Greenpeace Blog

Aviation industry takes five million people to court

Posted by bex — 26 July 2007 at 6:15pm - Comments

Planes on the runway

Update - 1st August: The hearing is underway.

Here's a doozy for you: on Wednesday, the aviation industry is taking five million people - including a lot of their own staff - to court. If you're a member or supporter of a group that's concerned about climate change, the chances are you're a defendant too.

The industry seems to want to ban five million of us from Heathrow and all routes to the airport, including the Piccadilly line, parts of the rail network, and sections of the M25 and M4.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, BAA, climate camp, climate change, heathrow, injunctions, legal, the queen

ASDA and Morrisons make a move on light bulbs

Posted by jamie — 26 July 2007 at 5:30pm - Comments

We're beginning to see the first positive results from the light bulb retailers league table we published nearly two weeks ago. Both ASDA and Morrisons have just announced they will improve their game plan and phase out those power-crazy incandescents by the end of 2010, which moves them a couple of places up the league table, leapfrogging several other retailers.

Article tagged as: ASDA, climate change, energy efficiency, league table, light bulbs, morrisons, retailers, successes, supermarkets, woolworths

Five top tips for green summer living

Posted by jossc — 26 July 2007 at 2:22pm - Comments

Tips for green living

Although it doesn't feel much like it we're well into summertime now, our colleagues at Greenpeace Canada have put together a list of top tips to help you 'keep it green' whatever you're doing this summer. Among other things, they've got green ideas for organic gardening, keeping party food local and sustainable, and minimising your CO2 emissions should you decide to travel.

Article tagged as: book campaign, co2, FSC, gardening, impacts, sustainable agriculture

A little light relief from India

Posted by jamie — 25 July 2007 at 5:20pm - Comments

I've been meaning to write about these videos for some time but somehow it never seemed the right moment (and all our Woolworths work kept getting in the way), so apologies if you've already seen them elsewhere. Yet in the lull after the hard launch of our light bulbs campaign, it's worth pointing out that it's not just in the UK that a shift to energy-efficient bulbs is being sought.

Article tagged as: climate change, energy efficiency, india, light bulbs, videos

Kashiwazaki nuclear plant - report from the scene

Posted by bex — 24 July 2007 at 6:28pm - Comments

After the conflicting reports about last week's earthquake in Japan, a Greenpeace team of nuclear and radiation experts headed over to Japan to check radiation levels on the ground.

Happily, most places the team checked around the plant didn't show signs of increased radioactivity, but they had a couple of bizarre moments along the way. Their diaries are on our international site.

Article tagged as: japan, nuclear accidents, nuclear power, radiation, radioactivity, reactor safety

Amazon soya moratorium celebrates first anniversary

Posted by jamie — 24 July 2007 at 4:13pm - Comments

A Greenpeace plane flies over the Amazon rainforest

Memories of the giant chickens that invaded branches of McDonald's last year might be fading fast, but it's one year since a moratorium was agreed on buying soya from the Amazon rainforest. It was our chicken-led campaign that helped spur McDonald's and UK supermarkets into putting pressure on the soya traders in Brazil, who were trading in beans grown in newly deforested areas of the rainforest.

Article tagged as: agriculture, amazon, brazil, deforestation, forests, south america, soya, soya working group

Official: burning fossil fuels has changed rainfall patterns in the UK

Posted by bex — 24 July 2007 at 2:39pm - Comments

Flooding

The Red Cross is stretched to their limits, in Tewkesbury. Thousands of people previously living in Gloucestershire’s rolling hills suddenly find themselves homeless. A third of a million people have no drinking water.

Article tagged as: climate change, flooding, impacts, precipitation, science, UK

Greenpeace videos on Youtube

Posted by jossc — 24 July 2007 at 11:02am - Comments

Greenpeace UK YouTube screenshot

For me one of the coolest things about our new-look site is that we're carrying a lot more streaming video courtesy of the good folks at YouTube. But did you know that we now have our own YouTube Greenpeace UK Video Channel?

Article tagged as: animations, climate change, forests, GM, nuclear, oceans, peace, toxics, what you can do, youtube

Japan's nuclear leak: earthquakes, fire and fault lines

Posted by bex — 19 July 2007 at 1:59pm - Comments

On Monday, an earthquake hit Kashiwazaki in north-western Japan, killing nine people and injuring hundreds more. Already a disaster for the citizens of Kashiwazaki, thousands of whom are now living in shelters, things could have been much, much worse.

Kawashaki is the location of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – the site of seven nuclear reactors. At first it was thought that the 6.8 magnitude earthquake had just caused a fire at the plant and Tepco – the nuclear company - initially said no radioactivity was released. "No harm" was done, said a spokesperson.

Then we were told that in fact there had been a leak, but it was only 1.5 gallons of radioactive water. On Tuesday, it emerged that just a smidgen more radioactive water might have leaked than 1.5 gallons. About 243 times more. And the water was 50 times more radioactive than had been stated.

Article tagged as: japan, nuclear accidents, nuclear power, radioactive waste

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