arctic sunrise

The Arctic Sunrise is in Greenland to survey melting glaciers and observe the effects of climate change. In this latest update from the tour, Indian journalist Gaurav Sawant decribes his experiences aboard and ponders the implications for the sub-continent. But first web editor Juliette sets the scene...

India seems (and is) quite far away from Greenland and the Arctic. Yet, with the world's second largest population and with major cities like Mumbai (parts of which lie just a few metres above sea level), the country cannot ignore what is happening. India is now a major player in international politics. If its population and leaders start making climate change the political priority, the world will listen.

Just in via our Climate Rescue weblog, here's a beautiful little filmic essay on the realities of climate change from Greenpeace China campaigner Xin Yu (otherwise known as "Fish"), made aboard the Arctic Sunrise during the current expedition to monitor a 100 km² ice island breaking off Greenland's Petermann glacier.

More breathtaking images just in from Nick Cobbing, aboard the Arctic Sunrise in Greenland, where the crew are working with leading climate scientists to monitor the break-up of the Petermann Glacier.

The Arctic Sunrise is still in Greenland where the crew (including leading climate scientists and other ice experts) have been monitoring the ongoing disintegration of the Petermann glacier.

Photographer Nick Cobbing is on board, and we've all been oohing and aahing over his stunning images as they come in to the office. They're all the more poignant as the portion of the glacier they depict may soon cease to exist. 

You can view a larger version of this slideshow, and follow updates from the Arctic Sunrise on the Climate Rescue blog.

One of the great things about working for an international organisation is that my inbox is constantly filling with emails from around the globe detailing what other Greenpeace offices are working on. A thread I've been following particularly closely is the stream of messages coming from the Arctic Sunrise which is currently back in Brazil on a two-and-a-half month tour of the country.

The purpose of the tour - which goes under the name of 'Save The Planet Now... Or Now!' - is to highlight the important role Brazil (as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet) can play in fighting it in the lead-up to the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

Arctic Sunrise arriving at the DRC port of Matadi

Today we're celebrating the opening of a new Greenpeace office in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hurrah! We marked the occasion by inviting Congolese officials aboard the Arctic Sunrise, which is currently docked in Matadi, the country's principal port for timber exports.

This is a crucial time for the Congo rainforest, the world's second largest, as the DRC's government is the final stages of reviewing over 150 land titles, which cover millions of hectares of forest. While a number of titles were recently rejected by the government, the current 'appeals process' could see many of them returned to their former owners, the logging companies. The logging industry is using the present economic downturn to pressurise the govrnment to allow them to keep hold of (and exploit) what effectively amounts to millions of hectares of forest, and carry on business as usual.

As the Rainbow Warrior arrives here to embark on the UK leg of of her worldwide "Quit Coal" tour, activists from another of our ships, Arctic Sunrise, have been busy putting coal in the hot seat in Italy.

"Small variations in global temperatures have vast consequences. The last Ice Age was only six degrees colder than today. A global rise of just 0.8 degrees has melted the Arctic."
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Five of them scaled a 150 metre crane at a new coal-fired power plant in Civitavecchia, near Rome, to drop a banner highlighting the fact that Italian government policy effectively opposes the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile another five activists painted "No Carbon" and "Quit Coal" in giant letters on the power plant's dock from an inflatable boat.