Greenpeace Blog

Thoughts from a little boat on a big ocean

Posted by jossc — 7 May 2007 at 12:00am - Comments

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

StenPosted by Sten the activist

Life on a ship is special, there's nothing else like it.

You're thrown together with a small group of people in a small space, in a big void. In these conditions you get to know people much faster than you usually do in normal life. I've met a lot of people onboard who I really like, and I know I'm going to miss when I leave the ship. And then, of course, I've encountered one or two who I like a bit less.

I've visited places I hadn't been to before - Bergen and the Shetlands so far - and done the things I came here to do - bobbed around in a dry-suit in front of a trawler, holding a 'Cod in Crisis' sign to get the message out that the North Sea needs marine reserves.

Article tagged as: arctic sunrise, marine reserves, oceans, scotland, shetland

Passing pigeons

Posted by Willie — 6 May 2007 at 9:00am - Comments

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

A couple of rock doves passed over the Arctic Sunrise this morning, heading for nearby cliffs on Fetlar. These birds are typically found on cliffs like those around Shetland, but are probably better known as the feral pigeons that have colonised the artificial cliffs we have built in our towns and cities.

Article tagged as: arctic sunrise, cod, extinction, marine reserves, north sea, oceans, passenger pigeons, scotland, shetland

Farewell Fetlar

Posted by Willie — 5 May 2007 at 12:00pm - Comments

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

A gannet in the North Sea near Sheltand

A gannet in the waters of Shetland © Greenpeace/Christien Åslund

On Friday morning we left the shelter of Shetland, where we had spent a day at anchor in a secluded bay off the northerly island of Fetlar. I've never been there before, but it was a lovely spot to stop. We didn't go onto land, which was a shame because some of the crew had been practising their ceilidh dancing especially since we were headed towards Scotland's most northerly isles.

Article tagged as: arctic sunrise, birdwatching, fetlar, lerwick, marine reserves, north sea, oceans, scotland, shetland

Tall tales from the fishing fleet

Posted by Willie — 4 May 2007 at 3:00pm - Comments

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

Since we left Fetlar we have engaged with a lot of fishing vessels north of Shetland, mostly Scottish boats but also German and Norwegian. Where possible we have tried to communicate with them, particularly those involved in catching cod, either as a target species or as bycatch. And we have had some interesting conversations with them.

Article tagged as: cod, marine reserves, north sea, oceans, overfishing, scotland, shetland

Wake up and smell the carbon

Posted by bex — 4 May 2007 at 2:29pm - Comments

Greenland glacier

Sometimes world-changing pronouncements aren’t delivered on stone tablets accompanied by thunder bolts, but in densely written reports, packed with charts, footnotes and appendices.

Article tagged as: CHP, climate change, IPCC, science, solutions, UN

You have one minute to save the planet

Posted by jamie — 4 May 2007 at 2:15pm - Comments

Calling all YouTube fans. Fellow green movers at down the road at Friends of the Earth have launched a green film competition. They're asking for 60-second odes to the future of the planet, exploring how we look after it with the assumption that there is a day after tomorrow.

Entries need to be in by 20 August 2007 so there's plenty of time to write, film and edit your mini-masterpiece. Even if you aren't inclined to enter, you can be inspired by the entries on the FoE YouTube channel. And while you're there, you can check out our own channel (although we're not offering any prizes as yet).

Article tagged as: competitions, friends of the earth, videos, what you can do, youtube

When is a moratorium not a moratorium?

Posted by jamie — 4 May 2007 at 2:00pm - Comments

Forest officials in the DRC are woefully under-resourced

Forest officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are woefully under-resourced

It's not a trick question, and the answer is simple: when a moratorium is failing to stop the problem it was originally designed to address, then it's not much of a moratorium at all. There's one in place right now in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is supposed to help prevent the destruction of the country's rainforest, and yet it has been repeatedly breached until the moratorium itself is practically worthless.

Article tagged as: africa, congo, destructive logging, DRC, forests, moratorium, world bank

Making noise about the climate change bill

Posted by bex — 4 May 2007 at 12:38pm - Comments

Icount logoIt’s been a while since we’ve mentioned I Count, the Stop Climate Chaos campaign.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, climate change bill, i count, transport

Deconstructing destruction

Posted by Willie — 4 May 2007 at 12:00pm - Comments

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

We often talk about 'destructive' fisheries on the oceans campaign - so I thought it was maybe time I explained what that means when we talk about cod. A purist could say that all fishing is destructive, in that it destroys the fishes' life at least, I guess.

Article tagged as: arctic sunrise, beam trawling, bycatch, cod, destructive fishing, north sea, oceans, overfishing

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