Greenpeace Blog

Help us put whaling on trial in Japan

Posted by jossc — 20 November 2008 at 6:09pm - Comments

Whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru departs for the Southern Ocean

The whalers' factory ship Nisshin Maru leaving Innoshima on Monday

Japan's whaling fleet slunk out of port earlier this week under a cloud of financial crisis and scandal, with none of the elaborate parades and marching bands of previous years' departures. This time the Nisshin Maru left the port of Innoshima with no triumphant fanfare, after the cancellation of the usual traditional departure ceremony in its home port of Shimonoseki. Word has it that this time, only a small group of 30 or so saw the whalers off - along with a hardy bunch of activists who protested with banner saying "whaling on trial" and one highlighting the whaling operation’s multi-million dollar drain on Japan’s taxpayers.

The past few weeks have not been good ones for the whalers - first of all was the deflagging of the support ship Oriental Bluebird. Japanese newspapers reported that, for the first time since the nation began 'scientific' whaling in the 1980s, the self-appointed quota would be decreased. Then we heard of the announced closure of Yushin (Toyko's largest whale meat shop), and news that for the first time, the whaling ships wouldn't be 100 per cent crewed: many former crew members were reluctant to sail again, following the whale meat scandal uncovered by a Greenpeace undercover investigation.

Article tagged as: japan, oceans, Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, tokyo two, whaling

A fishy 'heads up' to France over tuna

Posted by jossc — 19 November 2008 at 4:11pm - Comments

Heads will roll: Tuna piled up outside the French Fisheries Ministry in protest against continued over fishing

OK so I'm a day or two off the pace with this story (courtesy of a long weekend - well even we need a day or two off once in a while), and didn't find out about Monday's tuna direct action in Paris until I showed up at the office again today. So what did I miss? Well, our French colleagues took the opportunity to protest against France's leading role in decimating Mediterranean bluefin tuna stocks by dumping five tonnes of tuna fish heads outside the door of the French Fisheries Ministry.

Timed to coincide with coincide with the opening of the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), in Marrakech, the action targetted France (as opposed to Italy or Spain, the two other worst offenders) in this instance because French Premier Nicholas Sarkozy currently holds the EU presidency. He has been using it to shape the EU position in favour of the short-term interests of his fishing industry above the need to save the Mediterranean bluefin tuna stock from collapse.

Article tagged as: bluefin, destructive fishing, icatt, marine reserves, oceans, tuna

Sjoerd Jongens 1950-2008

Posted by bex — 17 November 2008 at 6:02pm - Comments

If you've visited a Greenpeace website, or have received an email from a Greenpeace email address, you have a man called Sjoerd Jongens to thank for laying the foundations. He built the networks connecting Greenpeace offices and people, as well as helping Greenpeace to win campaigns in Antarctica and around the world.

Sjeord died in a bicycle accident on his way to work at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam last week. Brian pays tribute on Making Waves:

Sjoerd foresaw that a new thing called 'the internet' might be something we'd want to use in future, and he started a gopher, WAIS, and FTP server back in the late 80s. He registered the domain www.greenpeace.org and put our first website up in 1992, serving as the organisation's first webmaster...

He was possibly the grumpiest support person in the history of IT support. And yet he was beloved by everyone who caught a glimpse of the heart behind the gruffness. His managers, myself among them, quickly learned to keep him close to the computers, far from the staff. Mike Townsley once approached him to say he was having trouble with his laptop. "No, Mike. I suspect we'll find that your laptop is actually having trouble with you," was the unironic response.

But those who saw him at sea or in Antarctica saw a different Sjoerd...

Read Brian's tribute on Making Waves.

Article tagged as: obituary, sjeord jongens

Tinned tuna - a quick guide to fishing methods

Posted by jossc — 17 November 2008 at 11:51am - Comments

Purse seined tuna

Article tagged as: league table, oceans, sustainable seafood, tuna

Rainbow Warrior impounded; 90 arrested

Posted by bex — 17 November 2008 at 11:19am - Comments

Dutch police board Rainbow Warrior in Rotterdam

Two Greenpeace ships - one of them the Rainbow Warrior - have been impounded and their captains and 90 others arrested after three days of nonviolent direct actions in the Netherlands.

Shutting down construction at Eon's proposed new coal site, Netherlands
Some of the 100 volunteers occupying the construction site of a new E.on coal plant in Rotterdam.

I'll start at the beginning. On Friday evening, nearly 100 Greenpeace volunteers pitched tents next to the construction site of a new E.on coal plant in Rotterdam (one of eight E.on plans to build in Europe), to bear witness to the unfolding climate disaster.

At first light on Saturday, they moved onto the site and occupied it, stopping construction for 10 hours before all being arrested.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, direct actions, eon, netherlands, rainbow warrior

Launching Greenpeace Africa

Posted by bex — 14 November 2008 at 6:28pm - Comments

"While the environmental threats facing Africans are urgent and critical, Africa is in a position to leapfrog dirty development and become a leader in helping to avert catastrophic climate change and protect the natural environment. We are here to help make that happen."

Amadou Kanoute, Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa.

Greenpeace Africa is here! Marking a whole new era for Greenpeace, we opened our first African office yesterday, in Johannesburg. In the coming weeks, we'll be opening two more - one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in Senegal.

Article tagged as: about, africa, climate change, congo, forests, oceans, senegal, south africa

Breaking news: High Court challenge to Stansted expansion plans

Posted by bex — 14 November 2008 at 5:02pm - Comments

After the increasing evidence of a damaging Labour rebellion on Heathrow expansion, and yesterday's "tap on the little finger" for Plane Stupid's parliament protesters, today there's news of a new challenge to the government's airport expansion plans - this time through the High Court.

Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has lodged an appeal challenging the government's decision to allow an extra 10 million passengers a year on Stansted's existing runway.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, legal, stansted, stansted expansion, stop stansted expansion

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