Traitor Joe here. Greenpeace put a widget about me latest catch, Billie, on the interweb.

Now, I don't know what a widget is, exactly. At first, I thought it might be a new type of fishing gear. But, turns out it is a magical treasure that puts my lady, Billie, on any website you want.

All you landlovers are smart as paint! So, even though I figured out how to copy and paste the code into me blog below, you're not savvy enough to share it with your swashbuckling friends.

Insincerely yours,
Traitor Joe

A new Guardian arcticle today confirms what we wrote back in may: Exxon is still secretly funding global warming junk scientists.

According to the Guardian report:

Records show ExxonMobil gave hundreds of thousands of pounds to lobby groups that have published 'misleading and inaccurate information' about climate change. These include the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas, which received $75,000 (£45,500), and the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC, which received $50,000.

According to Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics, both the NCPA and the Heritage Foundation have published "misleading and inaccurate information about climate change."

On its website, the NCPA says: "NCPA scholars believe that while the causes and consequences of the earth's current warming trend is [sic] still unknown, the cost of actions to substantially reduce CO2 emissions would be quite high and result in economic decline, accelerated environmental destruction, and do little or nothing to prevent global warming regardless of its cause."

The Heritage Foundation published a "web memo" in December that said: "Growing scientific evidence casts doubt on whether global warming constitutes a threat, including the fact that 2008 is about to go into the books as a cooler year than 2007". Scientists, including those at the UK Met Office say that the apparent cooling is down to natural changes and does not alter the long-term warming trend.

Ward said, "ExxonMobil has been briefing journalists for three years that they were going to stop funding these groups. The reality is that they are still doing it. If the world's largest oil company wants to fund climate change denial then it should be upfront about it, and not tell people it has stopped."

Traitor Joe here. I figured out how to infiltrate the Greenpeace blogs. Ha, ha, ha. I figure, if I can deplete the oceans with my seafood purchasing practices, then, surely I can mess with the interweb and get a blog or two up on the Greenpeace site. It really was easy.

So, I'm here to tell you to just ignore what these environmentalists have to say about my stores. My freezer cases may be full of red list species, but I am asking you not to care. It is easy for me to trick my customers. I just tell them I care about the environment, throw on a hawaiian shirt so it looks like I am fun-loving and people just believe whatever I say. Suckers!

For your Fourth of July partying -- hurry up and get to Trader Joe's to stock up on red list seafood. My favorite fish, the chilean sea bass is a rare fish. There are so few left. I caught and mounted the last one I caught because it may have been the last.

 

 

Insincerely yours,
Traitor Joe

The latest edition of Greenpeace's "Guide to Greener Electronics" reveals that the world's biggest PC makers (Hewlett Packard, Dell and Lenovo) have failed to improve their low scores. For shame! All three companies received a penalty point for backtracking on their commitments to eliminate PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants from their products by the end of 2009.

The guide ranks the 17 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

Greenpeace is calling on companies to eliminate BFRs and PVC from their product range. These substances are harmful throughout the entire lifecycle of a product; phase-out reduces pollution during the production and disposal of electronics and makes products capable of being recycled in a responsible manner.

It's technically feasible, and consumers want it too, but above all the electronics industry needs to clean up urgently as a matter of principle. Their e-waste is poisoning the poor.

Download the report for more information. You can also see how each company stacked up without downloading the entire report.

 

I am attaching a story which ran in our local paper this morning to bring your attention to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Western Alaska. This serious problem was recently exascerbated by a recent vote of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) that voted to increase the chinook (king) salmon by-catch for the pollock industry to 60,000 fish. That number is almost twice the amount of by-catch than the 10 year average of chinook caught by the industry.

Our brothers and sisters in Western Alaska are crying out for support. They will go hungry, and as winter begins to show its signs of arriving, I am affraid their plight will become even worse. They are, by this action, doing what we at Greenpeace have always done: peacefully protest. However, the difference is, it seems to me, is that for them it is a matter of survival immediately and personally.

Perhaps we can help by writing the Secretary of Commerce. His email address is: TheSec@doc.gov. Simply request that he reviews the decision made by the NPFMC to increase the chinook by-catch amount and bring that number down from 60,000 fish to at least 30,000 fish. When that number is reached, which is not likely, the pollock fishery would be forced to shut down for the season.

Please share this with your friends. Our people need our support. Perhaps they are taking a page out of our action book by doing this protest.

Troopers investigate Yukon River protest fishing YUKON RIVER: AVCP president says state should crack down on pollock fleet, not subsistence.

A Six boats left the village of Marshall on Friday night -- a time when subsistence fishing was supposed to be closed -- and caught roughly 100 kings, said Nick P. Andrew Jr., one of the fishermen and director of the Marshall-based Ohogamiut Traditional Council. Andrew said the state is neglecting the subsistence needs of the region and that the protesters gave their catch to local elders, widows and other villagers. The chinooks are a key source of food and cash along the Yukon, but Fish and Game predicted poor returns this year, banning commercial fishing altogether and sharply reducing subsistence opportunities.

Andrew said he hasn't heard from the authorities yet, but troopers said Tuesday that they're on the case. "If in fact a protest fishery occurred, I am very disappointed," said Colonel Gary Folger, wildlife troopers director. "We will conduct an investigation and if it discloses criminal behavior occurred, we will present our findings to the district attorney's office for review." The violation would be a misdemeanor. The state could also seize equipment.

The Association of Village Council Presidents, which represents 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, supported the protest. "Other villages that need king salmon should do the same thing," AVCP President Myron Naneng said this week. If the state is so worried about the king salmon run on the Yukon, it should have pushed for tougher restrictions on the Bering Sea pollock fleet that wastes thousands of king salmon a year, Naneng said. Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd sits on the council that overseas the Bering Sea fishery and voted in April to put an unprecedented cap on the number of salmon the fleet can waste. Regional leaders say the new restrictions go too easy on the trawlers. On Tuesday, Naneng called for Gov. Sarah Palin to replace Lloyd as Fish and Game commissioner, saying the state favors the giant Bering Sea pollock industry over the interests of village residents. Calls to speak to Lloyd on Tuesday were returned by John Hilsinger, the Department's director of commercial fisheries. He said he couldn't talk in detail about why the state didn't push for tighter restrictions on the pollock fleet because he wasn't involved in that discussion. But he noted the council's vote will put the first-ever cap on wasted salmon, one that would prevent massive bycatch like the 120,000 salmon that trawlers caught in 2007. The new cap could take effect in 2011.

"I know some people on the Yukon wish it was more than that, but it is definitely a step in the right direction," Hilsinger said. Camille Boliver, 73, is a retired fisherman who grew up in Marshall, a village of about 400. "Ever since I was young I had enough king salmons to feed my family all winter long," he said. But this year, most of the kings have already passed by the village and he only has three in his freezer. The protesting fishermen gave them to him, he said. Steve Hayes, who manages the Yukon chinook run for Fish and Game, said he sympathizes with fishermen concerned about bycatch but denounced the Marshall protest. "Not only are they jeopardizing the future returns, but it's unfair to the other people around them who are actually following the rules," he said. Talk of civil disobedience over the king salmon fishery had been simmering for weeks among regional leaders. The fishermen left the village Friday night carrying copies of a resolution by the local traditional council supporting the protest, Andrew said. "We were ready to send a message to the fishery managers, to the governor and to big business -- meaning the trawl fishery. That you waste, you know, you're allowed to waste all this fish. We only take a small fraction of the runs," he said. 'I'VE NEVER SAID THAT' Palin couldn't be reached for an interview Tuesday. But she wrote short updates on the region, and her rural advisor's trip to the Lower Yukon village of Emmonak, last week among her many dispatches on Twitter.

"Good update re Rural Advisor John Moller's recnt Emmonak trip, great news he reports; we'll twitter assuming press won't pick up good news," Palin wrote on Friday. Eight minutes later, she added another tweet: "John also met w/CNN reporter while in Emmonak & shared welcomed GOOD NEWS of region...as a result, highly unlikely interview will air" So what was this good news? "At the Federal Subsistence meeting in Emmonak last week, Nick Tucker reported that 50 percent of the residents have met subsistence needs and other 50 percent are confident they will meet their needs," Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. But Tucker, an Emmonak resident who became a spokesman for the cash-poor region when his letter describing a local fuel and food crisis made national headlines, said Tuesday he never said that. He demanded a public apology from Palin's team for saying he did. "Ten times over, I've never said that. It was from one fisherman in Alakanuk," Tucker said in a short phone interview. "I do not believe that we in Emmonak -- Emmonak never said that." The governor's response? Moller, the rural advisor, is the one who knows about that, Leighow e-mailed. But he's on personal leave. "He is fishing today out of cell range," Leighow wrote. "John also said he talked with numerous residents who reported they have taken enough king salmon for their subsistence needs or would by the end of the season." WHAT ABOUT CHUM? Under a 2001 agreement between the U.S. and Canada, Alaska must deliver 45,000 king salmon up the Yukon and into Canada this year. For the past two years, the state has fallen short of those treaty goals and it's too early to tell if that will change this summer, said Hayes, the summer area manager.

To try and make it happen, Fish and Game closed the river to commercial king fishing and cut subsistence fishing in half. The first pulse of salmon is particularly important, with roughly 60 percent of those fish headed to Canada, Hayes said. The department also is closing subsistence fishing altogether in sections of the river as that first group of salmon pass through and is temporarily restricting gillnet sizes in some areas.

The state opened the lower Yukon to short windows of commercial chum fishing on Monday, but the Board of Fisheries voted Monday night that any kings that chum fishermen catch by accident can't be sold for profit, Hayes said. Asked why fishermen can't replace kings with more abundant chum salmon as a subsistence food, Andrew said it's not that simple. "Nothing compares to king salmon nutritionally because they carry oil that's needed for calories and for our well being... We can't substitute any species for that. That's our customary and traditional food," he said.

This Reuters article, published yesterday, does a great job of laying out the progress we’ve made so far in stopping deforestation in the Amazon thanks to our report, “Slaughtering the Amazon.”

SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, June 29 (Reuters) - In a victory for conservationists, Brazil's huge cattle industry is bending to demands to curb destruction of the Amazon forest after heavy criticism of its leading role in deforestation.

Reforms by Brazil's big slaughterhouses could move the industry toward increased productivity and away from the practice of burning trees to clear land in the world's largest rainforest, industry officials and conservationists say.

…

In the past month, since the release of a 40-page Greenpeace report detailing links between Brazil's meatpackers and deforestation, the World Bank has withdrawn a $90 million loan to one firm. And supermarket chains said they would stop buying beef from 11 producers in the Amazon state of Para.

Big beef firms announced steps to ensure their cattle come from legal ranches. Beef exporters pledged not to accept meat from illegally deforested areas and to set up an electronic tracing system to guarantee the animals' origin.

"There have been very good decisions," said Andre Muggiati of Greenpeace, whose report used satellite data to show that beef for Brazil's domestic market and exports often comes from farms with recent deforestation.

"Now it is about implementation of deals. You have to monitor these commitments. If not, you lose it."

Like my colleague Andre says, making a commitment and following through on that commitment are two different things. We’ll be monitoring the situation in the Amazon closely to ensure that those companies who have committed to making changes actually follow through.

We’re still waiting to hear back from several of the shoe companies named in the report as to what they plan to do to make sure that the leather in their shoes is not coming from Amazon destruction. If you haven’t taken action yet, write to Nike, Adidas, Timberland, Geox, and Clarks right now and tell them to support solutions to deforestation and global warming. And if you’ve read any of the PR spin these companies have put out in the wake of our report release, you can read our responses here.

Grocery shopping. It's a weekly chore that I dread. I have to try and remember my list, coupons, the weekly store flyer and my canvas bags.

Greenpeace is pressuring supermarkets so we can have one less thing to worry about when we go to the grocery store–whether or not the seafood is sustainable. We all have enough to remember, so it’s time for supermarkets to ensure that all their seafood has been caught in a sustainable way and the fish have descriptive labels so we can make informed decisions when we are at the seafood counter.

Greenpeace wants the entire seafood industry to change. Seafood businesses have a responsibility to make sure that the seafood they are selling is sustainable, so that we will be able to enjoy seafood without wondering if our purchases are contributing to the collapse of our ocean ecosystems.



Greenpeace released an updated scorecard. In their third release some supermarkets did better and I’m excited that the stores are listening to their customers and making positive changes. But, other supermarkets continue to do poorly.

In the third scorecard release, Wegmans received top ranking followed by Ahold USA, while Whole Foods dropped to third place from its December 2008 first place ranking. Trader Joe’s remains ranked at # 17, the worst ranking of the national supermarket chains surveyed. Three regional chains ranked at the bottom.

Wonder how your favorite supermarket ranked? Find out now. Greenpeace put together an interactive map. All you have to do is pick your state and a list of grocery stores will be displayed. You can see if your grocery store passed, failed or fell somewhere in the middle.

That's why we're here—to get the companies to make the right decisions.

We spent the last week patrolling the waters of the Mediterranean for illegal driftnetters.  The good news is that for the first time, we didn't find any.  (No pirates is good pirates!) Weather was probably a factor, as it was often a bit rough for them to be able to operate.  There's also the Greenpeace Factor - word gets around that we are out looking, so pirate fishermen know their chances of getting away with it are pretty slim - they may just decide not to go fishing. 

While these were undoubtedly part of the reason why we didn't come across any illegal driftnetters in a week of searching, an even better explanation is that the increased controls we have fought for and won in recent years are starting to take effect.  Even Italy, which appeared ready to flaunt the drift net ban, reversed their position the day our search began.

This echoed our findings from the previous week, where for the first time in years we encountered no blatantly illegal bluefin fishing.  We did see military ships inspecting fishing boats, even sending divers down to look at tuna cages. 

There are still some loopholes in the regulations that enable people to cheat.  However, Raul Romeva, a member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee, was on board with us to see firsthand what is going on.  Romeva has been instrumental in writing many of the recent regulations, so I have a feeling he will be able to use what he learned at sea with us to close some of these loopholes.  Better still, it sounds like he is becoming a champion for marine reserves.

Looking ahead, it is clear that controlling illegal fishing alone will not be enough to protect the Mediterranean, or to prevent the collapse of bluefin tuna.  The LEGAL catch, as set by ICCAT, the organization that has failed to listen even to the advice of its own scientists, is high enough to seal the bluefin's fate.

There is still time to turn things around.  First, we need Monaco, the US, and others to ban illegal trade in critically endangered bluefin until the population can recover.  This can happen next year, at the meeting of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  Then, we need countries throughout the region to work together to establish fully protected marine reserves.  Bluefin spawning areas are a good place to start – in the Med as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

I leave the ship in the morning.  I’m going to miss everyone on board, but I made some new friends that I know I’ll keep in touch with for a long time to come.  I’ll also miss the ship, and this big blue sea, but it makes it easier knowing that the Rainbow Warrior will be defending the Mediterranean long after I'm gone.  

For the Oceans - 

John Hocevar and the team aboard the Rainbow Warrior

We've been skeptical of BP's green marketing claims all along, but reports out of London today confirm that BP's new motto should be "Back to Petroleum".

The Guardian reports:

 

BP  has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed budget cuts...

....BP Alternative Energy was given its own headquarters in County Hall opposite the Houses of Parliament two years ago and its managing director, Vivienne Cox, oversaw a small division of 80 staff concentrating on wind and solar power. But [Cox] – BP's most senior female executive, who previously ran renewables as part of a larger gas and power division now dismantled by Hayward – is standing down tomorrow.

This comes alongside huge cuts in the alternative energy budget – from $1.4bn (£850m) last year to between $500m and $1bn this year, although spending is still roughly in line with original plans to invest $8bn by 2015.

Earlier this year the company shut down solar operations in the US and Spain.

Meanwhile, BP is still moving into more destructive oil operations, such as Canada's tar sands.

 

 

Our ship, The Arctic Sunrise is currently heading north along the west coast of Greenland in a race against time. It's destination is the disintegrating Petermann Glacier, but to reach the glacier our ship must pass through the Nares Strait, which could be flooded with dangerous sea ice at any moment.

Here is a blog from Dave, who is onboard the Arctic Sunrise...

On board we’re got a diverse, international crew, hailing from countries that include China, India, Australia, New Zealand, the Ukraine, the US, Canada, Cyprus, UK, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Ice navigators, captains, engineers, cooks, filmmakers, ice climbers and climatologists.

Earlier, we left the port of Sisimiut behind us; our last stop for a while, on what will be a three-month Arctic expedition to bear witness to the accelerating impacts of climate change and conduct scientific research that will help us better understand its ongoing effects the Greenland ice sheet, and rising sea levels. We’ve already got glacier and climate expert Jason Box on board – he’s the first of several scientists we’ll be working with during this trip, which will reach way beyond the normal realms of scientific research

Our first destination is Peterman Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest and most northerly glaciers. A massive chunk of ice – some 87 square kilometres – larger than New York’s Manhattan Island, is due to crack off from the glacier in the coming weeks. We intend being there when it happens. First though, we have to sail through the Nares Strait -an audacious task in itself; if successful, the Arctic Sunrise will be one of the first ships to navigate the strait so early in the year - it's usually choked with sea ice.

After Petermann, we plan to head to Greenland’s east coast to research the effects of warm sub-tropical waters of the island’s glaciers. Finally, as the Arctic ice reaches its annual low point, the expedition will conduct scientific research in the melting pack ice north of the island of Svalbard. It’s a massive undertaking and most of us will be on board until the end of September.