Greenpeace Blog

Scale back investment in wind, EDF and EON tell Miliband

Posted by jossc — 17 March 2009 at 3:54pm - Comments

offshore wind at work

Prepare to be unsurprised. Very unsurprised. Those lovable energy giants EDF and E.ON have put their collective boots into government plans to generate 35 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources.

According to their submissions to the latest energy consultation, the figure is not only unrealistic but also damaging to alternative schemes such as nuclear plants. So damaging that, um, they may be forced to drop their plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK unless the government scales back its targets for wind power.

Activists? It takes one to know one...

Posted by Rachael King — 17 March 2009 at 3:40pm - Comments

Next up in the spring blog relay is Rachael from our Active Supporter Unit - catch up on entries from other Greenpeace staff.

Rachael: Confrontational - me?

About 11 years ago I was lucky enough to be at an Orang-utan sanctuary in northern Sumatra, Indonesia when a huge, pregnant, semi-wild orang-utan swung down from the trees and stole my boyfriend's camera. How to explain this to the insurance company? Fortunately on deciding she couldn't eat it, she threw it down from the treetops where it landed in a patch of leaves with nothing more serious than a missing lens cap!

What, I hear you ask, does this have to do with Greenpeace? Well, this was one of many occasions in my life when something in the natural world filled me with a sense of awe and wonder and an urgent desire to protect it. And when I read in 2003 that the orang-utan sanctuary and village of Bukit Lawang had been virtually wiped out by flash floods caused by illegal logging, I could no longer sit on the sofa and just let it happen. I had to do something. This is why I got involved with Greenpeace: to do everything I can to stop the desolation of our planet and the extinction of all the species we share it with.

Success! Polish coal mine construction halted

Posted by jossc — 13 March 2009 at 11:10am - Comments

Greenpeace climbers make their point at Jozwin II B open cast mine site last December

Greenpeace climbers making their point at the Jozwin II B site last December

Great news just in from Poland, where work on the giant Jóźwin IIB open-cast pit and coal mine near Konin has been suspended. Following a legal challenge submitted last December by Greenpeace, a Polish court has ruled that there were problems with the environmental assessment process undertaken before work began on the site. Construction has now been halted while the process is reviewed.

This is a big victory - Jóźwin IIB was the site for our most recent Climate Rescue Station, set up last winter to remind delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in nearby Poznań that tackling climate change and building new coal-fired power stations are fundamentally incompatible aspirations. It will be particularly well-received by many of the peaceful activists who were attacked by mine workers at the end of last year during the protests.

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