Greenpeace Blog

Weekly green web: nautical nuggets

Posted by jamie — 28 March 2008 at 2:51pm - Comments

There's very much a nautical theme in this week's selection of cool green stuff:

Beware, Japan, of Whalezilla who threatens to devour your cities unless the few people who actually are eating whale meat cease and desist.
A series of stunning posters from Sharkproject reminds us that we are more of a danger to sharks than they are to us.
'Troubled' singer Amy Winehouse will be performing in a Rotterdam club powered by the movers and shakers on the dancefloor. (What do you mean, 'that's not nautical'? Rotterdam's a port, isn't it?)
It's not quite swimming with dolphins, but Dolphin Olympics 2 is the next best thing. Do a triple back flip and I'll be impressed.

Article tagged as: weekly green web

Rainbow Warrior blocks New Zealand coal shipment

Posted by jossc — 28 March 2008 at 12:15pm - Comments

The Rainbow Warrior blocks the State Owned Enterprise Solid Energy's coal ship the Hellenic Sea from leaving the Port of Lyttelton. The 225-metre bulker carries up to 60 thousand tonnes of export coal.

This week the Rainbow Warrior marked the start of a six week 'Target Climate Change' tour of New Zealand with an action against the Hellenic Sea, a 60,000 tonne bulk carrier owned by coal exporter Solid Energy. While it trades on NZ's clean green credentials the government is making millions of dollars from Solid Energy peddling coal on the world market - quite literally stoking the fires of climate change.

Heathrow's Terminal 5 gets flashmobbed

Posted by bex — 27 March 2008 at 12:03pm - Comments

Flashmob at Heathrow

Flashmob at Heathrow's Terminal 5 this morning

This morning saw the opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 to the public. Unfortunately for the aviation industry and government - who wanted this to be a chance to promote their case for airport expansion - a large section of that public is vehemently opposed to unsustainable aviation growth, and not afraid to show it.

So at exactly 11am this morning, hundreds of people stripped down to reveal identical "Stop Airport Expansion T-shirts", and to highlight the problems caused by airport expansion and unsustainable aviation growth. Pictures of the flashmob are coming in to our Moblog thick and fast. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see video footage of the event.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, flash mobs, heathrow, videos

Problems at the pump as new biofuel law draws closer

Posted by jamie — 24 March 2008 at 10:00am - Comments

A car speeding along a road

In a few weeks' time on Tuesday 15 April, every fuel company in the UK will be obliged to include a certain amount of biofuel in their petrol and diesel supplies. This is because, to comply with EU policies, the government has decreed we will all be using biofuels whether we want to or not but as you're probably aware, a lot of people have severe concerns about this.

Article tagged as: biofuels, climate change, deforestation, EU, forests, RTFO, ruth kelly, transport

Bulb revolution sweeps into Argentina

Posted by jamie — 19 March 2008 at 4:53pm - Comments

A bulb display outside the Agentinean Congress Another country is well on the way to making the switch as last week Argentina joined the rapidly growing list of nation states getting ready to use only energy efficient light bulbs.

If the Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gets her way, by the end of 2010 mandatory efficiency standards will be introduced which will effectively ban incandescent bulbs. Better yet, she said her decision came as a direct result of the campaign run by our office in Buenos Aires.

And earlier this year, Italy followed Ireland's example to become the second EU country to propose similar efficiency standards and is also expected to remove incandescents from sale in 2010. All these bulb bans are a small but vital step in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and introducing minimum energy efficiency standards on all electrical equipment has to be the ultimate goal.

Article tagged as: argentina, CFLs, climate change, energy, energy efficiency, light bulbs, successes

Amazon timber shipment blocked in France

Posted by jamie — 18 March 2008 at 7:12pm - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers boarding the Galina III

Yesterday afternoon, the crew of one of our ships - the Arctic Sunrise - swung into action in the French port of Caen. Their mission: to prevent a shipment of Amazon timber, acquired from companies linked to illegal logging activities, from entering the EU. And after nearly 24 hours, they're still going strong.

The timber is aboard the Galina III and, as it tried to enter the port, five Greenpeace volunteers (including a group from the UK) climbed aboard where they attached themselves to two of the ship's cranes. Since then, the Galina has been unable to dock to unload its cargo, a mixture of timber species with wonderfully exotic names: amarelao, macaranduba, ipe, garapeira, cumaru and jarana to name a few. And as I write, the team on the cranes is still holding out.

Article tagged as: amazon, brazil, EU, FLEGT, forests, illegal timber, south america

Kingsnorth: now RSPB are demanding action

Posted by jossc — 14 March 2008 at 6:39pm - Comments

The anti-coal storm gathering around the head of Business Secretary John Hutton, the government minister championing new coal-fired power stations, is growing daily. Latest to weigh-in on the side of reason are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). As you can see from the following quote, they are less than impressed with Hutton's stance;

If the UK government must use coal, the dirtiest fuel source there is, then it must also wait until CCS facilities are up and running. There is no rationale for using coal again until its climate damage can be contained.

Article tagged as: climate change, co2, coal, kingsnorth, RSPB

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