videos

Earlier this week, Esperanza's crew awoke to find themselves surrounded by at least 50 humpback whales feeding in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Leandra, one of the scientists on-board, captured some rare and unique underwater sounds as part of our ongoing research programme.

The crew were also able to get closer to the whales using the ship's inflatables, and to shoot some wonderful footage of the humpbacks at very close range, both in and out of the water courtesy of ace videographer Gavin.

Personally I'm seriously jealous. If whale-watching is your thing (and how could it not be?) then it doesn't get any better than this!

Watching TV used to be a relaxing pleasure but now it makes my blood boil. It's not the programmes so much (although a lot of it is rubbish) but the advert breaks overflowing with greenwash, filled with images of doe-eyed creatures and tranquil woodlands by companies trying to convince me that they're really very green and, actually, always have been.

Al Gore's The Inconvenient Truth has been hailed as a revolution in the climate change debate, but it looks like he was way behind the times. Thanks to Martin at Making Waves for posting about an excerpt from The Unchained Goddess, an educational film made in 1958 (that's 50 years ago, fact fans) about the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions. The performances are a little ropey but it's prescient stuff, and involved the talents of no less than Frank Capra and Mel Blanc.

Back in November, we launched a collaborative video project, asking people from around the world to join in and create a video sending the message to Bali that we want action, not more hot air.

Here's the result (and you can watch all the submissions here):

Last night, ITV News featured an excellent report from Indonesia about palm oil and how plantations are replacing forests at a horrific rate. Shown as part of a series of reports about climate change to tie in with the Bali climate change conference, it showcases some aerial footage which clearly shows the devastation. Also featured is Hapsoro, one of Greenpeace South East Asia's forest campaigners, who was working at the Forests Defenders Camp when he was interviewed.

If you missed it, the report is available to view online - confusingly, it's on the CNN website but only because the ITV News site is so darned tricky to use.

Taking up the western half of New Guinea island, the Indonesian province of Papua is a bit of a mystery. It's off-limits to outsiders and journalists, so the activities of the palm oil industry there haven't been widely reported. Until now, that is. With the help of the Environmental Investigation Agency, local communities have been making their own films about what's happening to the forests they rely on.

Two of these films have appeared on the web. In the first, Tears of Mother Mooi, members of the eponymous Mooi tribe explain why the forest is so important to them and what they are already losing as a result of the advancing wave of oil palm plantations. The second, Defenders of the Tribal Boundaries, goes into detail about the activities of the palm oil companies - it's frankly depressing to see the devastation being wrought to provide us with a cheap, convenient commodity.

There's a video megamix of Gordon Brown's speech from last week doing the rounds on YouTube, cut to highlight just how wishy-washy his words were:

As the international climate meeting in Bali hurtles towards us, you're probably concerned that it may turn into another one of those diplomatic exercises in generating a lot of hot air and the only benefactors will be the hordes of translators making a nice earning. But you can make sure that fingers are pulled out and tough action is taken by contributing to the Climate Message In A Bottle video.

Last week, Jamie wrote about our Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra, Indonesia: the frontline of where peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil plantations.

Well, this week our volunteers out there are busy trying to stop the destruction of an area of swamp forest. Working with local communities, they're building dams across the canals that are used in logging and draining peatland.

From our international site:

Thick layers of peat underlie most of Indonesia's swamp forest. Over time, the peat layer has locked up millions of tonnes of carbon. Once forests are cleared, peat swamps are drained and decompose to release the stored carbon as carbon dioxide. Forests are often also burned, prior to the planting of palm oil saplings, further compounding the climate problem.

Thanks to a few of our Facebook friends for this one - why it makes sense to act on climate change, whether or not you believe it's real: