 Apostles Hotel in Camps Bay where the conference took place.
Greenpeace is highlighting the urgent need for the BASIC group of countries, four of the most influential emerging economies in the world, to take climate leadership in the run up to the next UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year.
Paloma and Hernan talk about what the World People's Conference achieved and the closing ceremony in their final blog from Bolivia
It has been a fascinating experience here at the World People’s Conference, which closed on Thursday, World Earth Day.
In the end the numbers were even bigger than we first thought, over 35,000 people from 140 countries came together to exchange views and search for common goals to tackle the climate crisis. Outside of the official panels and working groups, there were some very interesting meetings as well.
The IWC disappoints
23/04/2010 Greenpeace activists set up a whale graveyard in front of the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings, known as the Beehive. The protest is a reaction to further details released today from the IWC proposal which could legitimise commercial whaling and allow hunting to continue in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Today, on the front lawn of New Zealand's Parliament, about 100 Greenpeace anti-whaling protesters held black whale-tail placards with "RIP?" written across them in white letters. Greenpeace New Zealand executive director Bunny McDiarmid condemned the International Whaling Commission (IWC) plan.
New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said that the IWC proposal, which would allow hunting to continue in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, falls seriously short of providing a strong basis for a diplomatic solution. Many whale species are in danger of extinction as a result from commercial whaling.
In northern Europe, TT-Reuters also reports in the Swedish Dagens Nyheter that the main issue is that the IWC regulations have loopholes, these have allowed Japan to continue practice of commercial whaling while claiming that it is being done for scientific purposes. The meat though, is sold on the commercial market and the industry is supported by Japanese taxpayers money.
AP cites a statement by Greenpeace Japan Program Director Junichi Sato, saying "At the moment, it appears that the whales are making all the concessions, not the whalers and this proposal keeps dying whaling industries alive and not the whales."
AFP cites Greenpeace oceans campaigner Phil Kline: "It's a bit like a bank robber who keeps robbing the bank. You can't actually catch him, so you decide to just give him a big pile of money."
Join us in the attempt of trying to restore whaling populations by demanding marine reserves.
"I want an energy revolution." - We have made a video celebarting Earth Day. Check it out and share it.
Happy Earth Day, everyone.
Around 40 years ago, environmentalists across the US came together in a teach-in to demonstrate just how big a force the environmental grassroots movement was in the first ever Earth Day (as the Chicago Tribune, the Seattle Times and the Boston Globe recall).
Today, this fragile Earth needs more people like you who care about environmental issues, more people who will use their voices to defend it - and more people who will take action to protect it.
Watch our new inspiring Earth Day video and get involved!
As Kumi Naidoo, our executive director, said today: "A green and peaceful future is possible - please join us in making it happen. The Earth needs our attention not just on Earth Day, but every day."
Greenpeace Forest Campaign Coordinators Paloma Neumann from Mexico, and Hernnán Giardini from Argentina are in Cochabamba, Bolivia for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. The Conference, which sees 20,000 participants from 129 countries, has been organised by Bolivian President Evo Morales. It aims to put people and not economic interests back into the heart of climate talks. It strongly emphasises the need to make sure that indigenous peoples are central to the climate debate.
Greenpeace activists yesterday dumped manure in front of the entrance of the Brazilian Agency for Electric Energy in a protest against the building of the Belo Monte hydro power plant.
The signs Greenpeace activists put up in front of Brazil’s National Electric Energy Agency yesterday left no doubt what it was they had piled next to them:
A “beautiful mountain of shit”.
Indeed. “This was the only way to show, in one image, the terrible legacy Lula’s government will leave to the country by insisting on this adventure,” Greenpeace Brazil said, referring to the planned hydroelectric dam Belo Monte, which translates as Beautiful Mountain.
Brazil yesterday awarded construction rights for the $11 billion-project in the Amazon rainforest - and Greenpeace was there to say what a catastrophe the dam will be for the area’s environment. We placed tons of manure in front of every entry of the government building where the decision was taken.
“Belo Monte represents backwardness in Brazil, by replicating an old energy model that benefits few through a huge social and environmental destruction”, Sergio Leitão, campaigns director in Greenpeace Brazil, said.
The dam is being built in south Pará, one of the most beautiful regions of the Amazon. Going ahead with its construction does not only demonstrate Lula’s blindness to friendlier types of energy generation, but also threatens a place of high biodiversity and displaces Indian groups living in the area.
“To defend Belo Monte means to look at the country’s development through your car’s rearview mirror,” Greenpeace Brazil said.
Our “beautiful mountain of shit”, meanwhile, travelled a long way, with stories on the action appearing in newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, El Pais, Liberation, La Nacion, and The New Straits Times, as well as in several smaller outlets.
Citizens demand arrest of Minister Prithiviraj Chavan, demand BRAI bill be withdrawn
April 20, 2010 New Delhi: The Minister for Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chavan was demanded to be arrested for establishing the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) today at the Anusandhan Bhavan Premises today.
The group of volunteers dropped a 20 feet long banner, which read “Arrest the Minister, Drop the GE food Bill” from atop the minister’s office. They demanded that the Prime Minister stop Chavan from introducing the bill and withdraw it immediately as it will force GE food on to the citizens against their right to safe food.
20/04/2010 Greenpeace volunteers with banners in front of the Anusandhan Bhawan office of the Minister of State, in the Prime Minister’s Office. They are demanding the arrest of Prithiviraj Chavan and withdrawal of the Biotech Regulatory Authority Bill - BRAI 2009. The bill establishes a regulatory system that promotes unpredictable, unsafe GE (genetically engineered) crops.
Today in Brussels: Greenpeace billboards of European Health Commissioner John Dalli and President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso, depicted as chefs cooking up 'GE recipes for disaster'.
Seven weeks after the EU Commission rushed through its decision to allow the genetically engineered potato Amflora, the first crops are being planted in Germany.
Under police protection, German agro-chemical company BASF has started sowing crops in a 15-hectares field in the country's north-east, German newspapers MZ, Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Handelsblatt report.
And they don't miss to mention how strongly we oppose GE crops.
Today, we placed billboards of European Health Commissioner John Dalli and President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso depicted as chefs cooking up 'GE recipes for disaster' around Brussels.
Italian photographer Giulio di Sturco was on board the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean to witness our work protecting the Atlantic northern bluefin tuna. He took some amazing images which are featured in a slideshow and video on Global Post.
Watch a video slideshow of Giulio's images as he speaks about his experience on the ship:
A huge screen on a truck displays Twitter messages in front of the Nestle headquarters in Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Our campaign to get Nestle to stop using palm oil from forest-destroying suppliers keeps travelling the global media.
Germany's Spiegel Online is running a nice slideshow, including the "Killer"-logo we designed and several graphs showing just how big an impact our social networking campaign has had so far.
They call it “the Nestle case”.
Also in Germany, Die Welt has pointed out how Greenpeace has added a whole new dimension to the social media site Twitter with its Twitter wall in front of Nestle's German headquarters. A huge screen in front of the Frankfurt office displayed live Twitter messages to employees.
On the weekend, the print edition of Switzerland's Le Matin Dimanche ran a full page on the action inside Nestle's annual shareholders meeting in Lausanne last week, including pictures showing our activists abseiling into the hall with their message:
"Nestle, Give the orangutans a break!"
There’s a video of it here.
The print edition of the Edmonton Journal in Canada ran a picture on the weekend, showing orangutan-dressed activists being carried away afterwards. As for another description of the campaign's success, their headline writers came up with:
“Primate Power.”
On April 17th, 15,000 people gathered in the center of Madrid, calling the Spanish government which currently holds the EU Presidency for a GE-free future. This event marked the end of our GE-free future bus tour in the EU. Over the last few weeks, the bus, starting from Luxembourg, has passed several EU countries, calling for a moratorium on GE cultivation, and gathering signatures online and offline, as well as organising on Facebook. So far, over half a million people have called for this moratorium, alongside Greenpeace, Avaaz, and several other NGOs.
Greenpeace protest inside Nestlé AGM
Yesterday Greenpeace activists left a 'reminder' above the heads of those attending the Nestle shareholders meeting in the western city of Lausanne (Switzerland). Activists dropped from the ceiling of the assembly hall to display a banner that read: "Nestle, give the orangutans a break". Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported that at the end of the meeting the activists were arrested by police in Lausanne.
More activists dressed as orangutans handed out leaflets outside. "We are here today to tell Nestle to change its KitKatastrophic policies," said Greenpeace's International Head of Forest Campaigns, Pat Venditti. Swiss channel 24 heurs quotes Peter Brabeck, Chairman of the Board of directors of Nestle: "Join our moratorium against deforestation, we will be your first partner", but it is also quite critical the opening paragraph reads: "Nestle owners seemed more concerned about lack of access to the buffet at the end of the meeting" than any other economic stress of the moment.
Click here to see the YouTube video of how it all happened.
Further protests disrupting the Nestle AGM took place in Finland and Germany.
Photo Credit: © Greenpeace
An entry by GE-free future bus crew member Jonas Hulsens
After the crossing of the Mediterranean Pyrenees iwe arrived in Spain, with 76.000 hectares the only European country that grows Monsanto's GE maize MON810 on a significant scale. The road to Madrid led us through the region of Aragón, 'ground zero' of GE maize cultivation in Europe, where we were welcomed by local volunteers and staff of Greenpeace Spain.
Our first stop was Ecohuerto in Albaro Bajo, a small village in the countryside around the town of Huesca. Since 2003, this organic farm is weekly providing fresh vegetables to 120 families. There you can find peppers, eggplant, tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, courgette, leak, onions. Several varieties are typical for the region, like the gigantic tomate rosa de Huesca and the Fuentes sweet onion.
Greenpeace and Confederation paysanne and Faucheurs Volontaires activists occupy Monsanto seed production facilities in Carcassonne, France. They demand the french authorities to stop import and distribution of GE seed.
"Denmark will introduce a national ban on the BASF GE potato Amflora". This was what the Danish minister of environment, Karen Ellemann, told media and public yesterday when they gathered at a Greenpeace rally to eat GE-free organic potato soup outside the ministry of environment in Copenhagen. The minister added: “a national ban is fully supported by danish parliament” .
Greenpeace, Avaaz and Friends of The Earth where serving patato soup in front of the Danish Ministry of Environment. One of the visitors was Environmental Minister Karen Ellemann, who announced during the event that she wants a national ban on the GE patato Amflora.
Besides handing out soup Greenpeace, Avaaz and Friends of the Earth asked people to sign a petition to stop approvals of GE in EU.
Nuclear Action in Sweden. Barrels marked with the nuclear waste symbol.
Japanese electronic giant Toshiba is developing mini nuclear reactors which could be buried underground (with the idea of providing safer energy). The reactors are only two meters high and have a width of 0.7 meters, but are expected to produce 10 megawatts of electricity. So reactors powered by highly enriched uranium, which is used for the manufacture of bombs, could be dumped inside people’s garages. In addition, they are cooled in a mixture of toxic lead. Toshiba is not the only one who has come up with this crazy idea of nuclear power generating man sized monsters. Hyperion Power Generation announced that it would commercially develop the technology in 2008. But it had to step back due for security reasons such the household disposal of nuclear waste. The sole idea sounds scary.
Photo Credit © Johanna Hanno / Greenpeace
Activists plant 'good' potatoes
Our 20 acitivists planted 450 kg of the alternative starch potatoes Henriette and Eliane from Avebe on 1,5 ha. The whole field acreage for cultivation of Amflora is 20ha.
It is the only field in Germany where Amflora is intended to be cultivated ( in the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the East - the agriculture minister of this federal state Mr. Backhausen, announced on Monday that he is against the culivation of the Amflora potato).
14/04/2010 Greenpeace activists plant GE (genetically engineered) free potatoes called 'Henriette' and 'Eliane' in a field in Buetow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany in defiance of the planting GE potato 'Amflora' designated in the near future.
Politics decides nuclear waste site
Greenpeace activists in Dannenberg, close to Gorleben.
Greenpeace presented yesterday a document of government files on the Internet revealing that the site of nuclear waste disposal at Gorleben, Germany, was chosen for political reasons (in a few weeks…) in the 70s without analyzing the geological implications. "Geological criteria for a repository in salt rock played a minor role in all studies ", said Greenpeace nuclear expert Mathias Edler. The story has appeared today in major German newspapers. Despite the findings, the German government is till deciding whether the site will be used. Again, politics will have the last word...
Photo Credit: © Fred Dott / Greenpeace
This is a post by Jonas Hulsens, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner from Belgium who is on our GE-free bus tour of Europe
This morning, standing on the balcony of our hotel room, the peaceful view on the snow-covered slopes of Mount Canigou in early daylight felt like a generous compensation for a rather short night, and so did the warm welcoming by the volunteers of the local Greenpeace group of Perpignan. We met them at the organic market on Place de la République, a rectangular square covered with bars and terraces in the centre of town.
Today, Greenpeace France launched its campaign against the use of GE in the production of French quality cheese. On 46 cheeses with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) – a quality guarantee system – 21 systematically exclude GE from the feed used to raise the animals that produce the milk. 10 others committed to do so in the near future. For the remaining 15 cheeses there's not the slightest guarantee. Greenpeace is pushing all producers of quality cheese to go GE Free.
10/04/2010 The mayor of Perpignan, Monsieur Poujol, signs the bus.
Here's a post from Dietlind Lerner, one of our Communications Managers:
One of the best things about my job at Greenpeace International is getting to work on communications with our new International Executive Kumi Naidoo. Kumi is a natural leader who is happy to give advice - but also to take it thereby giving all of us a real sense of belonging to something big and important. As part of his job, Kumi spends a good part of his time meeting with business leaders and politicians, which is of course essential to the work we do. But my guess is that what Kumi prefers to do is meet with Greenpeace staff, volunteers, and supporters. Kumi was 15 when he first became politically active by joining the struggle to end Apartheid. Since then he has gone on to found new Non Governmental Organisations and join various national and international civil society organisations; his entire adult life has been about volunteering and being an activist. "It is the good men and women who dedicate themselves to doing the right thing and making the right choices who will decide the future of our planet" he often says. And so with every trip he takes, Kumi asks me if it’s possible for him to meet field staff, office personnel and volunteers. I often get email of thanks after these meetings, but have never been to one myself. For this reason I was very happy to receive this video of Kumi's visit to a Greenpeace Germany supporter event. I'd like to share it with you:
Greenpeace activists close Europe's biggest depot for GMO (genetically modified organism) potatoes in 'Gut Buetow', Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
There are alternatives to GE crops. But The European Commission seems to think that the first statement is not worth worrying about and the second one can be ignored. It’s just too simple.
Yesterday Greenpeace activists blocked a warehouse in Germany in protests against GM Amflora potatoes from being distributed. The cultivation of GM Amflora potatoes (which are developed by German agro-chemical company BASF) was approved last month by the European Commission.
The Amflora potato carries a gene for antibiotic resistance which may pose a health risk, violating EU law. It needs to be put "behind bars," said Greenpeace's agricultural expert Martin Hofstetter in a statement. The potato is not meant for human consumption, but it will be used to produce starch and used in industrial products. If you want to know more about the risks, find out here.
Greenpeace is doing its part to inform both farmers and consumers of the risk of growing GM crops in a GE free bus tour which terminates next week in Madrid. Follow the bus (which is currently in France)!
Photo credit: © Bente Stachowske / Greenpeace
Greenpeace activists close down GE potato depot
12/04/2010 The banner reads, 'EU GE Potato Depot Closed' There is 360 tons of GMO potato Amflora stored waiting for transportation to the Czech republic.
As the GE Free Bus is on its way to Spain, other Greenpeace volunteers become active in other places. In Germany, Greenpeace activists locked the warehouse in Bütow, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, in which the controversial GE potato variety Amflora is being kept. The activists had chained themselves to the entrance alongside a banner bearing the message “EU Depot for Genetically Modified Potatoes Closed”. They wanted to prevent its cultivation by calling the government to act.
“This potato ought to be locked away. Cultivating and distributing Amflora is illegal,” says Martin Hofstetter, an agricultural expert for Greenpeace. “The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ilse Aigner, must ban the genetically modified crop immediately.”
The activity ended when the police arrested the activists but they found support from Mr. Backhaus, the agriculture and environmental Minister of Mecklenburg Vorpommern who wrote to Angela Merkel that he opposes the GE potato.
Since Junichi and Toru were arrested in 2008 for exposing a scandal that rocked the Japanese whaling industry - over half a million calls for justice have been made in support of their actions.
After Junichi and Toru were arrested - nearly 300,000 of you called for their immediate release and demanded that the official investigation, into the corruption they exposed, be re-opened. 85,000 of you even went so far as to demand the Japanese government arrest you too for assisting Junichi and Toru in opposing the scandal and corruption of Japan's whaling programme in the Southern Ocean. You told Japan that if they are going to start rounding up political prisoners for the crime of defending whales - that they will need to arrest a great many people around the world!
And earlier this year we launched the "Whale Trial Pledge" - which has been signed by 200,000 of you as "co-defendants". In addition to calling for a fair trial - you asked again for the official investigation to be re-opened.
Today - as the Japanese whaling factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, returned from hunting whales in the Southern Ocean - all of these pledges were submitted to the Public Inquest Committee (PIC) in Japan. They were filed along with our request for the Japanese government to re-open its investigation into the whale industry’s corruption which our activists Junichi and Toru worked so hard and risked so much to expose.
Greenpeace Climate campaigners hold up signs at Parliament Hill in Ottawa during the Copenhagen conference on climate change.
Meetings dealing with climate change seem to be taking on a domino-effect syndrome of failures. Meetings in Bonn to tackle climate change, which took place this weekend, were a repetition of the disastrous outcome of Copenhagen. Wendel Trio, Greenpeace international climate policy spokesman said: "Governments have a critical chance to repair the distrust caused by their failure to take the lead in Copenhagen." But, as UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports, the talks in Bonn were another disaster. "All countries agree greenhouse gases must be cut in order to stop catastrophic climate change, the question is how to do it. At the heart of the problem is the failure to even agree the best way to draw up an agreement." An article in German news under the headline "Climate pain in Bonn" reports in the opening paragraph that: "the hangover after the climate summit in Copenhagen-flop was probably not bad enough". After the talks it was agreed that there will be three preparatory meetings in Cancun. There is a strong motivation to meet, what they do in those meetings is still unclear…
Photo Credit © Greenpeace / Meaghan Eady
April 09, 2010: Italy
The GE Free Future bus is crossing the beautiful Italian countryside, on its way to the French-Italian border, roughly 750 km to the north. At a quiet pace of 80 km/h it will take us approximately 10 to 12 hours to get there, stops included.
With Emma preparing a selection of her fresh load of photographs, Jean-Jacques editing the video testimonies given in grandmother's kitchen, Fredrick blogging in Swedish and me working on this piece, the bus looks like a mobile office.
Before hitting the highway shortly after noon, the crew paid a visit to Agricoltura Nuova, a fascinating cooperative organic farm in the periphery of Rome.
04/08/2010 Greenpeace is calling for an end to the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia.
Another action took place yesterday in the North Sea in Belgian waters, publications De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws from Belgium report. Greenpeace continued campaigning against the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza pursued the Russian transport ship 'Kapitan Kuropte' which is on its way to Russia carrying nuclear waste from France to Russia. Activists in rubber boats got along side the ship displaying banners that read "Russia is not a nuclear dump", before being sprayed with water canons. Greenpeace hopes the action points to the large amount of nuclear waste being dumped in Russia. "We call on all European countries, including Belgium, to make an end to the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia," said Jan Vande Putte of Greenpeace.
04/08/2010
April 7: Jonas Hulsens joins the GE-Free Team in Italy
Yesterday, on the 6th of April, I arrived in sun-drenched Rome to join the enthusiastic crew of the GE-Free Future bus tour. Travelling from Luxembourg to Madrid via Hungary and Italy, through meetings with politicians, farmers and ordinary citizens, we are asking European governments to take action against GE and impose a moratorium on genetically engineered crops in the EU now.
07/04/2010 The GE bus is in Rome as part of a petition for a GE free Europe.
Sunrise over a cleared peatland forest near Teluk Meranti in Kampar Peninsula.
The good news first: the prototype of a solar-powered plane has had its first full test flight – and it went well. The plane, which has the same wingspan as a super jumbo jet, but weighs little more than a small car, took off from an airfield in Switzerland and did a round powered by engines that take their energy entirely from solar cells on its wings.
You can see a video on the BBC website.
Palm oil: Don’t go back Unilever
Others are going in the wrong direction. As Reuters reports, Unilever, the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, has announced it wants to resume buying palm oil from Indonesia’s Pt Smart, which is part of Sinar Mas, if independent auditors clear the firm over alleged forest destruction.
*UPDATE April 9*: Following the Reuters report above, Unilever has made it clear that the company's only commitment at this stage is to consider reviewing its position on Pt Smart once the palm oil producer provides a complete response to the allegations made against them. “I have seen little evidence to suggest that Sinar Mas are really willing to embark on the fundamental change necessary to give me the confidence to resume trading relationships," Marc Engel, Unilever’s Chief Procurement Officer, said.
In other words: as long as Pt Smart isn't providing serious evidence that it has changed its ways, Unilever isn't going back.
The pressure is still on for those companies that are cutting down the lungs of the planet at a time when we need those rainforests more than ever and contribute massively to making Indonesia the third largest carbon emitter after the United States and China. Not to mention the habitat of the orang-utan, which is being trashed along the way.
April 2: Street activity in Budapest on Good Friday
02/04/2010 Greenpeace GE campaigner for Hungary, Balazs Tomori (R) speaks to the press about the campaign for a GE Free Future.
On Good Friday the GE-Free Future bus was the centre of a street activity in Budapest. By 11:00 am all political parties were invited to come to sign the 5 points to act against Amflora and ban it immediately, go to European Court of Justice against the Barroso led European Commission since they did not respect precautionary principle and the opinion of memberstates and asked to fight for a moratorium on all GE authorizations till it is not reformed, because none of the memberstates of EU are satisfied with it by now. We also asked them to support organic agriculture and save our important state owned seed-banks as they were threatened by financial problems.
April 1: Visiting Karcag and Kishantos, two strongholds of Hungarian organic farming
We arrived to the outskirts of Karcag, where huge fields sowed with spelt, a popular wheat variety, it was a co-operative of 21 farms, who united to make and trade with organic raw material and products. An organization named Üllőparti Gazdaszövetkezet, whose president was our host, Hubai Imre.
01/04/2010 Hubai Imre Csaba is the president of Ulloparti Gazdaszovetkezet, which is a co-operative of organic farmers near Karcag, eastern Hungary. He is seen here inside the building where the seeds for his products are stocked.
The most interesting part of the heart of the farm was the big stock we could visit with him. Mr. Hubai was really proud of the different and traditional varieties they sow and use. The Yellow Hungarian corn for example. They had their small own mill and kept their products in the cooling-house of the huge stock. Üllőparti organic farmers co-operative have two bio shops in Karcag and Budapest as well, but sell to foreign markets too.
March 31: How to protect genes and nature? – a good example from "The Puszta"
After a long, exhausting journey, the GE-Free Future bus tour arrived to Hungary in the evening of 29th of March with its’ enthousiastic crew: Emma, Fredrik, Jens, and captain JJ. The two drivers were really proud that the special vehicle made it without any troubles and technical problems and did it quite fast. Especially, because the bus ran through high mountains to arrive to the bottom of Carpathian-basin.
31/03/2010
We arrive to my homeland, Hungary, where we can still find good examples how even a small country can economicly produce quality food and agricultural products instead of chemical intensive agriculture, instead of using GE. I was really motivated to show that to the European audience at the Hungarian bus stop of the tour.
Action against nuclear waste in France
04/06/2010, Greenpeace activists chain themselves to the railway line in order to block a train transporting nuclear waste in Tricastin (Drôme) in the south of France. The consignment of nuclear waste is due to be loaded onto the transport ship 'Kapitan Kuroptev' at Le Havre with the destination of Russia. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on the export of nuclear waste.
Greenpeace activists yesterday blocked the train tracks for the train taking nuclear waste from the Eurodif nuclear plant in Le Havre (a subsidy of French company Areva) to Russia. Since the action Areva and its subsidiaries have asked the judge to ban Greenpeace from disrupting their transports. The penalty fine will be 75,000 EUR per violation. Reuters reports on the details of the court ruling in La Tribune, saying that the court prohibits the Greenpeace activists from approaching within 150 meters of the convoy on land within 300m offshore to the limit of territorial waters, hinder or obstruct the loading.
The action in France yesterday was covered by Le Monde, Le Figaro, TV5 Monde (AFP) TF1, France 3 and 20 minutes. The story was also covered in Russian paper Gazeta.
In print media French papers Aujourd'hui en France, l'actu, Liberation and the global edition of the New York Times featured articles with coverage and pictures of the action.
26th of March, Luxembourg city
Luxembourg Minister of Health, Mr Bartolomeo signing our GE-Free Future bus.
Early wake up again as today was the press conference day at the agriculture Ministry. Greenpeace Luxembourg has organised its’ press conference in the building of agriculture ministry – first time in their history!! While I was distributing background material to the desk of journalists, publications from Greenpeace International like the Counting the Costs of Genetic Engineering, the first photographers, cameramen and journalists had arrived to the square. Virginie and Lars showed the bus to the ones interested in it, and Jens bought 3 fantastic umbrellas: big and rainbow coloured. Marco Schank, the Development minister and also responsible for the environment arrived first. He is clearly against GE and signed the bus immediately. Romain Schneider, the Agriculture minister and Mars Di Bartolomeo, the Health minister arrived and they all sat in the bus to talk with Greenpeace campaigner Maurice. They liked the interior of the bus a lot and had an almost 10 minute long discussion inside. It seemed to be so long, that we were afraid of having the hard disk of the video camera full. The camera, which was inside the kitchen of the bus, recorded all talks inside the bus for Mr. Barroso and for national governments. Soon after photographers wanted a picture with the Ministers and us holding our GMO FREE EUROPE banner and the bus in the background. They were holding the upper part of the banner, Lars and Virginie (our volunteers) the bottom – showing the good co-operation for gmo-free Luxembourg between ministers and Greenpeace! I was already satisfied but the press conference itself was about to start.
Slaughtering the Amazon
Cattle ranching at Monte Fusco livestock farm in Figueirópolis d´Oeste. Cattle ranching is the primary driver of forest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon, with 79.5 per cent of deforested land used for cattle pasture.
Brazil is the world's largest soybean exporter and the second-largest meat exporter, after Australia, which makes them the largest driver of deforestation in the world. The Amazon is estimated to store 80-120 billion tonnes of carbon. If destroyed, some fifty times the annual greenhouse emissions of the USA could be emitted.
The Seattle Times gives us the perspective of people that have no other way than of making a living from logging. They know what they are doing is bad and they do want to preserve their forests but have no other alternative for the time being. If the Obama administrations pledge to curb climate change succeeds billions from the US would start flowing into the Amazon to help dealing with deforestation. The funds, if they reach the conflict area could be used to police conservation areas, improve land fertility and help forest dwellers find better ways to earn a living than by making charcoal.
Just after 4am on Friday morning I was one of 10 Greenpeace activists who climbed onto the keyside in Rotterdam Harbour and blocked the departure of a Japanese container ship - with 160 tons of whale meat onboard. 7 hours later the Dutch authorities responded to our demands and confirmed that they had removed and impounded all 7 containers of whale meat - from 13 dead endangered fin whales. Here's how we did it.
I was at my desk on Thursday - wrapping up work before (what I thought would be) a very relaxing long weekend - when one of our oceans campaigners bounded up to my desk and told me about a shipment of whale meat in Rotterdam - headed for Japan from Iceland. Three hours later I was making sandwiches for 17 activists, packing a bag with chains and padlocks - preparing for what turned out to be the most kick-ass direct action I've ever done!
For me, stopping a major part of the international trade in whale meat - wasn't just 'the right thing to do' -- it was a chance for me to take action for the campaign that's been closest to my heart since I joined Greenpeace as a 'cyberactivist' in 2004 (I'm Lizardfish). It seems like so long ago now that I was trying to win a spot on our ship, Esperanza, in Iceland - to help stop whaling there. I've been involved with Greenpeace in one form or another ever since - including being the web editor on board the Arctic Sunrise in Iceland - in 2005. But I've never had the opportunity to do a non-violent direct action for the whales -- until Thursday. Needless to say - in the two hours we had to sleep before heading to Rotterdam at 1:30am on Friday morning - I didn't catch a wink.
Packed full of climbers and blockers dressed in full protective clothing (highly fashionable I might add - with gold padlock and silver chain accessories!) - our two vans pulled up next to each other right on the edge of Rotterdam harbour. Engines switched off, no talking - we waited in the dark for the inflatables to pick us up. I was sitting in the front next to the driver -- looking out across the harbour at the reflection of the (nearly) full moon in the water. We sat there for a few minutes surrounded by an eerie silence with the occasional jingle of a chain as someone moved inside the van.
Lisa, one of my co-workers, is sending out live updates while locked down to stop 160 tons of fin whale meat being shipped through The Netherlands on its way to Japan.
Update 1: Lisa's iPhone is running low on power. She's going to save it for Tweeting the most interesting bits. Keep an eye on this page for updates. You can see her video posts from the scene below.
Update 2: Tweet from the scene, "Dutch police are now investigating our allegations of fin whale meat destined for Japan from Iceland!" Waiting for official confirmation.
Update 3: Containers have been unloaded, supposedly for investigation. Some Dutch media already calling our action a "success". Still waiting for official confirmation.
Update 4: Activists have been arrested (most likely including Lisa). Expect them processed an out in a few hours. Still waiting to hear what has happened to the containers full of whale meat.
Final update: Success!!! The owner of the ship has decided to leave the containers behind rather than participate in the trade of endangered species.
Thanks to everyone for their support, kind words and re-Tweets! What a great start for Easter weekend!
See after the jump for wrap up, video from the protest and all that. Please support our activists in Japan. The folks arrested today will probably be out in a few hours, but Junichi and Toru are facing up to 10 years in jail because they stood up for the whales.
To hear about these kinds of things as they happen, follow us on Twitter.
Here’s an exclusive peek behind the scenes of our greener electronics work from our self confessed policy wonk Melissa Shinn. While you might see Greenpeace climbers swinging from buildings, our policy experts like Melissa are a crucial part of Greenpeace for delivering campaign victories.
One thing we often see being a `policy wonk´ is that a very effective technique to stop a proactive proposal for a law is to play passive aggressive. Our politicians - especially the ones that are more sensitive to the woes of industry and our economic powers that be are very conservative (to put it mildly) about anything that regulates companies further.
So when the more progressive political parties in the European Parliament suggested that the latest revision of an EU law that regulates the use of chemicals and toxic materials in electronics should also ban toxic PVC and BFRs, arguing that there was sufficient evidence to do so and that it was perfectly feasible to substitute these materials it was maybe not surprising that this has a cautious reception from some politicians. Despite the fact that several big companies like HP, Nokia and Apple have proven its feasible.
The chemical industry - driven by the PVC and brominated flame retardant lobby promptly engaged behind the industry trade federation Orgamlime and the US based IPC standards institute to gun down the proposal, fearing loss of market for these toxic substances. At this point if the companies that have already done the hard work to replace BFRs and PVC with safer alternatives - at their own cost, (not cheap they assure us!) mobilise their trade federation to come out and tell everyone that its perfectly justifiable and feasible to ban the stuff then the political dialogue would most likely roll in the direction of the ban.
Hopes dashed: Obama's plan to expand US oil drilling causes controversy.
President Barack Obama has announced plans to expand oil drilling off the US east coast - in a reversal of his 2008 campaign strategy, when he argued that lifting curbs on offshore drilling would take years to have impact and would not provide sufficient extra energy to be justified. The decision has outraged many environmentalists and Obama supporters who have raised concerns about the threat to wildlife and ocean habitats that would be affected. The plan also diverts money towards unsustainable and dirty energy developments that will only contribute to accelerated climate change. Greenpeace USA Director Phil Radford was quoted by AFP and Reuters (The Star Online) in international news saying "While China and Germany are winning the clean energy race, this act furthers America's addiction to oil. Expanding offshore drilling in areas that have been protected for decades threatens our oceans and the coastal communities that depend on them with devastating oil spills, more pollution and climate change."
This is an editorial I wrote together with Friends of the Earth International Chair Nnimmo Bassey. It was first published as an OpEd in the Daily Monitor.
Genetic engineering is a technology in search of a problem; a product in search of a market. Lobbyists from the genetic engineering (GE) industry are offering Africa a stark choice between hunger and GE crops. This is a false choice. Hunger can be avoided without growing and eating GE crops.
Ecological farming which nurtures our soils, cultivates diversity and supplies our families with safe and nutritious food, is the only way to address effectively the serious triple crises of food security, water scarcity and climate change.
Is ecological farming an utopian pipe dream? A luddite manifesto? No. Backed by UNEP and the UN Agriculture Assessment (1), the benefits of ecological farming systems are well known and documented by a substantial and growing band of scientists. They agree on the benefits of supporting local farmers and farm workers to promote systems that minimize dependency on external inputs like artificial pesticides and fertilizers.
The so-called ‘green revolution’ brought about an age in which the massive use of fertilizers and pesticides and ‘modified’ seeds have destroyed soils, put small farmers out of business and concentrated power over our food production into a handful of agro-multinationals. It has reduced diversity and increased vulnerability to threats such as climate change.
Now the same agro-multinationals want to promote their latest ‘technofix’ product, genetically engineered crops.
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