July 2008

Updates on the scandal involving the corrupt and powerful Japanese whaling industry (which is funded with taxpayers' money). Plus ways in which you can support our two activists, Junichi and Toru, who are still awaiting trial for intercepting a box of stolen whale meat, and delivering it to the police.

Full story on Greenpeace International website »

See all Climate Camp updates.

This summer's Camp for Climate Action takes place next week at Kingsnorth in Kent, where German utility company E.On aims to build the UK's first coal-fired power station for decades. If the government gives the go-ahead, which could happen in October, the CO2 emissions from this one new plant would equal that of the 30 lowest emitting countries in the world combined.

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil-fuels, and if Kingsnorth is built then plans for six similar plants are likely to be approved, emitting a colossal 50 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. So this decision is crucial, which is why activists from all over the country and around the world will be coming to make their voices heard.

For three weeks, Brighton-based writer Justin McKeating has been quietly working on a new Greenpeace blog, Nuclear Reaction. Now it's ready to open its doors to the world.

The purporse of the blog, in Justin's own words, is to record and comment on "the various incompetencies, radioactive leaks, cover-ups, accidents, spin, radioactive leaks, empty promises, contamination, massive cost overruns, radioactive leaks, substandard reactor construction, and radioactive leaks that dribble and gush from the nuclear energy industry."

So it's been pretty busy. Come on in.

While our own drive to drastically improve car efficiency changes gears, there are of course plenty of other people trying to get the message across. One such group, Mundo Cars, isn't the new line of Slovakian automobiles it might appear to be, but a collaborative effort by several organisations working on transport issues.

Well, what do you know? Another news story has broken which demonstrates that the UK's nuclear industry is not the robust, well-managed machine our ministers would have us believe. The government has sneaked out a report assessing the working practices of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is managing the clean-up of existing power stations and waste. They were clearly hoping no one would notice as there's no doubt that many people have been caught with their pants anklewards.