Autumn 2000 brought extreme weather to Britain. Flooding was the worst and most widespread in 100 years. More than 3000 homes were flooded across Britain and our transport system was paralysed.
Extreme weather is no longer simply a natural event. The current changes to our climate cannot now be separated from the impact of fossil fuel pollution. Unless we break our addiction to fossil fuels like oil and coal we are set to experience even greater changes.
Greenpeace and the RAC Foundation today joined forces to demand that Gordon Brown create a Green Fuel Fund of £00 million a year to protect the climate and human health by promoting alternatives to oil.
Responding to the Prime Minister's speech on the environment at the Green Alliance/CBI forum, Greenpeace Executive Director, Peter Melchett said:
"We are pleased that the Prime Minister today accepted the Royal Commission's case that we need to cut C02 emissions by at least 60% by 2050 and his recognition that this will have to mean substantial investment in offshore wind, solar and other renewable technology (1). His announcement of some new money for offshore wind is a welcome first step but we need to see the Government move much further and more quickly."
"Greenpeace welcomes Tony Blair's tribute today to the existing alliance between environmentalists and progressive companies such as Greenpeace's Greenfreeze refrigeration technology."
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, has joined the calls to stop the expansion of Edmonton Incinerator. Speaking at the 'Meet the Mayor Event at the IMAX Cinema near Waterloo, he said that there should be no expansion of incineration capacity in London and that the city should achieve 40% recycling rates so that incineration was unnecessary.
Greenpeace rejected claims by London Waste Ltd that the action at Edmonton incinerator resulted in pile ups of domestic and clinical waste.
A new opinion poll released at the Greenpeace Business Conference reveals that the public is willing to pay the current fuel tax so long as a proportion of it is guaranteed to be spent on the environment. A survey by NOP shows that 68% of respondents would be happier paying the current tax if some of it was spent on 'reducing pollution...by investing in public transport and developing green fuels'.
Commenting on the current controversy surrounding fuel taxation, Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace Policy Director, said: "Greenpeace agrees with the Government - it is absolutely right not to reduce fuel taxes. Unless we break our addiction to fossil fuels, extreme weather events like the floods in Mozambique will massively increase and the Arctic ice sheet will vanish in forty years. The climate crisis gives us no choice but to reduce our use of petrol and diesel - in fact prices need to rise further in future.
Gland, Switzerland - As the days count down to November's crucial climate summit in The Hague, a coalition of leading environmental organizations today launched the first international web-based initiative to give citizens around the world a voice in demanding a halt to global warming.
BP today took out a restraining order against 25 people on board the Greenpeace ship, the MV Arctic Sunrise, to stop them protecting the climate. The Arctic Sunrise was blockading a 130-metre sea barge to prevent it docking at BP's controversial Arctic oil project, Northstar. Greenpeace's 50 metre icebreaker had positioned itself adjacent to the offshore drilling island to stop the barge from off-loading BP's new control centre and accommodation module when BP served an injunction on the ship and its crew.
