Greenpeace Blog

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On Monday, six brave Greenpeace souls will be appearing at Maidstone Crown Court for the start of a trial centring around Kingsnorth, coal and climate change.

In October last year, they took a personal stand to protect the environment and climbed to the top of the smokestack at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent.

Now, the Kingsnorth Six (Ben Stewart, Emily Hall, Huw Williams, Kevin Drake, Tim Hewke and Will Rose) are being prosecuted for criminal damage.

Carrotmob is taking an interesting approach to harnessing consumer power (via Making Waves):

I haven't seen Wall-E yet (Joss tells me it's very good) but it sounds like a cross between Happy Feet and Silent Running - cute creatures and incredible animation bundled up with an environmental message. Now while the intentions of the film makers may have been to push the notion of a cleaner, greener world, the companies sitting between us and them seem to have other ideas and Wall-E is being used to sell all manner of less-than-green products.

In the US, one of these is Kleenex which currently has the little robot appearing on its boxes. As Kimberly-Clark, the company that makes Kleenex, is clearcutting forests to make it, Greenpeace USA thought this was a little odd. In fact, they thought it was the height of iron-e. So, with the help of political cartoonist Mark Fiore, they produced this spoof video.

Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.

The dispossessed

In 1969, Marie Aimee took her two children for medical treatment, a six-day voyage across the Indian Ocean from their home on Diego Garcia island to Port Louis, Mauritius. Her husband, Dervillie Permal, stayed behind to work at a coconut oil factory and tend the family garden and animals.

After visiting the doctor and picking up supplies in Port Louis, Marie and her children arrived at the quay for the trip home. However, a British Government agent refused to allow them onto the boat, stranding Marie and her children in Mauritius. Throughout the following weeks, other marooned islanders appeared, congregating in a local slum, living in boxes or tin shacks. Two years later, Marie's husband arrived in Port Louis with one small bag and a chilling story.