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February 24, 2010Is Avatar inspiring activism?
Much like the Navi people on Pandora - our activists are taking action to stop environmental destruction -- only we do it with banners and bloggers instead of bows and arrows.
I was put off by all the hype around Avatar and the amount of money spent on it. And I actually resisted going to see it because I felt that the 500 million or so bucks would have been better spent on more deserving projects. But just recently I caved and found myself riveted by the beautifully animated 3D world of Pandora. It is an amazing film with breathtaking animation that's deserving of the rave reviews. But I left the theater a lot more impressed by the underlying message rather than the 3D graphics that have rocked the cinematic world.
Avatar obviously has a strong environmental message as director James Cameron fully intended. But I wonder how many people have absorbed this message with the realisation that amazing biological treasures, similar to the ones on Pandora, actually exist here on Earth... and that the environmental movement has been fighting to protect them for decades. I wonder how many people walked away from the film towards a future as an environmental activist?
How many people know that ancient forests with massive trees that support entire communities of animals and humans - are threatened by the palm oil and paper industries. How many are aware that thanks to Greenpeace activists and supporters and the help of companies like Unilever - we're now seeing considerable victories for the trees!
Did you know that plants do actually communicate with each other via complex root systems - just like in Avatar? Did you know that the the amazing biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest is threatened by cattle ranches but with the backing of companies like Nike who responded to our Amazon campaign - this threat is now being reduced?
Ask Sony
Sony is the first electronics company to appear in the Guardian's you ask, they answer environment series. So drop in on the Guardian site and ask a question about Sony's environment policy and practice.
As for suggestions - here's our assesment of Sony in our latest Guide to Greener Electronics. Or you could ask:
When will Sony be putting PCs free of worst hazardous substances on the market like Apple and HP already have?
Will Sony be publicly supporting the Japanese Government's emissions reduction target?
Will Sony be supporting a stronger law (RoHS) on toxic chemicals in Europe?
Why does Sony not score better in our Cool IT Challenge?
Questions end Friday, you can see Sony's answers so far here
Inspiration from 2009
Just after New Year's I asked "What is your most inspirational memory from in 2009 - something that restored your faith in our ability to make the future greener?" on twitter and got the following responses...
@sspcampsie:
visiting Cuba. Cuba can teach the world about sustainability.
@ViikBonu:
Hillsong United
@pluviosity:
when I saw one of Greenpeace Fundraiser in a mall,tiredlessly explaining the same thing over and over again to different people
@mdbergfeld:
my most inspiring moment in 2009 is seeing so many people at the demonstration in Copenhagen on December 12th
@ksdulin:
getting accepted into the Sustainability Development Programme at the University of St. Andrews
@KickboxingWay:
When I saw Isha Yoga center planting trees in BIIIG NUMBERS
@allyska:
the various blogs on ethical living and everyday people trying to make a change
@Midpark:
I teached my grandfather who to be ecofriendly
@eduardgrebe:
Unfortunately, nothing has restored such faith.
@chinkatie:
'09 Memory: Watching James Hanson & Bill MiKibben be issued citations w/ 100+ students in the Boston Common w/ @TheLCampaign
@FloraBernard:
PowerShift & the Capitol #Climate Action. Finding out all kinds of folks are ready and willing to fight for climate justice.
@modelemme:
realizing God wants the same, making it possible.
Heartening to read these and congratulations to @ksdulin for getting into St. Andrews!
For me personally - many things spring to mind. But the stories from a group of women I met in New York really stand out. They have experienced and continue to be affected by the worst impacts of global warming and they have refused to sit by and accept it. But they don't waste time complaining - they have become agents of change - tirelessly fighting from the frontline. Their stories are truly inspirational.
I hope @eduardgrebe will take time time to read about them!
And of course - the myriad of Greenpeace actions over the year have been pretty astounding. See a slideshow of the highlights.
What about you? What has inspired you over the past year? Were you involved in something that you think might inspire others? Tell us about it by submitting a comment below.
Greenpeace's 2009 in 35 seconds (in French)
The title says it all. Watch this great web video from Greenpeace France, and leave a comment below of your activism memories from 2009.
(Music is CC licensed and owned by Brad Sucks)
TODAY: Will Santa Free Our Activists for Christmas? COP-FLOP Stories of Woe Continue; Swiss City Bans GP Supporter Recruitment
This is part of a trial series
Like yesterday, lingering COP15 news reports on the failure of the Climate summit and the updates on the arrested activists.
In the Washington Times, Gabe Wisniewski was quoted, "Two years have passed since world leaders promised all of us a deal to stop climate change. After two weeks of U.N. negotiations, politicians breezed in, had dinner with the Queen, a three-hour lunch, took some photos, and then delivered what could only be described as the 24-hour Head of State tourist brochure of Copenhagen instead of a climate treaty."
Grist however seems optimistic about The Copenhagen Accord and calls it a big step forward. "The Copenhagen climate deal that President Obama hammered out Friday night with the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa broke through years of negotiating gridlock to achieve three critical goals," it said.
The German Tageszeitung reports that 12 activists have been released from a Copenhagen prison but our 4 Greenpeace activists remain in "solitary confinement." Norwegian and Spanish media continue to report strongly on this topic in favor of the GP activists.
AP reports that in the case of Norwegian activist Nora Christensen, Danish investigators who usually take on cases of murder, robbery and other serious violent crimes have been put on the case of Nora.
TODAY: Brown blames COP-Flop on China, US; Mexican cars take a dive and Climate heroes spend Christmas in jail
This the first in a trial series
Unsurprisingly, the biggest story in environment and Greenpeace news this week has been the disappointing outcome of the COP15 summit as major NGOs are turning focus on Mexico in 2010. Only US media seems careful to judge the summit as harshly as the European Press.
There are some interesting new names for the Copenhagen summit floating around in the media. Which was first Hopenhagen is now Flopenhagen or Brokenhagen in French media.
L'Express reports that the last two weeks have seen "45000 accreditations, 12 days of negotiations and 46,200 tonnes of carbon only to lead to "a crime against humanity" the major NGOs have turned to Mexico in 2010, are angry after the flop of Copenhagen." Kumi Naidoo was quoted saying, The Copenhagen Accord has "holes so big you could cross them with the Air Force One!"
Musicians going Green
In 2007, Aussie musician Missy Higgins and her band toured the US in a Prius, participated in Live Earth and helped PETA campaign against animal abuse. That same year, KT Tunstall also jumped on the green bandwagon, touring in a biodiesel-fuelled bus and supporting the "carbon diet" campaign by Global Cool. And Moby is currently participating in the Play4Climate campaign co-created by the EU and MTV to educate people about climate change with a musical backdrop.
In today’s Irish Times, Jim Carroll takes a look at 10 green musicians and their eco-friendly ways, asking the question, “how green is your rock star?”
Among the eco-minded stars on his list are artists like Jack Johnson, Neil Young, Feist, Radiohead, and Damien Rice.
Google, Microsoft and IBM: Bring it on for the Climate
Today we launched the latest version of our Cool IT leaderboard - take a look a which of the biggest names in IT are doing the most on the top priorities to tackle climate change. As well as scores we've added more background on the issue and started the first in series of comparisons, starting with Google v Microsoft. This is all the product of many company meetings, phone calls, sifting through carbon disclosure project reports and lobby expenditure filings along with far more late nights team discussions than I care to remember!
The leaderboard covers companies measurable climate solutions, climate advocacy and efforts to reduce their own emissions. With the vital UN climate meeting in Copenhagen fast approaching we are focusing on which companies are speaking out in support of a strong deal that is vital for the planet, as well as being good for IT companies bottom line. In short no company really stands out on climate advocacy, even Google, with a relatively high score on advocacy has been silent on Copenhagen.
Another victory in Lapland
There's rejoicing in Finland, where we just notched up another victory protecting some of Europe's last old growth forests!
Just 2 months after a lawsuit against Finland's State forest service was settled by a deal which will protect the Nellim forest, we have reached a major victory on our other old-growth forest campaign. We’re pleased to announce that following intensive negotiations, Finnish State forest enterprise, Metsähallitus, has agreed to leave 35 000 hectares of boreal forests intact. It's a decision that significantly improves old-growth forest protection and will bring peace to the forests and its inhabitants.
Apple first to eliminate toxic PVC
Apple has just posted on its website that its has cleared the last hurdle in eliminating toxic PVC plastic and is the first PC maker to completely eliminate hazardous brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride plastic in its new iMac and Macbook.
Removing PVC from PC power cords was the last step in Apple’s industry leading position on toxics elimination. Apple was first with PCs virtually free of BFRs and PVC (except for the power cord) in March this year. While HP recently produced their first BFR/PVC free (except power cord) model, Apple has again moved further ahead of the competition
While removing the last use of PVC might not sound like a big deal it means Apple’s new products will be safer and easier to recycle and cause less pollution at the end of life. There were significant technical and safety certification barriers to finding PVC alternatives but Apple has now proved it is now possible and has completed the phase out, while reducing product price and boosting profits.
Apple’s PVC free power cords are only available in certain markets currently but should be available more widely when safety certification is obtained.
This lays down the gauntlet to other major PC makers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer to catch up with Apple again, and we’ll be keeping up our pressure on them to match Apple’s lead.
Yes men fix the US Chamber of Commerce on Climate
The current disarray at the US Chamber of Commerce over its lobbying against climate legislation was made for the Yes Men and their unique style of humorous expose. Sure enough, several US media outlets reported that the Chamber had announced a reversal of its position. Entertaining video:
There's more background here, also reported in the Wall Street Journal blog, Guardian, Huff Post, apparently Reuters and CNBC reported the initial announcement. There's a nice description of the way the Chamber had to madly scramble to deny it was changing position in the Guardian:
The spokesman said he learned of the hoax when a reporter came to the Chamber office looking for the press conference. Wohlschlegel said he immediately leaped into a taxi.
Here's what the Chamber really should be saying about climate, rather than its inane "we support climate legislation, (just not any that actually exists now) line.
Voices of Pacific Activists: Tereapii Mauriaiti
On the Esperanza, Tereapii, or Tere as we call him for short, is the bosun - one who supervises the deckhands and helps the first mate in maintaining the ship. He is from the Cook Islands, where they depend largely on ocean resources for food and livelihood. He is one of the four Pacific activists on board.
Tere grew up on a Rarotonga Island, a place of beauty with a clean environment, which he proudly calls home.
He joined Greenpeace 11 years ago.
“My journeys and travels took me to all the corners of the world. I was able to see amazing places but sadly also saw a lot of environmental destruction."
"I joined the Esperanza 2 months ago and for the first time I saw the effects of climate change right at my doorstep. We have fallen victim o sea level rise, our home is sinking along with everything else, now I am campaigning against illegal tuna fishing im my own region.”
Marco Ferraz: ´The optimism of the action is much more valuable than the pessimism of the thought´
For Marco Ferraz, being a crew member of the Esperanza is a dream come true. He had always wanted to work for Greenpeace and by a stroke of good luck, he was able to join the ship in Cairns just in time for the first leg of Defending our Pacific Tour. The 29-year old Brazilian took to work on deck like fish to water.
Read on as Marco shares with us how his passion for the environment began and continues to this day.
I used to think that I was passionate for animals, forests, all the beauty we can see and feel in nature. Until I discovered that we are all just one; nature, humanity, planet Earth, are parts of a single thing.
Today, I know that I am passionate about life.
Climate Camp Ends, but Action Continues
Wednesday marked the end of this year's Climate Camp in London, but it seems the "swooping" is not over. Activists recruited by the Camp for Climate Action organised various protests, ranging from a Climate Casino at the European Climate Exchange to the "embellishment" of the Barclay's Bank HQ with post-it notes. Now the organisation is preparing to stage what they call "The Great Climate Swoop" in order "to close one of the UK's biggest coal fired [sic] power stations, E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham." The event is scheduled for 17-18 October.
Ask Intel about climate leadership
Well ask the BBC to ask Intel's CEO about climate leadership - he's being interviewed this week on the BBC and they are soliciting for questions.
Here's mine:
As Intel stands to profit from IT solutions to reduce carbon emissions will Paul Otellini be making a public statement about the vital need for a strong deal at the Copenhagen Climate summit in December?
Here's how Intel is doing in our Cool IT leaderboard, hardly a stellar perfomance so far.
There's no info about when the interview will be on the BBC but add a question today on the BBC site before it's too late and if you see the interview lets us know in the comments if it was raised.
Firefighting in action
© Greenpeace/FB Anggoro
An update from Richi about fighting the forest fires that raged through Indonesia recently
My name is Richi, and I work for Greenpeace in Indonesia doing action logistics and volunteer coordination. Recently, I coordinated the work that we did with community firefighting efforts in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia from 31 July – 6 August 2009.
Now, I’m back in the village of Kuala Cinaku, with my feet firmly planted in it’s yellow soil after over two-years. Not much has changed in this small village, but this time I’m fighting to breathe through the thick pungent smoke from the forest fires that annually blight the province of Riau on Sumatra’s east coast, opposite Singapore. I am here to check firefighting equipment and prepare teams for the peatland forest fires that are once again burning out of control here.
"Our Climate - Your Decision!"
©Greenpeace/Fojtu
Check out the video and image from one of our latest actions. Yesterday, 40 activists set up a climate-protection camp atop the Gorner glacier in Switzerland and unfurled giant cloth letters reading “Our Climate – Your Decision!”
What's the impact of No Impact Man?
A new film is coming out soon called No Impact Man, featuring the well-meaning Colin Beavan attempting to live his life with as little as possible impact on the environment. But, I wonder, what impact is his film going to have?
You can check out the trailer here:
Hell still not frozen over
This week, Shell paid $15.5m to the Ogoni people in Nigeria, an out of court settlement after a 13 year struggle. I read that Shell's lawyers apparently once said that Shell would only settle when "hell freezes over" and they were "skating on it" - (perhaps that explains why Shell is now the most carbon intensive oil company on the planet - a desperate bid to keep hell nice and cosy).
Unfortunately I have now found that this quote was in fact from Chevron's lawyer in relation to a similiar case - but I would guess there was a not entirely dissimilar sentiment involved here. (Strangely, Shell's former Group Auditor Bill Campbell also told Shell's senior execs in 2007 that "hell would freeze over" before they would appear in court to clear their names. These guys must clean up at the annual Oil Industry Buzzword Bingo convention).
Greenpeace pees all over the IT sector!
Blogger Jay Yarrow, from the Business Insider Green Sheet, described the launch of the Cool IT Challenge with the following sentence: "Greenpeace pees all over the IT sector today, saying companies aren't doing their part to save the world." Believe it or not, this was not a direct quote from our press release. We're not peeing on them Jay, we're endorsing them. Very different.
Watch the Nick Broomfield film about climate change and direct action
Do you remember the six Greenpeace volunteers who made history last year when they were acquitted for defending the climate?
They were accused of causing £30,000 of criminal damage to Kingsnorth coal-fired power station. Their defence of "lawful excuse" was accepted by the jury - because they were acting to safeguard property around the world "in immediate need of protection" from the impacts of climate change, caused in part by burning coal.
Internationally acclaimed director Nick Broomfield was so inspired by this story that he has just completed a 20 minute film celebrating the spirit of direct action. The film tells the story of the activists who scaled the 220m chimney at Kingsnorth and the landmark case with supporting testimony by the world's leading climate scientist Dr James Hansen of NASA.
Watch the trailer above, or see the whole film in indulgent HD.
I was there
I saw the Inspiring Action video, and I am still remembering how intense that day was in the middle of the forest destruction - see 1:22 of the video. It was a Friday 14th October, 2005, in the north of Argentina, in the morning, in our way to an indigenous celebration.
We organized a small celebration with indigenous people and the villagers of a small town in Pizarro (Salta province, at northwestern of Argentina). We celebrated the help of the people because we succeed to protect the Pizarro reserve, after a very intense campaign in which we, all together, the Jaguars campaigners (a motorbike activists that stopped bulldozers in the forest), cyberactivists, artists and even Diego Maradona took part. We stopped the ambitions of soya lords to destroy this priceless natural reserve of the Chaco forest for their business.
Inspiring Action
Help us sign up 3 million people as climate activists this Earth Day.
P.S. Check out some of the love we're getting via twitter for this after the more link! Keep pushing it, peeps!
Being an activist
There's nothing like finding hidden gems. The amount of videos, photos, stories, blog entries and whatnot we deal with on a yearly basis is amazing. It's easy for simple things like the portrait of a Greenpeace Activist to be buried under piles of campaigns to push, cyberactions to take etc. Yet, yesterday, while uploading high quality videos on YouTube, Tulio in the video department found this one.
Historic Yongding gate becomes site of climate summit countdown
Greenpeace activists have turned to Beijing’s historic Yongding gate to call on the government for immediate action on climate change. Activists turned one of Beijing's ancient city gates into a gigantic countdown clock marking the time left till the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. Greenpeace is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to personally attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit and work with world leaders to come up with a binding treaty to fight climate change.
The action has started a buzz, with mentions popping up online shortly after the action started.
AP has an article with a small photo and quotes from our climate campaigner, Li Yan.
Greenpeace China is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend December's climate change conference in Copenhagen.As the world's most populous developing nation and, by some estimates, its biggest producer of greenhouse gasses, China is obliged to take a major role in the talks, said climate change specialist Li Yan of Greenpeace's Chinese branch.
"Copenhagen is the best, maybe the last, chance to avoid catastrophe," Li said Monday at the launch of a clock counting down to the start of the Dec. 7-18 U.N. Climate Change Conference.
China says developed countries bear most of the responsibility for stemming climate change.
Li said surveys taken in Chinese cities show a willingness to absorb higher electricity prices to promote sustainable power generation.
Photo © Su Li/ Greenpeace
Truth coming out about UK police actions against Kingsnorth coal plant protesters
I hadn't heard before how badly the police behaved at the climate camp protest last August. At the time, it was reported as "police clash with protesters". The reality that has come out is that it was really police harassing protesters and local residents alike - without cause, without provocation.
The police questioned, searched and harassed anyone in the area - plus confiscating, apparently, anything they wanted to. Stuff like bike locks, spoons, umbrellas, chalk, toenail clippers, duct tape and felt tip pens.
My favorite is line in the video is a little kid saying, "They took my crayons because apparently they you can draw on banners and that you can, um, commit a crime with crayons". Good job coppers!
More:
Kingsnorth report reveals shocking police campaign of intimidation against protesters
Greenpeace UK climate camp updates
BBC: Protest policing complaint
Boing Boing: How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest
Guerilla wallpaper
Stick a few bullheaded, single-minded, action-oriented Greenpeace oceans campaigners in a suit or a smart outfit, and send them into the hallowed halls of a cautious, diplomatic, slow-moving United Nations agency like the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome. Mix them in with a bunch of scientists who know precisely the urgency of saving our oceans but can only watch helplessly as Fisheries Ministers struggle to find compromise between industry lobbyists who want no action and industry lobbyists who can tolerate a little. Add a few dozen genuinely dedicated individuals who hate watching the wheels of global action grinding slowly while the oceans are plundered by pirates who not only go unpunished, but are often rewarded with subsidies. It would be understandable if outbreaks of subversive behavior would happen.
In the case documented below by an anonymous tipster, it would appear that the public access computers provided outside the meeting rooms at the Food and Agricultural Organization -- charged with looking after our oceans and dealing with problems like pirate fishing -- have been converted into message boards for a simpler message, and a more direct form of action, than the delegates may be accustomed to.
Why look. That's Greenpeace taking action and actually *stopping* a pirate!
This guerilla wallpaper will doubtless be the subject of a resolution to strike a committee to investigate the offending image, and a strongly worded commitment on behalf of all parties to endeavour to make efforts to have instruments in place to, where possible, inter alia, consider measures to remove the Greenpeace wallpaper.
340 activists call for global climate bail out in Brussels
More than 300 activists from 20 different countries are in Brussels this morning to take action and demand a financial commitment to tackling climate change. The activists have surrounded the building in Brussels where finance ministers are discussing funding for climate change.
The activists have sealed the entrances and are refusing to let the politicians leave until they committed to “Sav€ the Climate” and “Bail out the Planet”.
Real climate leaders wanted
I'm just back from the massive IT trade fair CeBIT in Germany where we launched our latest push for greener electronics – now asking IT leaders to rise to the challenge of climate change.
Basically we are asking the executives of top IT firms to lobby key governments for a strong, planet-saving agreement at the December 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen. We're inviting companies like Cisco, Fujitsu, Google, HP, IBM, Nokia and Microsoft to the challenge. Many of these companies are positioning themselves as being able to provide the solutions to significantly cut carbon emissions. If they are serious they need to support a strong Kyoto deal in Copenhagen that will provide the demand for their IT solutions.
Despite the media at CeBIT being very excited about Arnold Schwarzenegger's attendance (possibly hoping for a Terminator style quote), we managed to get good interesting in the launch of the challenge with coverage in The Register, Computer world and the Green IT report.
Now we have a few things we need help with:
Right now, today, Thursday, - vote up the story on Digg to bring extra attention
Help spread the word
In between interviews I also popped over to Cisco's blog that talks about all the great climate solutions they have to suggest they support the challenge. I got a "your comment appears to be spam and will be moderated". I heard that several other folks comments have also not appeared since Tuesday. So either Cisco's moderation is much slower then their routers, or invite on the page to "Join the Conversation" doesn't apply if you have something meaningful to say. Anyway I've added a trackback to this post - so if you reading Cisco – rising to the challenge is a better business move than trying to ignore it.
Cisco Update, 6th March: Cisco's Laura Ipsen, Senior VP, Global Policy and Government Affairs posted a response yesterday on Cisco's blog. I have a few questions which I'm following up with by email. Stay tuned.......
For those companies who might need a bit more prompting to back up their green words with real action, to paraphrase Arnie "we'll be back", in May with the first assessment of the real IT climate leaders.
2,500 activists call for clean energy
An estimated 2,500 activists made their voices heard at the Capitol Climate Action, the largest act of civil disobedience about global warming in American history. James Hansen, Vandana Shiva, Wendell Berry, Robert Kennedy, Jr. were all on hand to add their voices to the crowd of activists at the plant to demand action on climate change.
Images from Climate Action on Capitol Hill
The Capitol Climate Action yesterday in Washington, DC concluded peacefully and with no arrests, despite being the largest incident of mass civil disobedience in the name of our climate. On the website they featured live streaming video, a twitter stream featuring posts direct from the action and live blogging. The above picture is my favourite from the Flickr stream so far - it shows people of all ages participating, and there is a great contrast between the red 'power' banners and the White House in the background. Along with a coalition of NGO supporters specially trained for the action other participants included Bill McKibben, Daryl Hannah, James Hansen and other prominent environmentalists and celebrities.
Also, if you look closely at the bottom right of the photograph you can see a man fiddling with his cellphone - probably posting to Twitter right at that moment. The online broadcasting of this event was really extensive, covering step by step, speech by speech, every moment.
Mass Civil Disobedience
If you are anywhere near Washington, DC today and you want to be part of the what will likely be the largest demonstration on climate change, get yourself down to the capitol to be a part of the action.
Ninety organizations and thousands of people will be marching right down to the the Capitol Power Plant to demand that the administration confront the climate crisis and make a solutions a priority. The power plant is a 99-year-old facility that heats and cools the halls of Congress, still burns coal and accounts for one-third of the legislative branch’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Philips: from zero to hero
Sometimes, the story inside the office is sooooo much richer than the official news.
Yesterday, I walked over to the coffee machine to see one of our Toxics campaigners tanking up on caffeine he clearly didn't need. He was practically Tigger-like in his bounce.
"We won against Philips!" he whoo-whoo-whoo-whooed. "And you would not have believed it. We've been talking for months about how they could get us off their backs, and we thought we had an agreement. Then on Saturday night they showed us what they were planning to release and it was terrible -- they had backed out of three key points."
So across the weekend, Greenpeace and Philips went mano-a-mano. We were working out the terms under which we'd be willing to stop harassing them for lobbying for the status quo on e-waste. That would be the business-as-usual scenario that has led to the poisoning of the developing world with electronic waste. They were looking to do just enough that we'd start praising them as heroes -- even if we had to brush off the hero, twist their arm, shove them into the field of action, and tell them what to do.
But at the end of the day, they did the right thing. If all companies responded this way, the world would be a far better place. Sometimes, they need activists on their back, because in a world in which planetary costs don't figure in the balance sheet, the bottom line doesn't always drive them toward doing the right thing.
When we first crossed (non violent) swords with Philips on e-waste policy in November 2007 we were taking on a pretty entrenched opponent. This wasn't just a company who didn't have a policy, or simply didn't communicate their position. Philips was the leading promoter of a fixed fee consumers should pay for recycling. Philips had experts on this, academic studies to back up their stance, a business model built on this position and lobbied the hardest of all companies to maintain the current systems of e-waste recycling that have lead to huge amounts of toxic e-waste dumping. We were challenging their entire business model. The fact that Philips has performed a almost 180 degree turn in little over a year is testament to the public power of campaigning.
And this is a side of Greenpeace that very few people see:
What does Obama mean for activism?
What does Obama mean for activism?
Greenpeace has no permanent allies or enemies, and we don't endorse political parties or politicians. We're just as ready to praise Bush for protecting more of our planet's oceans than anyone in history as we are to condemn the Obama administration if they move ahead with plans for nuclear power.
But something needs to be said about what the election of Barack Obama means for the core of what we do: activism.
George Bush tried to shut down Greenpeace, when Attorney General Ashcroft took out the first felony prosecution against a non-governmental organisation in US history, rather than prosecuting individual activists, in response to a Greenpeace vessel blocking a shipment of illegal timber from coming into port in Miami. Bush tried to make activism synonymous with terrorism, and proposed laws which would have meant jail for many of the people who fought for civil rights, against the Vietnam war, or any of the many times in US history when people have taken to the streets in non-violent struggle.
George Bush was an enemy of activism.
Barack Obama is its product.
Donkey walks into a bar in Heathrow and says...
By now you've heard about the uber-cool action our colleagues in the UK have undertaken to stop the third runway at Heathrow, by buying a plot of land smack where the airport authority wants to build, and offering sub-divisions to folks around the world. While legal opinions vary, it may well be that if the UK government wants to take action to seize that land, they'll need to serve every single "beneficial owner" we sign up. Which set Martin Lloyd here in the office to thinking about who we need to recruit into the plot to ensure the UK government will have a really, really hard time finding them. You know, all our ships' crew, friends on remote Pacific Islands, Antarctic overwinterers, Bex on her bicycle across Africa, those sort of folks.
What you may not have heard is the cover story that our UK colleagues used to purchase the land. As John Vidal reports in the Guardian, they claimed they needed the land to set up a (wait for it) Donkey Sanctuary.
Now yesterday I read this. I scratched my head. I pondered. I thought about it on my bicycle ride home. I knew, the way any crossword puzzle addict knows deep in their bones, that there's a joke buried in there somewhere.
But it escaped me. Nonetheless, I Twittered that I was inviting all my friends to join me in creating a new Donkey Sanctuary in the UK.
An old friend from high school, Terri Hartman, knocked me over with the *perfect* joke, leaving this comment on Facebook:
The ass you save may be your own.
DOH! That's IT!
Join the plot:
Greenpeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Day Three, Part 2
Our merry band of canvassers hit the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 to encourage attendees to think Green when they think Gadget. We wanted to promote the new consumer guide Green Electronics -The Search Continues.
Here are the same five magic questions we asked each person:
1. What does a green electronic mean to you?
2. How much responsibility do companies have to produce green electronics?
3. How important do you think it is for companies to eliminate toxic chemicals for their electronics?
4. How far to you think you should have to travel to recycle your electronics?
5. If available, would you purchase environmentally friendly electronics?
We got lots of very interesting responses. Here are a couple of the best we thought you might like to check out.
Conversation 1 - Attendee/Smart Guy:
Conversation 2 - HP Booth Worker:
Greenpeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Day Three
You'll recall that we were having trouble finding the Greener Gadgets Tech Zone after 2 days of searching. Well, our intrepid team managed to find it. Our collective reaction: "meh". Martin Hojsik, Toxics Campaigner, summed it up saying that it's small and there's little that was breakthrough technology. The team has some praise for the solar powered chargers and for the new greener TVs that use the same amount of power as a light bulb. Watch the video below with Kian and his solar powered cell phone/PDA charger for a futuristic product. We'd like to see more products that are not only green, but faster and more innovative. It was so cool that a CES attendee left his iPhone with Kian's crew to charge it while he explored the convention floor!
GreenPeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Press Conference
There were over 100 journalists, bloggers and other interested parties at Greenpeace's Green Electronics - The Search Continues press conference yesterday. Press included BBC, Newsweek, Businessweek, Discovery Channel and more. Some people even came over an hour early! It was standing room only and a lot of folks told us they'd heard about the press conference over @Greenpeace_Intl's Twitter, where it was retweeted several times. Here's Casey Harrell, Toxics Campaigner for GPI and lead presenter, talking about his impressions of the press conference. Above you can find Casey's powerpoint slides.
GreenPeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Day Three
Here's more about our adventures from our intrepid team of canvassers here at CES 2009. Overall, the response to Greenpeace's rap about greener electronics has been well-received by conference attendees who seem electrified and glad that we're here. The BBC released an article "Tech Fair Offers Greener Vision" on Wednesday that says: "In the near future, the 'greenness' of a gadget will have a big influence on whether consumers will buy it".
Check it out our on-the-ground reports just in:
Brenna: I think our presence here at the CES is a welcome and necessary surprise. The people I have interacted with have been responsive and seemingly excited to have us here which is great! I can't wait for the press conference and the days ahead.
Lisa: I've been having mixed feelings about all of the "green" initiatives we've seen so far here in Vegas. While there's a huge amount of buzz and it's great people are paying attention to these problems, among the industry there seems to be more hype than solid action. One of our goals here that I feel we're making good headway on is helping folks separate green "fact" from "fiction". Getting people more informed about our new report will help a lot of people who want to go "green" but don't know how to cut through the spin.
Scotty: I'm having a great time on my first Greenpeace action here in Vegas! Today felt like a big success, just letting people know about our press conference and about our presence. The majority of the people seemed stoked to see us there, which was a very nice feeling! The great part about this in particular is that we can also work WITH companies, praising them when they do a good things and pushing them to make sure they follow through. Yay for good cop! Don't worry, we're having fun, too: tonight, we're going to see The Thunder from Down Under. More on that later.
Jay: Finding any signs of awareness about toxic contamination at the Las Vegas showcase of consumer electronics is like getting dealt a strait flush on the first hand – very long odds. Industry insiders representing companies of all sizes are here displaying the newest and hottest they have to offer, but the chances of finding one promoting low toxicity, take-back programs or even the energy efficiency of their products is about the same as drawing a fourth ace at the stud poker tables. Good luck. Very few of the exhibitors have made any attempts at branding that includes environmental responsibility. That is why I believe so strongly that being here with the Greenpeace toxics campaign team is essential to driving accountability in this industry. We're here to let the big boys know that we are watching their efforts closely and expect nothing less than fully meeting the commitments they've made to reducing toxicity (and the dangers and costs of recycling), energy demands during a product's lifetime and the carbon impact of making these products in the first place. Luck ain't enough here in Vegas, we need action!
Donniell: Overall, great response. Actually the best response coming from the international press eager to attend a Greenpeace press conference, let alone anything involving green electronics and/or technology. My favorite interaction was with a French man who literally stated, "but of course, I adore Greenpeace." I may have giggled and proceeded to engage with a professional Greenpeace demeanor. The day was smooth and gratifying. The result of our efforts will be realized tomorrow at 10am. Here's hoping!
CES 2009: Where is the Greener Gadgets Tech Zone?
Our team from Greenpeace have looked high and low for two days in vain to find the much-touted "Greener Gadgets Tech Zone" at CES 2009. We heard from the Discovery Channel video crew the same story - searching for an hour and a half with no luck. Above, this is a typical response from an info booth worker.
It's no dis to this young lady. She was perfectly nice if uninformed like all the other info workers. The info on the website and in the CES guide and on the maps have all been incorrect. Last night at a party, I managed to find a friend who'd actually seen the elusive zone who says it's neither in the South Hall nor the North Hall but the Central Hall. I can't even begin to explain to you how huge these "halls" are, btw.
I asked @philsfeed, ultra-cool blogger for Intel, what he thought of it. He said there's some cool stuff over there. But "it's no rainforest. It's more like one of those tiny green spaces you see between two off-ramps on the highway." I've gotten the name of someone who might be able to help. We'll keep you posted.
We're off to our big press conference to promote the new consumer survey "Green gadgets - The search continues". Wish us luck!
Greenpeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Day Two
Today Martin Hojsik, GPI Toxics Campaigner, and I sat in on the "Going Green: More Than a Label" which featured execs from big companies like Panasonic, Sharp and HP. A smaller, younger company was also on the panel -- Greenzer, which is a site that helps consumers find and rate green electronics. Kind of like a Green C-Net! Jeremy Arditi of Greenzer (@jarditi) gave Greenpeace's reviews of electronics a shoutout from the dais, not knowing we were there. I had a chance to interview him about how Greenzer is using Greenpeace's consumer product survey along with data from ClimateSmart, EPA and others to provide a database-backed solution to help people buy green more easily. He was pumped when I told him we'd just released the latest 2009 "Green Gadgets - The Search Continues" today!
Greenzer.com is up to 300K unique visitors a month and growing so they must be on to something. 98% of consumers (according to HP during the panel) say they want a greener TV. Do you?
Greenpeace and Green Gadgets at CES 2009 – Day One
GP US Media Officer Daniel Kessler reports in the video above from the floor of CES 2009 – check it out. There's a lot of early buzz here at CES about green gadgets. There's even an expanded Greener Gadget Tech Zone on the exhibition floor for 2009. It seems "green is the new black" this year. Lots of people are already asking the question: how green is green? What do manufacturers mean by green? Slashdot says: Green Is In At CES, But Is It Real? CNET wonders if the 'Green' tag should be banished. We're here to ask the tough questions. It's not just about packaging – that's the tip of the iceberg. Exponentially more dangerous for our environment and ourselves are:
- Take back and recycling – how easy and global are electronic manufacturers' programs for recycling old products?
- Toxics elimination – how many gross, poisonous, nasty chemicals were used to make the product? Those toxins like mercury, phthaltates and PVCs end up in our water, our soil and in our kids' bodies. This is especially a problem in places like Ghana, Pakistan and China.
- Energy efficiency – U.S. game consoles alone use as much energy as the city of San Diego. The carbon footprint of all the electronics in the world equals that of aviation. How are companies helping to fight climate change with greener, more innovative products?
These are the questions we'll be answering over the next few days while our scrappy band is here at CES. Follow our adventures here on the blog and on twitter: @Greenpeace_Intl. Tweet us back, retweet – tell your friends and let us know what's up.
The bottom line is that clean, green technology exists. Which gadget makers are truly green and which are greenwashing – we'll find out. We're on the hunt. On Friday, we'll also be releasing the 2009 product survey "Green Electronics: the search continues", a consumer guide to the greenest, most guilt-free products out there. Learn more here. Stay tuned!
Timelapse beached sand whale video
Whale Of A Day from Greenpeace_AustraliaPac on Vimeo.
Mesmerizing timelapse video showing the making of a 17 metre fin whale sand sculpture on Bondi Beach, Sydney. Sculpture by Greenpeace activists and sand sculptures, video by Keith Loutit, music by Headstrong and Shelley Harland.
The sculpture was done as a protest against whaling, and in support of two Japanese activists who are facing up to 10 years in jail for exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal. If you don't have tons of sand handy, you can still support them as well.
Here's how:
1) Sign the Tokyo Two petition telling the Japanese government, "If defending whales is a crime, arrest me."
2) Change your Facebook/Skype/whatever status to, "Wanted in Japan ;-)". (Winky smiley face optional, depending if you're a winky smiley face kind of person.)
"Mass action" vs "direct action
Over on the Guardian blog, Damian Carrington has a post on mobilization tactics and climate change:
Can the people of the world make global warming history? Ed Miliband, the UK's minister for energy and climate change certainly hopes so.Talking to the Guardian, he has called for a mass movement, like the 2005 Make Poverty History campaign, that will force the world's leaders to agree to a meaningful global climate deal at UN talks in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
The Make Poverty History campaign, a coalition of hundreds of groups, successfully urged the G8 meeting in Gleneagles to cancel $40bn of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations.
With uncanny timing, the campaign group Plane Stupid have occupied a runway at Stansted Airport, stopping all flights. I suspect this direct action, by about 50 protesters, was not what Miliband had in mind. The police have made multiple arrests and it's now all over. My colleague Leo Hickman has strongly defended the action.
Damian goes on to ask whether mass protest or direct action (like Plane Stupid's) is better for putting the breaks on climate change. Here's a thought: What if we did both?
Activists aquited for action against coal plant
[ 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.July 15, 2008
Amnesty support for Junichi and Toru (the Tokyo Two)
Amnesty International has sent a letter to the prime minister of Japan expressing "deep concern" about the detention of Junichi and Toru. From the Amnesty press release:
“We are also concerned that their detention, the charges against them, and the police raids on Greenpeace’s office and the homes of five of its staff are aimed at intimidating both activists and non-governmental organizations.“We ask the Japanese prime minister to make a clear statement assuring human rights defenders, including environmental activists such as Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki and organizations such as Greenpeace, that their right to engage in peaceful activities without intimidation or harassment will be respected by the state, including the justice system.”
July 10, 2008
Community power against coal
I cannot describe my feeling other than I am absolutely overwhelmed.
The Rainbow Warrior sailed to the province of Prachuab Kiri Khan (PKK), home to one of the strongest community oppositions against coal in Thailand. A fleet of over 30 fishing boats full of people wearing the movement’s green T-shirts greeted the Rainbow Warrior on its arrival. A fantastic welcome followed and you could literally feel what a symbol of hope the ship is. Over 1000 people had gathered from all over the province. These communities have a fantastic track record of success regarding shelving plans to construct coal fired power stations along their stunning coast.
May 15, 2008
Stolen whale meat scandal rocks Japan
Finally, we can tell the story some of us have been sitting on for months now: the whale meat embezzlement we uncovered in Japan, in which stolen cuts of prime whale bacon are smuggled away from the "scientific research" vessels and sold for oodles of yen -- one of our informers heard a crew member claim he built a house on his illegal proceeds.
We hit the front page of Japan's biggest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, this morning -- a first for Greenpeace in Japan, where whale stories have always been hard to sell. But with the Japanese government in seeming constant free fall with corruption scandals being unearthed all the time, whale meat embezzlement -- especially since it involves taxpayers' money -- is a monster story.
05/15/2008 THE ASAHI SHIMBUNGreenpeace Japan said Thursday it will seek a criminal investigation against 12 crew members of a research whaling ship over allegations they embezzled a ton of meat from whales caught in the Antarctic Ocean.
The group says the crew members aboard the research vessel Nisshin Maru sent cardboard boxes believed to have contained whale meat to their homes.
At a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, Greenpeace Japan members displayed whale meat they said had been intercepted on route to the home of a crew member. The box contained 23.5 kilograms of coveted whale meat used in bacon.
The estimated value of the meat is between 110,000 yen and 350,000 yen ($1,048 and $3,334), according to Greenpeace Japan.
This goes to the heart of the legality of the whaling programme. The ICR (Institute for Cetacean Research, which runs the scientific whaling programme) is constantly claiming that they are *compelled* to sell the "byproduct of their scientific research" by the International Treaty on the Conservation of Whales -- they don't really *want* to sell it, no no no it's not a commercial activity, there's a *law* see? Well guys, you made your bed, now sleep in it. If it's the law, then turning a blind eye to your own crew members skimming the best cuts off the top and distributing them to cronies and restaurants for kudos and profit is, literally, a criminal offense.
On top of that, the commercial sales are supposed to be "deferring the cost of the research programme" which costs the Japanese taxpayer US$ 4.7 million every year. So you can imagine there's some unhappy Japanese taxpayers reading the paper this morning. And watching the news as well -- every Japanese TV station was at our press conference a few hours ago, and the story has run already four or five times, even before prime news time.
So what do the whalers have to say about this? When we asked before the revelations, on the 8th of May, this is what the Japanese Fisheries Agency, the government agency responsible for whaling said:
May 14, 2008
How to (and how not to) make a viral video which wins campaigns
At yesterday's Organisational Review meeting here in the hallowed halls, we had a presentation from our Multimedia Producer, Daniel Bird, about the making of Onslaught(er) -- the Dove parody ad that the Wall Street Journal credits with flipping Unilever into taking action on their products' role in forest destruction.
Now, when a campaign like this puts eight months of preparation into ten days of active campaigning, and the target accedes to nearly all your demands, other campaigners tend to take notice, and beat a path to your door asking for... you know, one of those viral things. And can we have it tomorrow? And can it say "Tell Minister Mullitover Not to Approve EU Directive 2567?"
Daniel put together a fabulous primer on what makes a video viral, and some of the pitfalls that Greenpeace campaigners and other activists might want to avoid in trying to create such a beast. There's plenty of excellent advice here about how you MIGHT make a video that goes viral as well as ways to guarantee you won't. Here's a sample:
Don’t rely on the viral to do the work that a longer documentary video should do, or provide the information that the campaign’s webpage should provide. If you insist that more information is included, then you are forgetting the main idea of having a viral aspect to your Greenpeace campaign: the viral’s job is to grab people’s shirt collars and haul them through the door. It is then the rest of the campaign’s job to sit them down and point at the blackboard.May 8, 2008
Short video briefing from the Esperanza
Langi, on board our ship the Esperanza, with an update on destructive fishing in his part of the world, and what we're doing about it.
April 22, 2008
Dove viral -- the backing track...
We've had a couple requests here about the music in our new viral video, Onslaught(er), which takes on Dove's use of palm oil in their beauty products.
Palm plantations are destroying rainforests, which in turn is contributing to global warming, and Unilever, Dove's owners, are one of the biggest consumers of palm oil in the world.
Yes, yes, some of you have said -- but what's that rocking backing track that sets the machinegun pace?
Well now, since you ask, the lyrics were written by the new kid on the block here in the Amsterdam Secret Mountain Activism Laboratory -- video producer Daniel Bird -- and recorded by indie band Ohm Square.
All over our open-plan office for the last two days as people have opened up the video we've been hearing that slack-string intro, those chainsaw-distorted guitars, that seriously edgy voice dripping with ripsaw attitude.
Daniel, recently relocated from Prague, explains: "They're the Massive Attack of the Czech Republic."
April 9, 2008
Tatas vs Turtles: What does India's biggest corporation have against sex on the beach?
Consider this… Olive Ridley turtles rely on an inexplicable, in-built navigation system that guides them, when it’s time for them to reproduce, back to the precise coast on which they were born -- whether it's still there or not. And if it ain't there, baaaaad luck, turtle.
Now consider something else… The proposed port at Dhamra in India, being built by the giant Tata group and others, threatens a nesting site that is amongst the last honeymoon suites for the remaining Olive Ridleys, a highly-endangered species that swims all the way there from as far away as Australia.
Tata isn't just a car in India. It's an ubiquitous brand, which many in India believe does good things for the country. But when it comes to turtles, their plans to stop animal sex on the beach has just got to be stopped.
As our man in Bengaluru, "Gene Peace", wrote to us today, the online campaign they just launched has taken off like a hare:
March 4, 2008
Claymation Creature Comfort criters to the rescue
From Treehugger:
Animal Planet has teamed up with the makers of Wallace & Gromit to produce a series of 10 short clay animation films that demonstrate how everyone can make a difference by changing to a greener lifestyle. Narrated by British comedian Dawn French, and starring the amusing characters from Aardvark Animations' Creature Comforts, The Animals Save the Planet will be showing exclusively on Animal Planet this month.Way cute. Can't wait to see the rest.
February 15, 2008
Bulb changing in Italy
We're calling for governments around the world to ban the bulb, but we're not waiting for them. Here's Greenpeace Italy local group activists changing bulbs all over town.
Reminds me a little of this fantastic video.
December 6, 2007
Congrats Paulo!
Greenpeace Brazil campaigner Paulo Adário has been named one of the country's 100 most influential people by Globo's magazine Epoca. Paulo's been using that influence for years to help protect the Amazon. You can read stories about his work: in English, in Portuguese.
November 26, 2007
Recycle, then revolt
Just stumbled across a good post about how that if all of us that really care about the future could just live a little more ethically - we'd still be doomed.
So many organizations put the focus on changing lightbulbs, recycling and other helpful, sensible things like that. Here at Greenpeace we also want you to change your lightbulbs, that's step 1... Then we want you to help us outlaw energy wasting lightbulbs, shut down coal plants and be part of a total energy revolution.
Over at WorldChanging, Alex explains why:
Why do good people keep advocating lifestyle change? Well, the hope is that small steps will lead to a big change of heart: that a tipping point will occur when the crucial can falls into the critical recycling bin, and people all around the world will awaken to the sustainability imperative, and then that, in some vague-but-direly-hoped-for way, this awakening will change everything and all will be well (and everyone gets a pony!). I think of this theory as betting the farm on the arrival of a Mythological Universal Conversion Event.Here's the biggest problem with this theory of social change: we've been at it for decades, it hasn't worked and it probably never will. Things are demonstrably worse than they were when we began advocating recycling and such, and they're getting much worse far faster than any lifestyle choices can make them better. In the absence of an unlikely change in the nature of humanity, buying bamboo shirts or sustainable furniture is like spitting at a forest fire.
November 15, 2007
Remote control banner
We had another surprise for the World Energy Congress today - four remote controlled banners that unrolled from the ceiling of the conference hall with the slogan "ENEL: Do Not Export Nuclear Risk". [ Large photo. ]
ENEL is an Italian company currently completing two old Soviet-designed reactors at Mochovce, Slovakia. Their designs date from the 1970s and miss crucial safety components incorporated elsewhere following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. The most glaring inadequacy is the plant's lack of “containment” - the solid structure above the reactor intended to prevent radioactivity escaping to the environment and to protect the reactor from external accidents such as an aeroplane crash.
Here's a report from the scene by Jan, one of our energy campaigners:
"Be the change you want to see in the world" - that is the quote that appeared on huge screen during opening of the last day at the World Energy Congress. Well then, we will try to follow this wise advice.During the speech of Fulvio Conti, director of ENEL utility, a banner suddenly dropped out from the ceiling, saying "ENEL: do not export nuclear risk". Police immediately surrounded my colleague Francesco and I, asking us to leave the hall.
We decided not to, because we had paid for registration and had not do anything bad or illegal. When the first wave of alarm cooled down, an ordinary rank and file policeman tried to explain me in Italian that he is happy that we raised our message, repeating " grazie, grazie!".
November 14, 2007
An Environment Minister blogs our Rome action
[If you missed this story, info and slideshow are here.]
Well here's something you don't see every day. Apparently, the Icelandic Minister for the Environment, Mr. Oessur Skarphedinsson, is an ardent blogger, which is cool enough right there. Skarphedinsson was at the opening ceremony of the World Energy Congress in Rome when Greenpeace activists unexpectedly 'dropped in', and he's blogged about it!
Here's a (very rough) translation of the ministers update:
Greenpeace stal senunni! [Greenpeace stole the scene!]Prodi, the Italian PM, lost the spotlight totally yesterday while he addressed four thousand people at the World Energy Council in the eternal city of Rome. The Council is held in the gigantic hall, reminiscent of many interconnected, hangars for airplanes
In the midst of Prodi’s speech, two men, dressed as mountain climbers, with helmets, appeared from the rooftop. Both had heavy rug sacks as if they were climbing down the glacier after having camped on the roof for several days in order to avoid police and security guards.
While this went on I sat in the front row together with a few Italian Ministers and other Ministers of other nations, and listened to Prodi as I detected the shadows of the two fellows above my head.
New Eurostar terminal opens in London to confetti and balloons
It was a small action that happened in London this morning, but in the interests of the entente cordial I thought it was worth a mention, not least because the title for the press release chosen by our media officer made me laugh: 'Greenpeace says 'yes' to something shocker'.
The shiny new rail terminal at St Pancras station opened today to much fanfare, including balloons and biodegradable confetti from the climbers hanging a banner from the ramparts. Not only is it the new home of Eurostar, it sees the start of high-speed services between our parochial little island and the rest of the world. Well, Paris and Brussels but it's a start.
There is, however, a caveat. While everyone is basking in the glory of this technological and architectural achievement, we need to remember that our government is still hell-bent on building a new runway at Heathrow airport, making a nonsense of any attempts to reduce climate change emissions.
Opinion polls regularly put figures of over 60 per cent on the number of UK people opposed to further airport expansion (a recent one pushed it as high as 70 per cent), so to visualise that opposition, we've launched the Stop Heathrow Expansion video wall. If you're incandescent with rage about the unfettered growth of aviation, feel free to add your own short video.
October 18, 2007
Loggers besiege Greenpeace in Amazon; get to keep log
From the Guardian:
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Hundreds of loggers and angry residents have surrounded eight Greenpeace members who tried to leave an Amazon town with a scorched tree trunk for an exhibit on global warming, the environmental group said Wednesday.The activists are holed up in the makeshift headquarters of the federal environmental agency in the town of Castelo dos Sonhos, Greenpeace campaigner Andre Muggiati said. "They are still surrounded and the situation is tense,'' he said by telephone.
The region in the Amazon state of Para is part of the so-called "arc of destruction,'' the southern edge of the rain forest that has been devastated by loggers. In 2005, American missionary Dorothy Stang was shot dead in the region during a land dispute.
On Tuesday, the Greenpeace activists tried to haul away a badly burned fallen tree trunk for an exhibit on global warming in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Muggiati said.
He said the federal environmental agency Ibama gave Greenpeace the OK to transport the tree trunk, but the permission was suspended in the wake of the standoff.
Thankfully, our team managed to get out of there in one piece. This isn't the first time we've had to deal with this kind of intimidation in Brazil, but our work there is making a real difference.
October 16, 2007
The surreal life - Rainbow Warrior in India
Tracy just sent in a great update for Greenpeace India's Ban the Bulb blog, which is covering the Rainbow Warrior's visit. Tracy's normally spends her days deskbound in the Greenpeace UK office, but she's taken a break from all that's familiar to join the Warrior on it's tour of India.
Excerpt from Tracy's update:
When we arrived our jeep drove right up to the stage which I immediately thought was a bit odd, but then I saw some familiar faces and Shomo one of our climate campaigners said we had to go to the stage right away. He said quickly, or there will be a riot.They had been waiting for us – thousands of students from all over the island and local people waiting to see us. We were told that we had to send the leader from the Rainbow Warrior up to the microphone to say a few things – we all looked at each other in horror. The captain was still on board to sail the ship here. So we forced Lesley, our medic from New Zealand, to the front of the stage to speak. She protested a bit but then the Minister for this area put his arm around her and coerced her to the microphone – the whole crowd cheered.
It was more like a rock concert than a political rally. Lesley thanked everyone for being there and the honour of having us. She said the Rainbow Warrior will be sailing to Bali from the next Kyoto meeting and we’ll take their message to stop climate change and save the Sundarbans with us.
October 12, 2007
Climate activists locked up for weekend
The world really is a messed up place sometimes. Today, six Greenpeace climate activists in India were denied bail; they are spending the weekend in jail. The ruling happened at pretty much the same time as Al Gore and the IPCC jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to raising global awareness of climate change. That’s something to celebrate for sure. But how can the world wake up to climate change, and at the same time and lock up those trying to do something about it...
October 1, 2007
You don't have to join us to join us
Surfing YouTube with the Greenpeace Tag, it’s quite easy to discover unknown videos edited using our images. They are user generated productions from people from all over the world that care about the environment and want to spread a positive message. Ok, it should be nicer if they would make clear that are not “official” Greenpeace video (just say it in the end board and in the description), but I honestly find wonderful that so many people spend time and use their skills to do something for this planet using Greenpeace materials. It means that what we are doing works and - as this blog says - we are making waves.
Mostly of them are really great pieces of work but sometime we find something really brilliant. The best example is for sure the Rainbow Warrior animation that we discovered few months ago:
September 26, 2007
Support Blog Action Day!
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=58116Yes, 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.
September 11, 2007
Anita Roddick: back to the earth
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.
August 30, 2007
Activist and indigenous people in danger in the Amazon
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.
June 29, 2007
Yesmen launch new 'Exxon' fuel, Exxon rolls out the legal heavies
The Yesmen, corporate pranksters (with a conscience) par excellence, have done it again with their unique and often hilarious brand of identity correction - this time nailing climate criminal numero uno ExxonMobil. They sneaked in to an oil industry conference to announce ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum.
Now the Yesmen have claimed some notable scalps in the past including announcing the closure of the WTO and Dow's clean up of Bhopal. But Exxon immediately rolled out scary sounding legal notices (also nothing new for the Yesmen) but often internet providers get very scared by expensive corporate lawyers writing nasty letters. Despite the fact that the right of parody is legally protected, their provider immediately took down their site. Here's the Yesmen's newsletter - if you're interested in free speech on the internet, or happen to be a friendly hosting service these great folks need your help! And their film is really good watch too.
June 6, 2007
Merkel and Bush
My favorite headline of the G8 so far, "Bush, Merkel vow to fight poverty, disagree on climate". This follows what was apparently a very nice lunch meeting between the two of them. From the article:
"But Bush made no reference to Merkel's demands that G8 leaders commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 2 degrees Celsius.Merkel, for her part, recognized that while the US and Germany agreed on combating poverty in Africa, there were other "areas here and there" which needed further discussion."
In perhaps not unrelated news, today German police boarded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise - even though it was well outside the summit security zone. The police boarded without a search warrant and confined the 24 crew before seizing Greenpeace equipment including engines from inflatables, making the boats unusable, and the hull of a Greenpeace hot air balloon.
I wonder if, at any point during the lunch, Merkel and George "there ought to be limits to free speech" Bush touched on how far a government should go to ensure that leaders of the world's wealthiest nations can meet without the inconvenience of protest.
Greenpeace statement in response Merkel/Bush comments today.
From the BBC: Who are the G8 protesters?
May 31, 2007
Look after yourself Cindy Sheehan, and thank you
Photo by KG4CHW. License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Cindy Sheehan spoke with Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow yesterday about the day her son Casey died in Iraq, campaigning to hold Bush and Congress to account for the Iraq war, becoming a leading peace activist, and divisions in the movement.
She wrote a sort-of resignation letter to the US peace movement on Monday, in which she wrote: "When I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'right or left', but 'right and wrong.'"
I think Cindy is right to take time now to withdraw, reflect, and perhaps retool for another crack at it some day. I always found her story about moving from grieving mother to antiwar activist profoundly challenging. Above all, it has lessons about love of enemy -- the soldiers and mercenaries who've died invading Iraq, Iraqis and foreign fighters involved in the quagmire there. And now it reminds us to love ourselves too.
Sometimes peace groups and sustainability campaigns could do with a bit more of that peace internally, if they want to last or be a model for more people to join. So look after yourself Cindy -- and thank you!
May 25, 2007
Activist murdered in Mexico
This just in from our colleagues in Mexico:
Hi all,I'm very sad to inform you that the son of one of our indigenous allies against illegal logging in the Great Water Forest [in Mexico] was murdered last week by four loggers. Yesterday we had a press conference with Ildefonso Zamora, father of Aldo Zamora who died on Tuesday, May 15th. During the conference we called upon Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico, to act to arrest Aldo's killers and to guarantee the security of Ildefonso, his family and all the people of the community (San Juan Atzingo).
I would like to ask your help to pressure the Mexican Government to act immediately to grant justice to Aldo, Misael (Aldo's brother, who was also injured) and his family.
Thank you very much for your support.
Remember to complete your signatures at the end of the letter.
Patricia
UPDATE August 3 2007:Thanks to the more than 1,313 folks who took action by writing to Mexico's president.
Patricia writes:
I´m very happy to inform you that two (of the four) murderers of Aldo
Zamora´s were arrested yesterday!!!This is a great step towards justice in this emblematic case that shows the
injustice and dangers that the defenders of human rights and the
environment have to face in Mexico, in the fulfillment of their task.The police found the two guys (only 18 and 20 years old) in their home,
which means the have been hiding in the area for the last two and a half
months. The other two thugs are still free, but I´m sure that they will be
arrested soon now that their accomplices are in jail.There are still 57 well known and fully identified illegal loggers in the area.
Justice will not be complete until the are all in jail.April 26, 2007
Strange bedfellows: McDonald's, Greenpeace, and the Amazon rainforest
Here's an article in the Washington Post about our campaign against Amazon destruction through soy plantations. Some of you may remember us locking horns with McDonald's in the "McAmazon" campaign; this is a nice glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes and how consumer pressure and web activism drove McDonald's themselves to become the force-carriers against Cargill in a fascinating game of power billiards in which the weakest player of all was a national government.
--b
New Allies on The Amazon
McDonald's, Greenpeace Unite To Prevent Rainforest ClearingBy Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; Page D01It was an unusual group to be sharing a small boat making its way up the Amazon River.
There were four environmental activists from Greenpeace -- Brazilians and others who flew in from Europe for the trip. And there were four corporate leaders of McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, from its Chicago headquarters and from Europe.
February 18, 2007
Kleenex boxes come with Kleercut message
Great activism story from the Washington Post:
"Wiping away ancient forests," warned a note found inside a box bought recently at a drug store in New York by a stuffy-nosed reporter. "Here's a little secret that Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue maker in the world and parent company of Kleenex, does not want you to know."Which prompted a typical response from Kleenex:
"We take any and all comments about any foreign materials in products extremely seriously," said David Dickson, a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark. He then called corporate security.Never mind those ancient forests, someone's tampering with our tissues!!!!
The activists obviously have a sense of humour, unlike Mr Dickson:
Dickson said the company has received a handful of calls about the leaflets. None of the leaflet incidents could be confirmed, he said. In one case, a caller complained about the leaflets but left a telephone number that led to a Greenpeace office.Of course we'd never ever dream of sanctioning such subversive activities but the article does say how it can be done:
A reporter was able to slide a folded piece of paper underneath the perforated cardboard of an unopened box of Kleenex. With a little manipulating, it may be possible to insert the paper so that it lies on top of the tissues.More on Kimberly Clark destroying ancient forests to make tissues at Kleercut.net
February 8, 2007
Angry kid: We're not talking about THE future. It's MY future.
Our French office put this together for their climate-change site: its-not-too-late.com
Look out, you rock and rollers.
Tools for thinking
I'm a longtime fan of brainstorming techniques and methods for making the most out of meetings and that kind of stuff. Last week I was reading this post at the excellent Creating Passionate Users blog, and was reminded of IDEOs wonderful brainstorming cards.
This (and the links to their forerunners, Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies cards) made me wonder if something similar could be done for Greenpeace campaigns. A few hours of looking at Greenpeace campaigns and scribbling on bits of cardboard later and I have a prototype...
January 24, 2007
Green grocers?
In yesterday's Guardian there's was an interesting column by George Monbiot on the recent green announcements from leading supermarkets. Personally I'm often in two mind when reading Monbiot's columns. He often makes some really good points but also some very sweeping statements that make me feel quite demoralised or he implies that nothing will ever be good enough.
I've been following the seeming conversion of retailers like Walmart, Marks and Spencer and now (seemingly not wanting to miss the green band wagon) Tesco. Walmart buying renewable energy, M&S carbon neutral proposal etc are all good, bold steps even if they should have been taken already.
January 11, 2007
Seeing Steve
Our toxic campaigner Martin is at Macworld and reports on what Steve didn't say in his keynote address:
It was a long day. Waking up at 6 AM to get to the Moscone center for the Keynote speech of Steve Jobs. But I was still getting more sleep than many other Apple fans.
Coming to the conference centre just before the 7 AM I expected to see the queue but I did not expect not to see the end of if. Some people spent the night out there to get the best places to see the speech. They brought camping gear, doughnuts and all the stuff that geeks need to survive during the night to waiting for HIM to appear (well they left all the waste including the camping gear behind as they rushed in). When the gates opened, the crowd fast moved into the building, so after a while helping the friends outside I moved in - just to end up in another queue. This time inside the giant hall on the ground floor. Only just before 9am when the speech was supposed to start I got with the others into the big hall on the 3rd fall that was to host the show.
When Steve appeared, his ego filled the room, the crowds were cheering and everybody was tense - what he is going to show? Well, I had my own hopes (guess which ones). Steve started in style - virtually "burning" the Zune player from Microsoft. Unfortunately the e-waste burning in China is for real. He also showed the classic "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad - this time sending the PC for surgery in expectations of the changes it will need for Vista. But as we know - also the Mac needs to change as well- to get rid of the toxics.
December 12, 2006
Green my Apple hits Amsterdam
On Saturday, together with volunteers, I visited the 2 Apple stores in Amsterdam to spread the Green Apple message to Dutch Mac fans.
Early on Saturday morning the Dutch Greenpeace office was busy with volunteers stickering 800 green organic apples with the GreenmyApple website address. The early turn out was impressive considering there was a party on the Arctic Sunrise docked in Amsterdam the night before!
Indonesian activist arrest
From the BBC "Day in Pictures" series, this great AFP capture of the arrest of an activist in Indonesia. The caption at the BBC doesn't mention the subject of the action (forest policy), and the strength of the photo is beyond that specific. This has some iconic qualities. It says something about confrontation, determination, and non-violence. The eyes of the police are everywhere except to camera, though the faces of the two in front look to me to be entirely aware of the camera, while the third at the feet hasn't composed his face. The green the activist is wearing stands in opposition to the grey of the uniforms, and the only other patch of color in the shot is the single bit of nature visible in an otherwise black white and grey artificiallity: the leaves in the distance. The activist's gesture conveys a danger we don't see, but which the helmet far in the background and the third cop's expression also suggest. And that badge just dominates the foreground of the picture's motion. Beautifully composed, there's an unanswered question, an unfinished sentence here, which leaves the viewer with a decision about whose side they're on.November 17, 2006
Get Blair Closer to his people: So no to Trident
Who'd have thunk it? The latest wheeze to help the British Prime Minister get closer to his people is to have online petitions on the Number 10 website. Anyone can create a petition and encourage people to sign, and with the people from the excellent theyworkforyou.com and writetothem.com behind it, it could actually be worthwhile.
Tempting as it would be to sign the one calling for a resignation, there is a key petition already set up calling on Blair to champion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by not replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system. An excellent suggestion and it's currently the second most popular petition on the site. Can it make pole position?November 1, 2006
Reflections on Green my Apple at MacExpo
After catching up on some sleep and digesting the reaction and comments online back in the office here's a look back on what I learned from our first venture in taking the Green my Apple message in to the real world and face to face with Mac fans.
On the Saturday we returned to outside the tube station and the road outside the Expo venue. Lots of people took leaflets and organic apples. Our Green Mac Guy cut out was a very popular talking point outside the venue. While chatting to one interested Mac user outside, the head of venue security, Bob Denton came out to berate me for daring to talk to a member of the public on a public pavement. He repeated untrue allegations and exaggerations about Greenpeace, which I now see reprinted in some media. He left having only succeeded in putting off one Mac fan from visiting the Expo.October 27, 2006
Green my Apple returns to Mac Expo
Despite being evicted yesterday from Mac Expo we returned today undeterred from our mission to spread the word for a Greener Apple and get Mac users involved to help change Apple for the better.
Not being allowed inside meant we handed out our information to visitors outside the venue tube station and on the pavement outside the venue. Several Mac fans showed their wholehearted support by giving our green version of the Mac Guy a hug. Several young Mac fans leaving the Expo took a t-shirt to spread the word for a Greener Apple at their next destination the Regents Street Apple store. I wonder if they will be allowed in?
October 26, 2006
Greenpeace Kicked out of London Mac Expo!
We love our Macs but Mac Expo doesn’t love Green my Apple
After a very small trial run yesterday at the Regent Street’s Apple store the Green my Apple team took the message to London’s big annual Mac shindig –Mac Expo.
We had our official stall explaining the campaign – our volunteers outside were handing out real organic green apples to spread the word outside and encourage people to stop by the stall and show their support for a better greener Apple.
October 25, 2006
Green my Apple hits London
Not content with the popular Green my Apple website we hit London today to take the Green my Apple message in to the real world at the Mac Expo in London, which starts tomorrow. Like the committed activists we obviously are we hit the streets early for a bit of a warm up the night before by heading over to Regent Street and the Mac Mecca of the London Apple store.
October 24, 2006
The return of the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community
We've soft-launched the new Greenpeace discussion forum! Greenpeace loyalists will remember the fun we had over the years at the old GCC, where we
- named the Greenpeace ship "Esperanza" in an online competition
- found a volunteer ("Polecat") to go to the Amazon to help indigenous people
- recruited more than 60 million USD in potential tourist income to Iceland if they'd stop whaling (that's now more than
90100 million and climbing!)- provided an activist resource for user-run campaigns from New Zealand to Italy to Finland
- held open forums with Greenpeace staff and campaigners
- cranked up the volume on countless Greenpeace actions with a fabulous network of multipliers
- and ran or created an entire suite of Greenpeace actions that originated with the community rather than in-house
The forum also provided, of course, a great sounding board for supporters to question Greenpeace about its policies and decisions, and for Greenpeace staff to sound out the community on new ideas and innovations.
October 10, 2006
Music Coming from the Nature! They can change the world!
By Xiao Wei, vocalist and guitarist from Chinese band 'Catcher in the Rye'
I was born in Beijing, a big noisy city without forests and faraway from the oceans. I have a Rn'R band named "the Catcher in the Rye". Now we are volunteers of GREENPEACE. This year I joined the "Save the paradise forests" action by GP in Papua New Guinea. It was really an unforgettable great experience for me in my life. Yes, it change my mind!
When I put on the t-shirts "Save the Paradise Forests" or "Forests Patrol" or "Defending our Oceans", I can feel the honor and the duty. When I tell the story about my green trip to PNG on TV or on the radio, I can feel the listeners are touched. Now I am writing a song in both Chinese and English about Greenpeace. I think the music can touch more people's hearts and awake them to cherish the nature and do something they can to save it. I think everyone can do something for the future. We chose recycled papers for the cover of our new album. I do believe in the power of music.
Every time I saw the beautiful lovely stickers of ocean Animals on my Gibson guitar box, I say to myself "Go on, you do it better!"
October 9, 2006
Greenpeace at the Mirno More
© Greenpeace/Ingrid FrankhauserJust been looking at photographs from the Mirno More peace fleet trip on the Greenpeace Austria website, with lots of happy faces on board a Greenpeace yacht in the Adriatic.
Mirno More means "peaceful ocean" in Croatian, and is organised every year by an Austrian social NGO, Started 15 years ago following the Yugoslavian war, to give refugee children from the war regions a possibility to hook up with their origins while spreading the peace message.
September 29, 2006
Free Hugs
I challenge you to watch this and not smile. Activism with a sense of humanity -- and humour. Sign me up.
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