A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that only 57 percent of Americans believe there is strong scientific evidence for global warming, down from 77 percent in 2006.

It would appear that climate skeptics did a great job in confusing the public about the real issues at stake.

How realistic is this video? Well, people do bring their kids to protests. (And why not? It can be a nice day out for a bit of a walk. Get away from the game console and learn a bit about free speech.) Reminds me of the kids in this climate camp video.

What if we all started bringing kids to climate protests? After all, they're going to have to live with our decisions.

Mike is a Web Editor for GP USA and was onboard the Esperanza serving as a webbie for the Defending Our Oceans campaign. On his blog he writes, "the tour was a really amazing experience for me and seeing as I’m still trying to process all of it, I thought I’d share just a few more videos about life onboard a Greenpeace ship."

One of our Greenpeace elders, Bob Hunter, once said that the thing about demanding big change is that it looks impossible when you start, and inevitable after you've finished.

Stop the use and transport of Chlorine? What are you CRAZY? Our campaign to stop chlorine transports in the US met with industry resistance, lobbyist counter-attacks, smear campaigns and cries of anti-american anti-capitalist luddite fear-mongering.

This despite the fact that both the General Accounting Office had agreed with our concerns that an accident or attack on one of these transports would be a massive safety risk. The GAO warned the Bush administration that "123 chemical facilities located throughout the nation have toxic 'worst-case' scenarios where more than a million people in the surrounding area could be at risk of exposure to a cloud of toxic gas if a release occurred."

Under Bush, the EPA had responded to those concerns by announcing an investigation into Chlorine transport safety post 9/11, but then a funny think happened on the way to the capitol.

According to The Progressive,

"We heard from industry," says a former EPA official who declines to be named. The chemical lobby insisted that the agency did not have authority to go after companies that did not adequately safeguard their plants, the official says.

Among the lobby groups who vehemently opposed the EPA having regulatory power over the chlorine inudstry? The American Petroleum Institute, of course.

Regular readers will know Greenpeace in Japan has not had an easy ride, especially lately with the Tokyo Two case. We decided to launch the Guide in Japanese for two simple reasons:

The Guide includes Japanese companies such as Toshiba, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, Fujitsu and Nintendo. These companies have large markets in Japan that our English version of the Guide doesn’t reach normally.

Greenpeace is often incorrectly portrayed in Japan as being only about whaling and being anti Japanese. Greenpeace’s work in other areas is not known and the fact that Greenpeace has helped drive progressive environmental change from some of the biggest companies in Japan (OK not so much from Nintendo!) is a fact that could help change important perceptions of Greenpeace in Japan.

Zeina journeyed from Amsterdam to Tokyo to be our international spokesperson, the office put in sterling work to translate 37 pages of dense company information into, apparently, 137 pages of Japanese text – obviously complex terms like precautionary principle and Individual producer responsibility must be really long in Japanese.

Zeina phoned today to report that the launch press conference went really well with lots of important Japanese media there and asking detailed questions about how we rated Japanese companies environmental performance. We’ll have to wait and see what’s written in the media but as one journalist from the Asahi Shimbun (second biggest daily paper in Japan) told Zeina:

“You’ve change my whole perception of Greenpeace”

Now if we get media stories even half as positive as this quote it will be mission accomplished.

Oh for shame, lobbyists. An investigation has found that a lobbying firm forged letters from the NAACP and a Hispanic community organization in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that the organizations opposed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The forged letters went to Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA 5th) and as expected, the community groups are incensed (as are the rest of us).

Neither of the groups oppose the bill.

UPDATE: Groups Impersonated by Big Coal Testify Before Congress

The Genetic Engeneering Approval Committee (GEAC) in India should probably have thought about this a bit before approving Bt Brinjal last week – a type of eggplant that produces a pesticide (Bacillus thuringiensis) that is normally sprayed on fields. To say the least, the approval process was botched up:

- The data regarding the effects on human health - received directly from Monsanto’s Indian branch - was insufficiently tested. Three scientists in the GEAC voted against the approval for Bt Brinjal precisely for this reason.

- The only other study on Bt Brinjal (the only one not produced by the company trying to get approval) showed concerns for potential negative effects on human health.

- Civil society and farmers have been increasingly vocal against the lack of transparency of the entire process and pointing out the risks.

British cartoonist Steven Appleby tried to find a way we could cook it at how we could cook it:

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.

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.

“Picture this: nature is like a piano, the music that nature plays with all its piano keys is the biodiversity, imagine now that GMOs [genetically manipulated organisms] coming into the picture, that piano has now only one key, the Monsanto key!”

With this beautiful metaphor Eduardo Campayo a spanish organic farmer from Spain began to describe his personal experience with GE (genetically engineered) crops - to EU Commissioner of Health Vassiliou, Belgian Minister Lutgen, MEPs and EU journalists.

Eduardo was not alone meeting all these people in Brussels earlier this month. He was joined by Fernando Jose Llobel, the president of the Organic Consumer Association from the same region in Spain (Albacete), Peter Nielsson an organic potato and dairy farmer from Sweden and Samnieng Huadlim a very dynamic 65 year old woman and organic rice farmer from Thailand.

All of them joined us in Brussels to deliver the Greenpeace petition signed by 180,000 people - against the introduction of Bayer’s GE rice into the EU.

I wish everyone who had signed the rice petition could have been there - to meet these amazing organic farmers and hear them speaking their truth from the heart. You would not have any doubt that all of them have made a conscious choice to produce healthy food, work with nature, help their communities. And their message was so clear -- GE crops are putting all this at risk.

Here's a post from Jules, who is working in our Japan office:

At the end of September, Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama received a parcel filled with 1000 Origami cranes, better known as Origami Tsuru.

The cranes started their journey approximately 10,000 km from Tokyo, in the picturesque town of Waging am See near Munich, Germany. Here “Greenteam Löwenzahn” (Greenteam Dandelion) member Evangeline (14) read about the trial of the “Tokyo Two”, and how our activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are on trial for trying to save whales by exposing the corrupt Japanese whaling programme for what it is. Evangeline knew immediately that she and her friends needed to take action, to protect whales and ensure Junichi and Toru receive a fair trial in a country where being charged for an alleged crime will see you convicted of it 99% of the time.

In the past, “Greenteam Löwenzahn” has actively worked to protect whales by setting up information boards in their schools, collecting signatures against whaling in the streets of their hometowns, and organising events where children in Germany can give their vote (in form of a self-painted whale picture) for the life of the Whales.

However, this time the pupils felt that they needed to drive the message home to Japan. Some of the members of “Greenteam Löwenzahn” have lived in Japan before, and know about the Japanese custom of making making a wish to the Gods in exchange for folding 1000 paper cranes. A custom that is particularly poignant when pleading for the life of a loved one.