June 2010

Bio Diversity Incorporated from carleton creek on Vimeo.

Carlton Creek, who submitted a video to our HSBC advert challenge, has also produced this great little film which takes the ongoing discussions about attaching monetary worth to the natural services provided by our planet and turning them on their head. It's a neat little thought experiment into what the sales pitch for a company representing all life on Earth (or 'shareholders') would be like.

Elsewhere, artist and architect Maya Lin (previous work: Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC) is working on a collaborative, multi-media and multi-space project called What Is Missing? The current website highlights species which have been lost or are severely threatened, and if nothing else hovering your mouse over the map markers and hearing a soundscape of endangered creatures is haunting.

Once again this year we teamed up with Mi7 Records to put on live music in the Greenpeace field. Following last year's success with the Departure Lounge, where we put on acts including Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons, this time around we decided to step up our game.

Gaze, simple folk of the Earth, upon true regal grace. And look, that's Prince Charles as well! Ho-ho.

For those of you who aren't as familiar with the inner world of Greenpeace as, er, me, that bloke on the left is our executive director, John. That chap in the middle is our future king, probably, and the two fellas on his right are minders - probably fighting quite hard to stop themselves rugby tackling everyone to the ground and bundling HRH into a waiting Chinook.

Karli Thomas, Greenpeace oceans campaigner, writes from the IWC meeting in Morocco.

The town of Sidi R'bat on Morocco's Atlantic coast is where the biblical Jonah is said to have been vomited up by a whale. Less than 100km from that spot, something has been going on this week that is again enough to make a whale sick to the stomach.

The International Whaling Commission has been meeting this year beneath a dark cloud of scandal. As delegates descended on the city of Agadir, media headlines exposed Japan 'buying' countries to vote with them - including the accusation that airfares and accommodation for this meeting's acting chairman were paid by Japan. Hardly an auspicious start to a crucial international meeting, nor a good omen for the whales.

Volunteers are hard at work preparing the Greenpeace field for the 40th Glastonbury festival, now just two days away. Forest campaigner Ian explains why rainforest destruction is the central theme this year, and gives a personal demonstration of our very popular solar/biomass on-site showers...

You'll find a full listing of all the goodies available to festival goers in the Greenpeace field this time around on the official festival site.

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