Greenpeace Blog

Alongside the forest, up against the wall

Posted by jamie — 7 November 2008 at 4:47pm - Comments

holding out the banner in the Kampar peninsula © Greenpeace/Novis

Backs against the wall: holding out the banner in the Kampar peninsula © Greenpeace/Novis

I’ve scrubbed and showered but there are still traces of mud sticking to me. It’s my own fault - I guess I shouldn’t have gone tramping around the peatlands here in Riau. But the picture above, that’s us: some of the Esperanza’s crew and several Indonesian volunteers pulling our banner tight against the forest wall, the straight line that separates the thriving ecosystem from the barren areas which have been cleared of trees. In case you’re wondering, I’m at the top of the P in ‘STOP’.

Article tagged as: acacia, APP, climate change, forests, forests for climate, indonesia, kampar, peatlands, plantations

Nukewatch - exposing a deadly cargo

Posted by Louise Edge — 7 November 2008 at 3:48pm - Comments

Is there a nuclear truck in your neighbourhood?

If there's a nuclear truck in your neighbourhood - who you gonna call? Nukewatch! © fototruck.com

Few people know that convoys carrying nuclear warheads regularly travel along our roads, past our homes and schools. Containing plutonium and other deadly radioactive material, they are transported between submarine bases in Scotland and Berkshire's repair and maintenance facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield. An accident involving and explosion or fire could cause a partial nuclear blast and result in lethal radiation contaminating the surrounding area.

Article tagged as: awe aldermaston, disarmament, nuclear transports, nuclear weapons, nukewatch, peace

'Green' grocer caught red-handed with redlist fish

Posted by jossc — 7 November 2008 at 12:55pm - Comments

Loblaws: caught red-handed selling unsustainable 'red-list' fish

Greenpeace Canada exposed the country's largest grocery store chain's claims to be a 'green' grocer as false this week, after an investigation into how they source their seafood. Loblaws, whose stores account for nearly a third of all groceries sold in Canada, were found to be selling 14 of the 15 species on Greenpeace's 'Redlist' - made up of those species that are most destructively fished or farmed.

To get 'redlisted' a species must be in serious trouble, usually defined as facing a 90% reduction in numbers. Currently top of the Canadian list are Atlantic bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, sharks, skate, shrimp and orange roughy - all of which are sold by Loblaws.

Article tagged as: bluefin, canada, cod, destructive fishing, loblaws, sharks, shrimp, skate

Awards - on the web and in Parliament

Posted by bex — 7 November 2008 at 10:44am - Comments

Our very own Benet Northcote (right) joins the 'Coal vs Rebewables' debate at the 2008 Lib Dems Party Conference

Greenpeace at the Climate Clinic for a debate on coal vs renewables.

We've just found out we're up for another web award: The People's Choice Website of the Year Award. If you like what we do here in cyberspace, please tootle over and vote!

Strangely, we've won two other awards in the past few weeks. EfficienCity, our virtual town showcasing decentralised energy, has won the W3 Best in Show for animation. (The W3 or World Wide Web Consortium are the folks who decide the standards for the web. The criteria they judge include creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use, so all credit to our friends at BiroCreative who built EfficienCity.)

Article tagged as: about, awards, policy, politics, web awards

The Obama drama: welcome back, USA

Posted by bex — 6 November 2008 at 5:09pm - Comments

I've noticed a higher-than-expected amount of traffic going to our Obama press statement over the past couple of days, so it looks like people are interested in what we make of Obama's victory.

I think this image, on the homepage of the Greenpeace USA website, says it all:

Article tagged as: barack obama, climate change, politics, USA

Farewell to the Rainbow Warriors

Posted by bex — 5 November 2008 at 4:57pm - Comments

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates.

Sadly, all good things come to an end and, yesterday afternoon, the Rainbow Warrior hauled up her lines and left Canary Wharf, heading for mainland Europe to continue her campaign against coal.

As a thanks to the amazing crew - who've had maybe the busiest two weeks of their Greenpeace ship lives - we've put together a slideshow capturing the quieter moments inbetween the frenetic events, open days and direct actions. The photographs are all by Will Rose (onboard photographer and one of the Kingsnorth Six) and Kajsa Sjolander (Rainbow Warrior deckhand and garbologist, when she's not being a photo journalist).

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, coal ship tour, energy, multimedia, rainbow warrior, ship tours, slideshows

Keeping track of new coal - interactively

Posted by jossc — 5 November 2008 at 4:31pm - Comments

online map showing every mine and power station that make up the UK coal industry

The good folk at the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) recently made an inspired contribution to the anti-coal crusade that's springing up around the country - they've just launched an online map of all the places that the coal industry is planning to dig and build new opencast mines and new power stations. It's interactive, zoomable, and full of information about the sizes of the mines and power stations being planned. Worryingly, there are more than a few.

Article tagged as: climate change, co2 emissions, coal, energy, power

Slash and burn in the forests of Sumatra

Posted by jamie — 5 November 2008 at 4:09pm - Comments

kampar-peatland-intact-int.jpg

It's been a little while since I've updated here about the Esperanza's Forests for Climate tour of Indonesia, but continue it most certainly does. For our exploits crossing from one end of the country to the other and our stop in Jakarta, catch up on the Forests for Climate blog.

But we've arrived in Sungai Pakning, a small port on the coast of Riau in Sumatra, and the Esperanza is anchored in a wide, silty channel running between the mainland and two islands, Pulau Bengkalis and Pulau Padang. The soupy water flowing gently past the ship will be down to the Siak river, the mouth of which is just a few miles south.

Article tagged as: climate change, deforestation, esperanza, forests, indonesia, palm oil, riau, sumatra

Stop airport expansion - dates for your diary

Posted by jossc — 5 November 2008 at 1:33pm - Comments

Flashmob at Heathrow

Flashmob at Heathrow's Terminal 5.

Upcoming events for all those opposed to further airport expansion:

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, events, heathrow

Isabel's blog - two weeks in the Greenpeace office

Posted by bex — 5 November 2008 at 1:26pm - Comments

A glimpse of life in the Greenpeace office, courtesy of Isabel - who recently spent two weeks work experience helping us transform our presence on Bebo, Twitter, Flickr and other social networking sites, and generally helping us out.

Every year in my school, all the pupils of year 11 are fortunate enough to be released from the horrible grips of classwork, homework, coursework and exams to go and complete two weeks of work experience. As one myself, I didn’t fancy doing anything boring that would leave me with no useful experience, so I decided to do something a little different. Through a long chain of people I managed to land myself a placement here at Greenpeace in the web unit.

Article tagged as: about

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