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On Friday The Guardian published an article by John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, on the Deepwater Disaster and spelling out how BP has managed to pursue with their dirty work by pouring millions into Washington, mainly through third-party lobby groups such as the American Petroleum Institute.

Mark Floegel of Greenpeace Louisiana was interviewed by Le Parisien appreciating that about 400 living species, as well as migrating birds will be affected by the oil spill. François Chartier, Greenpeace France oceans campaigner, fears that companies search for oil even takes them as far as wanting to drill in the Arctic Ocean.

Rivers of oil spreading over the ocean after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform Explosion

Five times more oil a day than previously believed is spreading into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown-out well of a sunken drilling rig, according to AP. A drilling rig leased by the oil company BP exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast last week in roughly 5,000ft of water after burning for two days. Now a new leak has been discovered in the pipes a mile below the ocean's surface. According to the article, BP is disputing these new alarming figures. "The US Coast Guard and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) experts now estimate that 5,000 barrels a day of oil are spilling into the gulf - rather than the 1,000 previously estimated.". The news was discovered after test control 'burns" were undertaken to "burn off" the oil. No more fires were lit overnight, and President Obama has said the US Department of Defense will be available to help manage the spill.

The Waikato Times (New Zealand) reports that the 'burning tactic' came after "crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil on the sea bottom 1.5km below." According to BP today a relief well will be drilled to relieve pressure from the blowout site, but this would take months to prove effective. A dome-like device is also been considered to cover oil rising to the surface by pumping it to container vessels, but again BP confirmed that this would take time.

Reuters have quoted GP in a 'factbox" about the potential environmental impacts of the spill, which includes a big threat for the Atlantic population of bluefin tuna, as their eggs float near the surface around this time of year. "We expect a spill like this could dramatically decrease the amount of bluefin tuna larvae that are surviving," said John Hocevar, the Oceans Campaign director for Greenpeace USA. Other animals which are in danger include species of bird and sea turtles.

Read more about the oil spill in our campaign blog from Greenpeace USA which includes a slideshow of the explosion.

President Obama has recently called for more offshore drilling as part of the US energy future but this growing disaster could have repercussions in the energy debate in the US.

Photo Credit: © Sean Gardner / Greenpeace

In Stockholm Greenpeace activists have occupied the offices of state-owned energy company Vattenfall, blocking employees from entering, ahead of the annual general meeting (AGM). Drums painted with radioactive symbols block the doors, and there is a banner on the roof, calling for 100 percent renewable energy and condemning investments in coal and nuclear. The company's press officer said "[w]e agree with Greenpeace's concerns about climate change. We are today one of the players in Europe that invest the most in renewable energy. And we are pressing on, but it will take time." However, Louis Tillman of Greenpeace Sweden replied "[a]s Europe's fifth-largest electricity company, Vattenfall would be Sweden's most powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Maud Olofsson [the Minister for Trade] has had over three years to begin the necessary transformation. But instead of investing in energy technology, we risk now new nuclear reactors in Sweden and many more coal plants abroad." Thirty activists from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland and Sweden are involved in the action, and so far they have not been removed.

We arrived in Spain, the 'heart of GE in Europe' in the blaze of a Spanish sunset. It was nearing the end of the road for us, only 2 stops in Spain after two and a half weeks on the road. We were all tired but excited to have taken the bus so far and into a country where GE is so predominant. Spain produces 80% of all GMO in Europe and is home to 76,000 hectares of land used for the cultivation of GE crops. Our visit to the Spanish farm was scheduled for the following morning so we checked into our hotel to catch up on some sleep.
12/04/2010 Greenpeace Staff in Spain

Thailand's first ecological rice farming camp for kids has been launched by Greenpeace in an organic rice farm in Ratchaburi as part of a project to demonstrate sustainable agriculture solutions and to educate and inspire the youth to value healthy food, land and community through experiences in ecological farming.
07/03/2009 A child gets ready to plant a rice seedling in a bid to create the first ever art on a rice field in Thailand. The 10-rai rice field in Ratchaburi province will grow into a beautiful art in the next 4 months to show an image of farmers wearing straw hats and using sickle to harvest rice.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced his government will postpone its carbon pollution reduction scheme (known as the CPRS) until the end of 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol is due to expire. Rudd backed away from his biggest election promise, citing parliamentary opposition to the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and "slow global progress" on tackling climate change. The decision, he said, would “provide the Australian government [in 2012] with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change" - although it is not clear how the level of action taken by other governments will in any way improve Australia's "position" with regard to climate change, which Rudd referred to earlier as the “great moral and economic challenge of our time.”

Australia is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the world, and has some of the highest per capita carbon emissions of developed nations. As the world's leading coal exporter, Australia also gets 85 percent of its electricity generation from coal, accounting for 42 percent of the country's CO2 emissions (not including that which is exported).

Being the on-board photographer for the GE Free Future bus has been a fantastic, inspiring and totally unpredictable experience so far. I was particularly interested in this project as I've been concerned with food related topics for some time, following and sometimes documenting, food mapping guerilla gardening and planting activities of transition town movements and eco communities in London where I live. People are thinking about the future of food supplies and demand for local organic produce is increasing.

The BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) met in South Africa on Sunday to discuss how to speed up a process of finalising a global agreement that would require rich nations to cut carbon emissions and reduce global warming by 2010. Greenpeace Africa political advisor Themba Linden said in a statement: "Greenpeace urges the governments gathered in Cape Town to take the opportunity to make a clear and unanimous call for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to avert catastrophic climate change." The story appeared in France 24, after being picked up by the news wire AFP.

Greenpeace volunteers were present displaying banners reading “climate change needs BASIC
leadership” on a boat directly opposite the 12 Apostles Hotel in Camps Bay where the conference took place.

Greenpeace is highlighting the urgent need for the BASIC group of countries, four of the most influential emerging economies in the world, to take climate leadership in the run up to the next UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year.

Paloma and Hernan talk about what the World People's Conference achieved and the closing ceremony in their final blog from Bolivia

It has been a fascinating experience here at the World People’s Conference, which closed on Thursday, World Earth Day.

In the end the numbers were even bigger than we first thought, over 35,000 people from 140 countries came together to exchange views and search for common goals to tackle the climate crisis. Outside of the official panels and working groups, there were some very interesting meetings as well.

Today, on the front lawn of New Zealand's Parliament, about 100 Greenpeace anti-whaling protesters held black whale-tail placards with "RIP?" written across them in white letters. Greenpeace New Zealand executive director Bunny McDiarmid condemned the International Whaling Commission (IWC) plan.

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said that the IWC proposal, which would allow hunting to continue in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, falls seriously short of providing a strong basis for a diplomatic solution. Many whale species are in danger of extinction as a result from commercial whaling.

In northern Europe, TT-Reuters also reports in the Swedish Dagens Nyheter that the main issue is that the IWC regulations have loopholes, these have allowed Japan to continue practice of commercial whaling while claiming that it is being done for scientific purposes. The meat though, is sold on the commercial market and the industry is supported by Japanese taxpayers money.

AP cites a statement by Greenpeace Japan Program Director Junichi Sato, saying "At the moment, it appears that the whales are making all the concessions, not the whalers and this proposal keeps dying whaling industries alive and not the whales."

AFP cites Greenpeace oceans campaigner Phil Kline: "It's a bit like a bank robber who keeps robbing the bank. You can't actually catch him, so you decide to just give him a big pile of money."

Join us in the attempt of trying to restore whaling populations by demanding marine reserves.

Happy Earth Day, everyone.

Around 40 years ago, environmentalists across the US came together in a teach-in to demonstrate just how big a force the environmental grassroots movement was in the first ever Earth Day (as the Chicago Tribune, the Seattle Times and the Boston Globe recall).

Today, this fragile Earth needs more people like you who care about environmental issues, more people who will use their voices to defend it - and more people who will take action to protect it.

Watch our new inspiring Earth Day video and get involved!

As Kumi Naidoo, our executive director, said today: "A green and peaceful future is possible - please join us in making it happen. The Earth needs our attention not just on Earth Day, but every day."