The lawsuit that was filed by environmental groups in response to Norway’s announcement of plans to continue oil exploration in the Arctic has been dismissed by a court in Oslo. What that means is that the court ruled that the argument that such oil exploration was in violation of “people’s right to a healthy environment”
With the legislative and executive branches of government firmly committed to pretending climate change doesn’t exist, will the courts act to protect the environment and the citizens of America? Don’t bet on it. Here’s why.
Originally published on Edenkeeper.org Violence is escalating against the Water Protectors of the Standing Rock Sioux. On Sunday night, November 20th, temperatures were below freezing when peaceful protesters were fired on with water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. We need to act now to help support their peaceful, unarmed efforts to protect their sacred
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org Navigating through the icy waters of the Arctic, the Greenpeace ship “Arctic Sunrise” is delivering solar panels to the Inuit community of Clyde River, Nunavut. Delivering solar panels and a team to install the systems for the Clyde River community is Greenpeace’s way of offering a better solution to meet increasing
In the never-ending non-contest between climate change deniers and climate scientists, there is plenty of gloating to go around. Tossing down the gauntlet once again, Peter Sinclair challenges Joe Bastardi, the King of Climate Change Deniers, to a six-year review of Bastardi’s 2010 prediction on Arctic sea ice behavior. Award-winning climate writer and videographer Sinclair
According to a recent report titled Europe’s Dark Cloud, 22,900 premature deaths are caused each year in the European Union by coal dust. 11,800 new cases of chronic bronchitis and 21,900 hospital admissions in 2013 were also linked to coal plants. Particulate matter was linked to over 80% of the premature deaths and the following causes: heart
As part of a new protest campaign, Greenpeace activists in London recently placed face masks on some of the city’s most famous public statues. The protest campaign is intended to spur action on the city’s significant air-pollution problems. The activists, unsurprisingly, placed the face masks on the famous statues in the wee hours of the
LEGO is awesome. Kids and adults have been using the iconic interlocking plastic building blocks to learn and create and entertain themselves for decades, and it’s hard to find anything not to like about LEGO. Except when it comes to greenwashing the image of one of the planet’s corporate parasites, Shell, which is working to
All of the sudden people said, “Wait a minute, this is not how we have to live.” …Call us Peace, We’re about peace… Paul Watson on a wide screen is sweet looking, kind of like a baby as a young man, thinner with dark curly hair framing his doe-eyed face as he stands in life-threatening
Four days before President Obama promised, during his second inauguration address, to combat climate change, officials at the US State Department received a new report by scientists which details how a particular byproduct of the Keystone XL pipeline — “Petroleum Coke” — renders the project even more dangerous to the climate than previously estimated. The
By Patrick O’Keeffe As direct action coordinated by activist groups has proven to be an effective measure of shutting down corporate operations, governments and corporations have increasingly sought to gain information on the activities of groups engaging in such activities. This has given rise to the development of numerous corporations involved in gathering intelligence on
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is a bit of a mouthful, but that’s rather the point. Penguins, seals and other land-based animals living on the Antarctic continent enjoy a privileged, if slightly chilly, position. The land they live upon is protected from human exploitation in a way no
In today’s world it isn’t easy to balance our love of technology with the protection of our planet. So many companies that create these conveniences are contributing to environmental issues, whether it is through their use of resources, factory conditions, conflict in other countries where materials are gathered, or just the fact that the products
The President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Francis Beinecke, recently visited areas in western Pennsylvania where ‘fracking’ operations are occurring, and spoke with local residents about the impacts of these projects in their communities. My cousin — a medical professional without any affiliation with environmental organizations like Ms. Beinecke’s — also spent
Is there any violence that is not senseless? Last week’s massacre brought to the surface — as senseless violence will — the ongoing discussion on gun control. Another tragic massacre occurred and the fact that easy availability of guns played into this is unquestionable, it is unarguable. Only a few days past the shooting
3 cartoons for the price of none! Scroll down for all 3 cartoons: Take Action! Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all use asthma-inducing, climate-destroying coal to power the “cloud” that stores your emails, photos, music and videos. Take action now & tell these companies to clean the cloud. Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon
I’ve written on the Heartland Institute’s complete hypocrisy two or three times (see the related posts at the bottom of this one to check those out). DeSmog Blog recently posted another great piece on this hypocrisy, from yet another angle. Here’s that piece in full: A Heartland Institute front man* phoned a Greenpeace activist
In what some enviro groups are calling a ‘nice gesture’, but others, such as Greenpeace, are calling ‘green washing’, twelve Alberta Tar Sands developers — the largest oil sands producers in the world — including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Cenovus Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips Co., have joined up to form Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance
As reported the other day, actress Lucy Lawless (Xena) joined Greenpeace and climbed an oil rig in New Zealand that was supposed to be headed to the Arctic. Lucy was arrested yesterday for this civil disobedience, as were the other environmental activists. Regarding some of her reasons for joining Greenpeace’s work, Lucy writes: “I’ve got
The News: Greenpeace activists climbed a Shell oil drilling rig on a ship headed from New Zealand to the Arctic yesterday. One of those activists is actress Lucy Lawless. “Climbers — including actress Lucy Lawless — have scaled the rig’s drill derrick and set up camp, equipped with enough gear to last for days,”
The ramifications from the recent leak of Heartland Institute documents continue. After identification of Heartland funding ($1,000/month) going to a federal employee, seemingly first noticed by the investigative folks at Greenpeace, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva has “called for a full Natural Resources Committee hearing to probe whether Indur Goklany, a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Interior Department, improperly
Greenpeace activists in North Carolina have climbed a Progress Energy power station in Asheville and “have secured themselves to the coal loader and conveyers, which will prevent coal from entering the facility,” Greenpeace reports. The message of the activists, being sent to Progress Energy and Duke Energy (which may merge with Progress Energy soon,
“A truly joint effort” Campbell Plowden describes “one of the craziest weeks in his 14 years with Greenpeace” in The Story Behind the Big Miracle: Operation Breakthrough. He shares with us his work contributing to the meeting of synchronized forces as they merge in a pragmatic action successfully. “In the end, the rescue was truly a joint effort between the Eskimos,
1. Exxon Rakin’ in the Dough, Paying Super Low Taxes ExxonMobil’s end-of-year financial summary shows that it made a whopping $41.1 billion in 2011 (35% more than in 2010) but only paid a 17.6% tax rate. Who lets them get away with such robbery? Congress obviously does. But so do we, if we don’t hold
The News: China rejects commercialization of genetically-modified (aka genetically-engineered) rice! Wow, not the news I was expecting to run into this week. But, apparently, it’s been a long time coming. “It took seven years, teams of young campaigners and hordes of devoted supporters, but September 2011 the Chinese government finally said it was suspending the
If only they were so honest. But, when the oil company and its shills can’t be, a grassroots effort to reveal them can be. Following up on the video at the bottom of the page, where a climate activist punked a fossil fuel astroturfing campaign, here’s a video from Greenpeace’s Polluter Watch campaign that tells
Greenpeace activist and researcher decides to change the script on a fossil fuel astroturfing campaign/commercial. Check it out: Here’s a little bit from the activist, Connor Gibson, in text too: If you had the chance to talk to Big Oil directly to its big oily face, what would you want to say? I recently
Greenpeace published a “year in pictures” video and wrote a post on it this week. It’s really a beautiful video and helps to reflect on the wonderful activism citizens around the world have engaged in this past year. Check it out here: Here’s a text excerpt from the post: 2011 was a year of
Some top activism news from the past week or so: 1. Masked Activists in Germany Sop Transport of Nuclear Waste As the title indicates, some activists in Germany are fed up with the creating and unsafe transport and storage of nuclear waste (well, no one even knows where to ‘permanently’ store the nuclear waste). So,
Some top activism stories from the past week or so that I haven’t been able to get to but deserve a big share: Two Finland animal activists who were being prosecuted for undercover investigations of factory farms have been found not guilty on almost all charges. Good news! A climate justice youth caravan of approximately 200
More on unsustainable fishing practices and Tuna From Greenpeace: The Tuna Industry’s Got a Dirty Little Secret From PlanetSave: Annual Quota of Bluefin Tuna Caught in 1 Week GreenPeace again: The harsh reality of longline fishing From SeafoodWatch: Seafood Watch Pocket Guide Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…
This girl has a future! Beautiful song and message! And she’s 10!! I don’t know how I didn’t hear about this when it was created. Watch this beautiful video and song, “Shallow Waters.” A description from the YouTube page is underneath it, followed by more information on Ta-Kayia Blaney and her environmental activism. “10
Tar Sands activists in the US and UK weren’t the only ones fighting climate change and bringing awareness to its causes this weekend. Greenpeace activists near Johannesburg, South Africa chained themselves to the gates of a coal power plant construction site and climbed a construction crane last night to protest overuse of coal, a main
Unfriend Coal Campaign Breathes a Sigh of Happiness Very near the Arctic Circle, in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is working on its first datacenter outside the United States. Free cooling from this frigid environment and being near renewable hydropower in the area, this more progressive location is is showing the datacenter will be greener than normal
“It is Bank profits before people.” “The banks are above people being able to eat.” This quote is from an occupy protester as she was interviewed by Amy Goodman for non-profit radio. As Amy let the woman speak, the woman’s story unfolds: She has a master’s degree in social work and a student loan dept
The Internet uses more electricity than the entire auto industry’s production of cars and trucks combined. IT companies and users need to discover renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power to provide electricity for the Internet.
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the same company Greenpeace influenced Mattel to stop working with, has been destroying Indonesian rainforests to make Paseo-brand tissue products. These tissues are in many major supermarket chains and as Greenpeace points out, “Paseo products have no recycled content — they’re made of 100% virgin tree fiber. Worse, those trees
Greenpeace’s new custom-built “crowd-funded, hyper-efficient, purpose-built environmental activist sailing ship” has set sail from its harbour in Bremen and is on its way to Hamburg on its first voyage after being launched.
Greenpeace launched their third Rainbow Warrior vessel at a ceremony in Berne-Motzen, Germany, last week. The Rainbow Warrior III carries state of the art communications equipment, two boats and has room to carry a helicopter, all allowing the vessel to be first on the oceanic protest lines.
Clean-energy demonstrations in 175 countries, 2,000 of them, stimulated by 350.org were or are underway today. Here’s more, plus 10 great photos.
Check out these top action opportunities of the week!
Today is Greenpeace’s 40th birthday. Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, wrote the email below on the matter. Greenpeace has accomplished a ton in the last 4 decades, but we are facing bigger challenges than ever today and we need the organization more than ever. Check out this letter from Kumi and get involved:
Along with the many top activism stories I’ve shared in the past couple weeks, here are several more I keep forgetting to get to because I was saving them on email and not in my normal places. Check them out:
Greenpeace is doing some fundraising for a new boat, the Rainbow Warrior III, “the world’s first custom-built, cutting-edge environmental campaigning vessel,” to replace the 52-year-old Rainbow Warrior. The great organization it is, Greenpeace has gotten a ton of celebrity support to help with the fundraising. There are a ton of great options for donors. Just to name a few, you can…
Artist John Quigley has travelled to the Arctic sea ice and drawn Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous sketch the ‘Vitruvian Man’ onto the Arctic Ice as a way to show what humans have done to the planet.
Some tip green activism news of the past few days for you:
Climate change and tar sands activism continued at the White House today, with actress and activist Daryl Hannah (also covered by Think Progress), Greenpeace USA executive director Phil Radford, and more getting arrested.
Another big environmental activism story of the day was a letter from Tim DeChristopher from prison.
Greenpeace has a pretty huge campaign geared at getting Volkswagen (VW) to drop it’s anti-climate-action efforts that I’ve covered a couple times now.
