November 2008

With the decision on Heathrow’s third runway expected this year (honest), the atmosphere in Westminster is heating up.

Both opposition parties have come out strongly against the third runway; rebel Labour backbenchers are increasingly joining the opposition; there are signs that the cabinet is split over the decision; and the new transport secretary Geoff Hoon has called for a parliamentary debate on Heathrow expansion next Tuesday.

All of which means there are now two new opportunities for us (by which I mean you…) to intervene and make the opposition felt in the corridors of power.

Backs against the wall: holding out the banner in the Kampar peninsula © Greenpeace/Novis

I’ve scrubbed and showered but there are still traces of mud sticking to me. It’s my own fault - I guess I shouldn’t have gone tramping around the peatlands here in Riau. But the picture above, that’s us: some of the Esperanza’s crew and several Indonesian volunteers pulling our banner tight against the forest wall, the straight line that separates the thriving ecosystem from the barren areas which have been cleared of trees. In case you’re wondering, I’m at the top of the P in ‘STOP’.

If there's a nuclear truck in your neighbourhood - who you gonna call? Nukewatch! © fototruck.com

Few people know that convoys carrying nuclear warheads regularly travel along our roads, past our homes and schools. Containing plutonium and other deadly radioactive material, they are transported between submarine bases in Scotland and Berkshire's repair and maintenance facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield. An accident involving and explosion or fire could cause a partial nuclear blast and result in lethal radiation contaminating the surrounding area.

Greenpeace Canada exposed the country's largest grocery store chain's claims to be a 'green' grocer as false this week, after an investigation into how they source their seafood. Loblaws, whose stores account for nearly a third of all groceries sold in Canada, were found to be selling 14 of the 15 species on Greenpeace's 'Redlist' - made up of those species that are most destructively fished or farmed.

To get 'redlisted' a species must be in serious trouble, usually defined as facing a 90% reduction in numbers. Currently top of the Canadian list are Atlantic bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, sharks, skate, shrimp and orange roughy - all of which are sold by Loblaws.

Greenpeace at the Climate Clinic for a debate on coal vs renewables.

We've just found out we're up for another web award: The People's Choice Website of the Year Award. If you like what we do here in cyberspace, please tootle over and vote!

Strangely, we've won two other awards in the past few weeks. EfficienCity, our virtual town showcasing decentralised energy, has won the W3 Best in Show for animation. (The W3 or World Wide Web Consortium are the folks who decide the standards for the web. The criteria they judge include creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use, so all credit to our friends at BiroCreative who built EfficienCity.)

I've noticed a higher-than-expected amount of traffic going to our Obama press statement over the past couple of days, so it looks like people are interested in what we make of Obama's victory.

I think this image, on the homepage of the Greenpeace USA website, says it all:

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates.

Sadly, all good things come to an end and, yesterday afternoon, the Rainbow Warrior hauled up her lines and left Canary Wharf, heading for mainland Europe to continue her campaign against coal.

As a thanks to the amazing crew - who've had maybe the busiest two weeks of their Greenpeace ship lives - we've put together a slideshow capturing the quieter moments inbetween the frenetic events, open days and direct actions. The photographs are all by Will Rose (onboard photographer and one of the Kingsnorth Six) and Kajsa Sjolander (Rainbow Warrior deckhand and garbologist, when she's not being a photo journalist).

The good folk at the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) recently made an inspired contribution to the anti-coal crusade that's springing up around the country - they've just launched an online map of all the places that the coal industry is planning to dig and build new opencast mines and new power stations. It's interactive, zoomable, and full of information about the sizes of the mines and power stations being planned. Worryingly, there are more than a few.