oil

Victor, an activist on board the Esperanza, wrote a blog for us yesterday -- while most of us were all feeling too seasick to look at a computer screen - let alone type.

We left the harbour in London on Thursday at 2:30pm local time. No problems there. I don’t know if it’s normal, but we were escorted by a large inflatable. I’d guess they were the water police checking up on us so we didn’t make any surprise action in their jurisdiction. The mood on board was great, and we were all happy being on our way out at sea. The grand adventure was waiting around the corner.

I'm a Swedish activist for Greenpeace, living in Denmark. The ship we’re on, Esperanza, is the biggest of Greenpeace’s three oceangoing ships. On board we are about 35 people from various parts of the world. English is the official language on board, but you hear Spanish in various places on the ship. A fantastic mix if you ask me.

A view from the bridge of the Esperanza as it leaves London.

Hi, I'm Lisa - I'm the webbie on board our ship Esperanza currently sailing out into the North Sea from London - to confront the oil industry that's scrambling to get into the planet's last oil reserves - further away in riskier places.

Being a webbie means I'm responsible for making sure you can join us without actually having to join us, if you get what I mean. I'll be sharing every part of our journey online and offering you the chance to be part of our virtual crew. And I'm getting seasick and homesick so you don't have to!

I’m on the Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza and we're leaving London today. I can’t tell you where we’re going yet, but I can tell you that we are off to confront the oil industry’s reckless search for the last drops of oil on the planet.

We've also released a map that features some of the most dangerous drilling sites in the world.

The BP stations we closed down last week have all long since opened again but the effects our thirst for oil is having on the planet continue. The oil spill in the Gulf is now officially the largest accidental spill ever, and the environmental havoc being wrought in China, Nigeria and elsewhere doesn't get the same news coverage but is just as disastrous.

Meanwhile, lobbyists working for BP and other oil pushers are busy trying to hobble laws and legislation which could set us on the road to reducing our oil dependency and making the transition to a cleaner energy future. One such piece of legislation is the Fuel Quality Directive and if its full potential is realised, it could prevent fuels from dirty sources like tar sands being sold in Europe.

Three months ago we asked you to help rebrand BP and design them a logo better suited to a company responsible for a string of environmental disasters, including the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

After more than 2,000 submissions, over 2,000,000 hits on the Flickr group and more than 25,000 votes, we have a new logo for BP.

Now it's down to all of us to spread it.

With fake oil actions spilling out all over the place, it's high time someone did some skill sharing. Step up our international office with their "activist recipe for fake oil".

Basically, you mix up some molasses with some corn oil, corn starch, chocolate powder and some flour and away you go (well, there's a bit more to it than that - full recipe here).

Fishermen scoop oily sludge from the oil spill in Dalian, China (c) Arthur JD/Greenpeace

Arthur JD writes from Dalian in China...

I arrived in Dalian on the day of the funeral for firefighter Zhang Liang, who drowned beneath the thick crude when his crew jumped into the ocean - without safety gear - to attempt, in vain, to fix an underwater pipe. Our lead photographer, Jiang He, who by now has reached legendary status globally for capturing the final seconds of Zhang's life, continued to cover the very emotional moments of this oil spill disaster.