Categories
Archives
Activism
May 8, 2008Short 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.
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."
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!".
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.
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.
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.
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...
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:
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=58116
Yes, bloggers have real power. If you don't have blog, now's a good time to start one. If you have a blog, register it and help promote Blog Action Day. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll post more tips and ideas for blogging the environment.
See you in the blogosphere, Oct 15.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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 Clearing
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; Page D01
It 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.
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
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...
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!"
Greenpeace at the Mirno More
© Greenpeace/Ingrid Frankhauser
Just 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.
Free Hugs
I challenge you to watch this and not smile. Activism with a sense of humanity -- and humour. Sign me up.
Search
Burn our feed!
Get Making Waves via email
Bookmark Us!
Latest Comments
leonard on Fish laundering in the Pacific
Ana Qio on Fish laundering in the Pacific
Adrian on Short video briefing from the Esperanza
joaquin on Short video briefing from the Esperanza
jess miller on Fish laundering in the Pacific
Lisa on Short video briefing from the Esperanza
Raj on Pacific Activist
Leah on Pacific Activist
nicole on Short video briefing from the Esperanza
Blogroll
Technorati & Stuff
 |  |
