Greenpeace UK blogs

Voices for Change: Sydney

jossc — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:20:34 +0000

In Sydney, between drought and dust storms, the effects of climate change are becoming more visible than ever.

In this Voices for Change video Amanda McKenzie from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition explains how these changes are affecting life in a city increasingly vulnerable to storm surges and rising sea-levels.

Negotiating with biology

Willie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:24:27 +0000

Excessive demand? Bluefin carcasses ready to be auctioned at a Tokyo fishmarket

As I write this, I'm sitting in the plenary room of the ICCAT meeting, whilst Charles Clover's film 'The End of The Line' is being screened. This in itself is a great coup.

In a memorable scene from the film, whilst attending a previous ICCAT meeting, Clover himself chastised the bureaucrats in that meeting for setting irresponsibly high quotas that ignored scientific advice. In his words they were '…negotiating with biology. And you just can't do that, and expect to see the biology survive'.

It's a stunningly simple thing. Fishing is harvesting wild animals, and that can only happen if there are healthy populations of those animals, which in turn means healthy ecosystems to support them. And you simply can't take out more fish than is being replenished. Fish, like any other animals, are only a renewable resource up to a point!

Organisations like ICCAT, which are Fisheries Management Organisations, theoretically exist to make sure that the countries involved are managing the fisheries, OUR fisheries, effectively. But there's a catch. To you and me this would mean setting sensible quotas and not trashing fish stocks. But many of the people involved in ICCAT and other such organisations, seem to think their job is to squeeze every last fish out of the oceans, and keep their fishing industries happy. So when it comes down to setting quotas, it doesn't quite make sense.

ICCAT gets its own scientists to give it information on the stocks for which it is responsible (tuna, swordfish, sailfish and sharks). It then uses those to decide on quotas, which is a game of political haggling until an agreement is reached. Note that I said it 'uses' those. It isn't bound by them, and sometimes it just ignores them altogether. In fact they routinely set quotas vastly higher than the upper limits of what the scientists suggest would be safe especially on lucrative species like bluefin.

This is utter madness.

This year with huge amounts of public pressure, bad press, and celebrity outrage at the state of bluefin, ICCAT members are all talking very sincerely about setting catch levels that 'follow the science'. Surely they should be bound by the scientific recommendations – otherwise, what's the point of having them? Surely it should not take campaigns and catastrophic stock collapses to make ICCAT see that?

The starting point for ICCAT, and other fisheries management organisations should be the science, and the quotas shouldn't exceed that. But that in itself isn't even enough, as the New York Times has ably pointed out this week. We are doing lots of things to our oceans, trashing other species as bycatch and altering ecosystems in ways we can't imagine. So we should be much more precautionary than the science suggests, especially when we factor in illegal fishing activity (which, as we know, is rampant for the profitable bluefin).

ICCAT has its work cut out. It has been dragged kicking and screaming to the realisation that it has mismanaged bluefin tuna. And that's just the tip of the fishy iceberg. Most of the species under ICCAT's control are large predatory species, and globally they have declined by 90% over the last few decades.

No wonder ICCAT is uncomfortable that the world is watching them this week. But it remains to be seen if they will be shamed into usefulness. I'll keep you posted.

Take action

Make a difference by pledging to boycott bluefin and those who sell it »

16th October 1970 - what a night

jossc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:26:52 +0000

Joni at the Pacific Coliseum - photo courtesy of Alan Katowitz

"They paved paradise, put up a parking lot" sang music icon Joni Mitchell presciently in one of her earliest hits, 1970's Big Yellow Taxi. And right from the start she showed a willingness to put her money where her mouth was in support of her environmental concerns.

So much so that later that year, when Canadian peace activist Irving Stowe announced plans for a benefit concert to raise funds to send a ship to oppose US nuclear testing in Alsaka, she was one of the first to sign up. On October 16, together with fellow rising star James Taylor and the legendary protest singer Phil Ochs, she put in an astonishing performance for an audience of 10,000 at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum, raising over $16,000 - enough to send a boat and crew to the Amchitka nuclear testing site.

The vessel, an old fishing boat called the Phylis Cormack, was renamed the Greenpeace for the duration of the trip, an inspiring name which would quickly be adopted by the fledgling organisation whose hopes it carried into the nuclear testing grounds. And so, in a very real sense, this was the night when Greenpeace began, when opposition to unthinking environmental destruction found both its voice and a way to turn that opposition into practical, positive action.

Now the magic of this unique occasion has been captured on a two-disc CD available from our office in Canada, complete with a 48-page booklet of never before seen, candid black and white photos of both the concert and the voyage to Amchitka which it funded.

So we'd like to take this opportunity to share a beautiful recording and a significant moment in our history with Greenpeace supporters and music lovers everywhere.

Order your CDs or make an electronic download today from www.amchitka-concert.com.

Too chicken to protect bluefin?

Willie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:37:20 +0000

There are a lot of chickens around Porto de Galinhas, in Brazil , where ICCAT, the body responsible for mismanaging bluefin tuna, and other fish species, is meeting this week.

Seriously there are a LOT of chickens. Cheery bright-coloured wooden chicken statues litter the area, chicken garden ornaments and chicken roadside signs, not to mention chicken-shaped phone booths (I kid you not). You could easily be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into a KFC theme park – but the chickens are here because Porto de Galinhas directly translates as 'Port of chickens'. Now that in itself is a little euphemistic – because the 'Galinhas' name apparently was derived from a derogatory name used for slaves in the area. But I guess cutesy chickens are a better way to be remembered.

"...fishing interests need to recognize is that unless something is done now, soon there will be no tuna left to fish"
NY Times editorial, 10/11/09

For us, we're here to see if there are any momentous decisions emanating from the assembled delegates for ICCAT, although we're not holding our breath, because wise decisions by some members of ICCAT are as rare as hen's teeth.

In case you missed it, it was reported last week that ICCAT's own scientists had been looking at the status of Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks. Now, the cynical amongst us were cautious about this, knowing that ICCAT desperately wants to keep control of Atlantic bluefin, and really wants to avoid the species being protected by a trade ban under CITES. That's understandable, given the vested interests of the bluefin tuna trade who ICCAT seems to bow to. So when ICCAT's own scientists concluded that a trade ban for Atlantic bluefin was justified because of how much the stock had declined – well that must have put a spanner in the works for many of the ICCAT delegates packing their flip-flops and sun tan cream for a trip to Brazil.

The simple fact is that Atlantic bluefin has been proposed for a ban under CITES. That position has been backed by many EU countries like the UK , and also it has been acknowledged by others like the US as necessary should 'ICCAT fail'. Now even a report from ICCAT's scientists suggests such a ban would be justifiable. ICCAT's meeting happens under that shadow, and there is only one commensurate outcome that ICCAT can deliver – which is quite simply to close the fishery.

Will they do that? Or will they just chicken out?

Take action

Make a difference by pledging to boycott bluefin and those who sell it »

Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

FT.com / UK - Heating up
A good summary of where we're at with the barcelona climate talks in the run up to Copenhagen from the FT.

Where are our leaders letting us down?

graham — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:49:28 +0000

Earlier this week more than 20 Greenpeace volunteers climbed the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to tell governments meeting here ahead of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to "save the climate".

Yesterday Ed Miliband added his voice to the chorus coming from many EU and US officials saying that he's concluded that there won’t be a legally binding agreement at Copenhagen next month. By his measure a proper deal faces a delay of at least six months, and probably more.

From this it would seem that warm words and a warming world are now all we can look forward to from the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. Over the past few weeks our political leaders have scrambled to lower expectations. This statement marks a new low. A year ago Copenhagen was going to be it, our best opportunity to avoid unprecedented climatic disaster. Now, we are being told it will be talks about more talks.

Instead of a legally binding treaty Miliband and others are now talking about a ‘politically binding’ agreement at Copenhagen. They then hold out the hope for a ‘legally binding’ agreement after that. But a treaty that isn’t legally binding is, essentially, a suggestion. “Political agreement” would only bind the governments who agree to it in Copenhagen. As soon as a new government takes office there's a risk that the political commitment will disappear. Even if there's no shift in government, the political commitments of administrations can easily shift with the changing winds of domestic politics.

We are being told that this is the best we can expect at Copenhagen and that we should accept it, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Just because the richest and most powerful countries say they don’t have the guts to make a strong binding deal, that doesn’t mean all countries at the negotiations feel the same. There’s no consensus around having a weak deal, it’s the US and EU who are pushing that line. Developing countries are pushing back with their own political reality. In many cases they are fighting for their survival. We must keep demanding the deal that the world needs from Copenhagen. The price of failure is painfully high.

To do that effectively we have decided to look at who is to blame for the current deadlock and see if we can expose them. So who’s to blame? China and those increasingly polluting, developing nations who won’t sign up to anything? The decadent, rich west who won’t take responsibility for the damage they’ve done? To find out, we’ve run a comparative analysis on the negotiating positions of 11 of the key leaders involved in the negotiations to see who’s been trying to push things forward and who’s been succeeding in holding us back.

The answer may surprise you. Or it may not. In fact it probably won’t. It’s the US again.

Here is our ranking showing how the leaders’ current policies stack up and where they would lead us in a warming world.

Save the Arctic or lose the polar bears

KatieS — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:17:46 +0000

So I was thinking about polar bears the other day. They're not my normal topic for musing while dodging London traffic on my bicycle, but I was thinking about them because a friend told me something I just couldn't believe. She said that polar bears could be the first mammals to lose their entire habitat to climate change. I was shocked. Polar bears have no natural predators. They're on the top of the food chain. They're perfectly adapted to the inhospitable Arctic environment, but now their icy home is disappearing beneath their paws because of our carbon polluting lifestyles.

If we don't act now, we could lose the polar bear in our lifetime. And this just isn't acceptable. We need to do something to see it doesn't happen. And I think the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen this December is our chance. We need to demand that our world leaders pull back from behaviour that is rapidly heating the earth and take action to curb climate change. And in these last weeks before the climate summit we really need your help more than ever.

We have to seize this moment before it's too late to salvage the polar icecaps. We must secure a future for thousands of species, like the polar bear, and millions of people threatened by the effects of climate change.

The next few weeks are critical and could influence the future of our planet for generations to come. Here at Greenpeace we're piling on the pressure in the lead up to Copenhagen. We're investigating the impacts of climate change, exposing those responsible and lobbying governments worldwide to tackle the greatest sources of emissions. We're fighting for a global treaty to stop climate change now and keep the world on track for the desperately needed decline in global emissions by 2015. But to do all this, we need your help.

Please join us. Please donate today. Copenhagen could be the turning point that our planet so badly needs. It has to be, if we want to preserve the Arctic habitat and save the polar bears.

President Lula plays ball with us over Copenhagen

christian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:34:51 +0000

"The problem is your European game is too slow and stilted" - Lula might have been saying.

So it's not every day that you tackle the president of Brazil dressed as a member of his national football team. Or at least, I don't. (Tackle in a very metaphorical sense, I should say.)

But when you want to attract Lula's attention in order to tell him that he should really go to Copenhagen in December to push for a strong climate deal, the legendary prowess of the Brazilians at football is an obvious avenue to go down.

Well, it was eventually. For a while we were thinking about the possibilities presented by dressing as a Brazilian beach volleyball team, but, you know, it's November, it's a bit cold, and to be honest the sight of twelve pasty Greenpeacers in swimwear probably wasn't going to be that alluring to the great man.

So football it was, and there we were, ball at the ready, banner unfurled, as Lula exited the hotel he was speaking at via a side door, surrounded by security guards and diplomatic police. In what we hoped was a sportsmanlike manner, we gave him a round of polite applause in anticipation of him delivering a solid, workmanlike performance on the pitch of the international climate negotiations. We want Lula to be pushing for a strong international agreement that will help protect the climate, and help to save the Amazon rainforest which fills the northern part of Brazil. Anything else would be a lacklustre performance.

Just as he was about to get into the car, he stopped, came over, and addressed us in Portugese. It was along the lines of - I'm talking with other world leaders - Sarkozy, Obama, Brown were all mentioned - because if Copenhagen is a failure it will be very bad. And then he took the football, bounced it a couple of times, chucked it back to us, got into his limo and left.

As it all wrapped up, his aide came and had her photo taken with us. "See you all in Copenhagen!" she grinned, and then she left as well. So, all in all, fair play to us, we put in a solid performance. No own goals, we held our own, and we didn't need to go to penalties. Let's hope that when it comes to the final in Copenhagen, we're on the same form.

Plus, we've now got a sweet corporate football kit. Wonder if anyone from WWF or Friends of the Earth fancies a game?

Voices for Change: Delhi

jossc — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:40:24 +0000

Erratic monsoons, the highest summer temperatures for 50 years, disrupted summer rainfall patterns - just some of the impacts of climate change which are threatening the Indian city of Delhi.

In this second Voices for Change video, Delhi born photographer Ishan Tankha describes how the weather in India has changed during his lifetime, and ponders the consequences for himself and his fellow citizens.

We'll be publishing more in the weeks running up to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit this December, reminding world leaders that urgent action is needed - by them - to secure a global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions trends in time to prevent climate chaos.

Hear stories from people around the world being affected by climate change, or tell one of your own »

Take Action

Ask world leaders to personally attend the Copenhagen conference »

Join the UK's biggest climate change march - The Wave - in London on 5 December »

Links for 2009-11-04 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Climate Rescue Weblog: “Please save our home”
An update from out campaigner Bustar at the forests defender camp in Kampar.
Mèlanie Laurent joins the Climate Defenders Camp
Tarantino's latest muse drops in to the climate defenders camp.

October 2009 - the month in pictures

jossc — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:13:46 +0000

A round-up of October's images from around the Greenpeace world.

Links for 2009-11-02 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Climate Rescue Weblog: The King of the Jungle
Rob, who's been setting up the climate defenders camp in Kampar, tells the tale of swamps, big banners, and 40 degree hikes through the jungle.
Greenpeace International: Dam - it's even harder than it looks!
A detailed guide to how to go about damming an Indonesian peat-draining canal, in case you were wondering how to go about it...
Greenepace International: Kampar Camp Construction
A detailed guide to building your own climate defenders camp in the heart of the Indonesian rainforest.

Links for 2009-10-28 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

When mummy is an activist - Times Online
Emma tells the Times what it's like balancing climbing up parliament with raising twins.

Links for 2009-10-27 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Climate Rescue Weblog: Climate Defenders Camp
Our climate defenders camp is set up in Kampar - from Greenpeace International.
Climate Defenders Camp
Some background information about the climate defenders camp from Greenpeace International.

Links for 2009-10-16 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Use of Forests as Carbon Offsets Fails to Impress In First Big Trial - washingtonpost.com
Our report raises serious questions about project based forest offsets.

Links for 2009-10-06 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Scilly Inhabitants Switch Off for E-Day