Blog: Climate

Help ban the bulb in Ireland

Posted by jamie — 21 November 2007 at 4:42pm - Comments

A compact fluorescent light bulb

Out of all the members of the EU, which do you think uses most energy on lighting? Could it be Germany, the big economic powerhouse? Or the Nordic countries, with their extended winter darkness? Or even this country, the "dirty old man of Europe"? No, it's Ireland, which is why we want to see the Irish government introduce a law setting tough energy efficiency standards on household lighting.

We're asking for your help - sign the petition below and tell John Gormley, the environment minister, to ban the bulb (and you don't have to live in Ireland to sign).

Send a climate message in a bottle

Posted by jamie — 21 November 2007 at 2:54pm - Comments

As the international climate meeting in Bali hurtles towards us, you're probably concerned that it may turn into another one of those diplomatic exercises in generating a lot of hot air and the only benefactors will be the hordes of translators making a nice earning. But you can make sure that fingers are pulled out and tough action is taken by contributing to the Climate Message In A Bottle video.

Article tagged as: bali, climate change, take action, videos, what you can do

Has Brown painted himself green? The jury's still out

Posted by jamie — 19 November 2007 at 6:06pm - Comments

The speech Gordon Brown made to the Foreign Press Association earlier today was billed as his first major proclamation on climate change and the environment since ascending to Number 10, but did it deliver? There was much reaffirming of previous statements and existing policies, but aside from a couple of big points there was nothing really new.

Article tagged as: climate change, emissions, energy, gordon brown, nuclear power, renewable energy

"Biofuels can be good," says UN; scientists not so sure

Posted by jamie — 16 November 2007 at 6:22pm - Comments

The head of the UN Environment Programme has warned that the biofuel market could crash if suitable environmental standards aren't established. According to the BBC, "Achim Steiner... said there was an urgent need for standards to make sure rainforests weren't being destroyed." The story also picked out Indonesia's tropical peatlands for special mention of what it terms "biofuel folly". (Nice phrase, I'll have to remember that one!)

Mind you, Steiner was making those comments in response to an independent group of scientists who criticsied the stance taken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on biofuels, which was described as "naive".

Article tagged as: biofuels, climate change, deforestation, forests, indonesia, IPCC

Rainbow Warrior in palm oil blockade

Posted by jamie — 15 November 2007 at 6:08pm - Comments

The Rainbow Warrior blockading the MT Westama which is carrying 30,000 tonnes of palm oil

View from the Rainbow Warrior of the MT Westama, laiden with 30,000 tonnes of palm oil © Greenpeace/Christian Aslund

Events in Indonesia have stepped up apace, and the Rainbow Warrior is currently blockading a tanker in the port of Dumai in Sumatra. The tanker, the MT Westama, is carrying 30,000 tonnes of palm oil and the Warrior is positioned so that tugs can't reach the tanker to assist it out of the port.

Exporting the palm oil is a company called Permata Hijau Sawit - their suppliers are known to be involved in the destruction of rainforests and peatlands in Riau province, temporary home of our Forest Defenders Camp.

I'll post back when I know how it turns out, but in the meantime read the full story on our international site.

Update: After two days, the blockade finally came to an end on Saturday.

Article tagged as: climate change, deforestation, direct actions, forests, indonesia, palm oil, rainbow warrior

Video: saying 'yes' to St Pancras

Posted by bex — 14 November 2007 at 1:23pm - Comments

This morning, we celebrated the opening of the international terminal at St Pancras - and reminded Gordon Brown that there's no need for that third runway at Heathrow.

Here's the video:

 

 

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, direct actions, heathrow, heathrow voices, rail, transport

Greenpeace says 'yes' to something shocker as the St Pancras international terminal opens

Posted by jossc — 14 November 2007 at 9:09am - Comments

A Greenpeace banner says 'yes!' to the new international terminal at St Pancras station

Who'd have thought it? © Greenpeace/Will Rose

Update (12:40): Watch the video

Seizing the rare opportunity to welcome some good news, Greenpeace climbers scaled the front of St Pancras station this morning and hung a huge banner proclaiming 'YES' in 3-metre-high letters to show support for the new high-speed rail link to Europe, which finally got under way today with a jaunt to Paris and back for selected journalists and politicians - including PM Gordon Brown.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, heathrow, rail transport, transport

Images from a vanishing forest

Posted by jamie — 13 November 2007 at 3:01pm - Comments

Lately, I've been working a lot on our palm oil campaign, so my spider senses are highly atuned to anything coming out of Sumatra and Indonesia in general. But two stories I found this morning, both on New Scientist, really underlined what's going on west of Java.

The first article features some astonishing images from the Zoological Society of London, caught by a motion-sensitive camera left in the middle of the forest. The impressive snaps include a herd of elephants and a golden cat, but the stand-out picture is of an inquisitive and rare Sumatran tiger, it's eyes glowing in the camera's flash. Take a look at the slideshow - they're incredble.

Article tagged as: climate change, conservation, deforestation, destructive logging, indonesia, palm oil

Greenpeace drops in on the World Energy Congress

Posted by bex — 12 November 2007 at 7:16pm - Comments

Quit nuclear madness - the World Energy Congress

Yesterday, the World Energy Congress opened in Rome. Among the attendees was Italy's prime minister, and one of the main sponsors was ENEL, Italy's biggest energy company whose main shareholder is the government.

The World Energy Congress has a plan that lets global warming emissions keep increasing until 2030, and proposes an expansion of nuclear power. ENEL for its part plans to get around the inconvenient fact that nuclear power was voted out of Italy in a referendum 20 years ago by building a new reactor in nearby Slovakia instead of in Italy.

Article tagged as: climate change, direct actions, nuclear power
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