Greenpeace

"The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man "fronts" a fact", says Thoreau.  Well since Thanksgiving we have sailed this ship in all of those directions and been blown around in a few more. Moreover, we have successfully fronted a few very unwelcomed facts. 

It has been three weeks since we last spoke. The Esperanza did manage to trump three typhoons but in doing so, Neptune took the liberty of making a very important decision for our expedition. Prior to the storms developing we were amidst formulating a strategy-which course to steer for the southern ocean. Bearing in mind the hunting grounds are the equivalent of twice the land mass of the United States.

We were directly south of the Japanese islands and the whalers stalk as far west as Cape Town, South Africa and as far east as New Zealand. The bridge and campaign team were well into playing out all the scenarios and possible routes the hunters might choose. Would they go west of Australia and pass through the Lok Box Straights of Indonesia or would they pass Papa New Guinea and around the islands of New Zealand to the east? At the time it was the dilemma of the day, but it soon became a moot point. We had to change our course from directly south to directly east in order to penetrate the storms.

These two shots were taken at the moment when we realized that there was no way to run from the first typhoon.They do not do the ensuing storm justice but I didn’t have a free hand to take a picture with while we were in the thick of it. None the less we all made out relatively well and it was good practice for what the roaring forties and furious fifties have waiting for us.

This image was one that I saw many times in my head over those two weeks. What you see is a survival suit and abandon ship drill we did prior to setting sail.

Of course the image of a gallon of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream also occupies many moments in my mind so maybe I am being a bit dramatic.

So now we emerge from the holes we rode out the storms in to a bright beautiful ocean with water so clear you would swear you could see the bottom, but you know what? You can't. We were sailing over the Mariana's Trench.  6.8 miles to the bottom, it is the deepest place in the ocean on earth. It is here the ship had to stop, and I had to dive to the bottom.

No, just kidding I obviously didn’t do that. But I did get to go diving to repair the ship. Gavin, the videographer is also a diver and so we were tasked with diving on the hull of the ship to inspect intake tunnels where the ship brings in raw water to cool the engines. We were running the engines hard in order to make up lost time and the already hot equatorial sea water was providing little comfort to the massive machines. Also raining on the parade were about six million black mussels that had hitched a ride from South Korea in these tunnels. Apparently, they really liked the place because they proliferated like the plague and quickly carpeted the walls of the sea chest, starving the engines of what little cooling water they had to work on. First dive Gavin and I plopped over the side with his camera to survey the hull. Second dive we took along hand scrapping tools in a foolish attempt to exterminate these stow-a-ways.The sea was relatively flat, the boat was a drift and people were quite jealous that we were getting to enjoy such magnificent conditions, but privilege quickly turned to a very challenging responsibility.

As you can see the intake is about fifteen feet beneath the surface. However, what you do not see is that the roll of the ship is creating a huge undertow as it list from side to side. So, if you are clinging to the side of the hull, which you must in order to clean it, then one second you will be at 15ft and the next at 25ft. The vacuum created by the sheer girth of the hull pried both Gavin and myself of the grates more than once leaving us twenty feet deeper than we were a blink before, and with two ear drums that felt like they have blown twice over. A third cleaning dive finally did the trick thanks to one of many ingenious solutions by Gavin. He constructed an underwater vacuum by welding a valve onto a long metal pipe using air delivered from the ships air compressor. MacGyver would have been well proud and by the time we were done cleaning that sea chest, you could eat in there but mussels were not on the menu.

It had always been planned to bunker (take on fuel and food) just before heading into the ice fields. Equally as crucial, we needed to repair the helicopter that had been grounded since our departure from South Korea. I cannot express how valuable the helicopter is to two of the main aspects of this expedition, finding the whalers and bearing witness to the murders. Not to mention the role it plays in our direct actions and scope it brings to the science conducted onboard. We aimed to sort these things in Auckland, New Zealand in the most efficient and expeditious manner possible. Seeing as Greenpeace has a national office in Auckland we were able to coordinate seamless ground logistics prior to arriving.  We knew we could get the fuel and food onboard within 48 hours but the helicopter was an uncontrollable variable.

When we came to rest along side at Princess Wharf in the heart of the city, there was a small gathering of around a dozen folks to greet us. It was bitter sweet. First, it was nice to see land and I could already taste the two banana splits I was planning on. However, the welcome party all had luggage, because they were replacements for several crew members whose three or four month tour had come to an end. I had grown quite fond of several of my colleagues in the engineering dept. They had been patient and gracious over the last two months and I was truly sad to see them go.

Crew change done, food loaded, fuel pumped and we are ready to go! Except the helicopter is not ready. Three days go by and no still no heli. Five turns to seven and now the natives are growing restless. In the process of fixing the original break in the chopper the technicians discovered yet another repair that needed to be made to the rear rotor. The parts had to be ordered from the UK and the helicopter service company was having their holiday party on Friday before they called it quits until after new year. We immediately began damage control and executed an exhaustive search for anything that could fly and land on the back of a ship. All the while the gap between us and the whalers becoming greater. Finally, the captain set a departure date of wed the 19^th with or without the chopper. That meant three more days of purgatory.  So, many crew members took advantage of unexpected shore leave and stretched their legs one last time.

I too was very anxious to get the show on the road. I could not sit still. So, I went and fulfilled a childhood dream.

I traveled to the Northlands with Remon’ (Fitter) and Paul (Electrician) to the Bay of Islands. It is there, that the original Rainbow Warrior ship was sunk after being bombed by the French military in 1985. The ship was actually tied up on the dock just next to where the Esperanza was currently moored when the French commandos detonated their explosives. The cowardly attack cost a man his life and sank the Warrior. She was towed north off the coast of Paihia Island and scuttled to serve out her retirement as an artificial reef, and what a magnificent reef she has become. The ship is both a garden and a grave. The wreck was the source of much internal dialogue as I made parallels between her mission and the one we were on, and how over twenty years later nations like Japan are still using their militaries to harbor acts of environmental destruction.

This is a picture of the monument that sits on the cliffs overlooking the ship it remembers. I left feeling very proud and very privileged and to say more wouldn’t do the experience justice. A nice four hour trip back south to the Esperanza gave me good time to digest the whole day. I woke up the next morning to a pleasant surprise, a letter from Robin Davey. Robin is the mother of Billy Greene for whom the boat I will drive in the Southern Ocean is named after. She reached out to me in a simple note saying that she was behind us all the way and how pleased she was to see that the Billy G was returning to help stop whaling. I was once again reminded of how many people are part of this expedition that aren’t onboard; Robin Davey, Billy Greene, the 13 year old boy who wrote me last week telling me he wanted to sail on the Esperanza and save whales when he grows up, people who are giving not only dollars but days of their lives. This is what we call “all hands on deck." So Wed. the 19^th arrived, it arrived yesterday in fact. It arrived without the needed helicopter parts and thus we left without a helicopter. But believe you me; this ship has no shortage of tricks up her sleeves. A helicopter would have been very helpful but as the captain very matter of factly stated-we have found them before without the helicopter and we will find them again-and friends, at the end of any day, that is good enough for me. Not only have we compensated for the lack of a chopper but we have improved on certain things that were previously restricted by the use of a heli. I cannot say more in the unlikely event that some lonely sailor on the Japanese whaling ship is perusing my Greenpeace blog before he retires for the evening. And we are off! For me this marks the beginning of our expedition. We will find the whaling fleet, we will find them soon and we will do exactly what we came here to do.  Of this I have no doubt, but I must go and sleep now for I need my rest I have a big day tomorrow! I have a date with a lady in red. Her name is Miss Piggy.

One of the camera crew asked me if it was an artifact I found diving. Five minutes later she stopped working. So I gave her a Texas tune up and tomorrow I will take her down to the nice romantic spot you see here:

and together over twelve breathtaking hours we will pump 10 tons of sludge from holding tank 9 to tank 20. This is the kind of romance you can only find on ships!

I was just set to say goodbye here and I heard ear piercing screams coming from the center of the ship. I walked into a crowd of smiles and learned that the Japanese government had announced it will not hunt humpback whales this season. They left port with a quota to kill 50 threatened humpback whales in the sanctuary. Japan had done so at the request of the US government who will chair the next International Whaling Commission meeting this June in Chile. This is great news. However, they must stop all commercial whaling, not just one species for one season. They still plan to murder 985 Minke and Fin whales. This change by the Japanese Gov. is a very clear example of how nations like the US and Australia have the power to convince Japan to stop killing whales. Now they must do it.
The temperature outside is dropping quickly. We are sailing faster.

The time to put this killing to an end is near at hand.
I will write once we reach the ice. Fingers crossed.
-heath

Now that Bali is done, things are moving forward on the global policy front.  The Bush Administration was sent packing back to Washington, tail firmly between legs but not without weakening the agreement.  The fight now comes back to Capitol Hill where there are efforts afoot to try to craft more global warming legislation in 2008. And apparently the Denial Machine has also come back to DC where it tries to dig trenches in front of any potential momentum and progress.

Sen. James "Hoax" Inhofe, the Archbishop of Denial, and his alter boy Marc Morano (formerly of the Exxon funded Media Research Center), today released a report through the Environment and Public Works minority website, with the headline:

Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007 - Senate Report Debunks "Consensus"

Looking through Inhofe's list of disputers we find a large number of familiar names.

 
Here's an interactive ExxonSecrets map of the 35 plus we have already data on. 

 

These individuals have been linked through the years with:

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Tech Central Station - set up by Exxon's operatives at DCI Group

Heartland Institute

Cato Institute

Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

Frasier Institute

The Annapolis Center

The George Marshall Institute

...and numerous other Exxon-funded groups who have together received millions of dollars since 1998 from the corporation.

We'll now have to start researching the others named here and see who and what makes them tick.  Its interesting that the Inhofe list includes a String Theorist and a slew of TV weathermen, they have recruited far and wide.  For many of the folks listed and their words quoted, one wonders if they are outright skeptics, or just questioning certain conclusions or lines of reasoning - the normal scientific process as DotEarth noted today. 

 
We also wonder if the Inhofe 400 share the conclusions of this report or the author's overt agenda to delay and derail political action on climate.  Time will tell as they Google themselves and find their names linked to the tail end of Exxon's Denial Machine.

An op-ed is making the rounds in papers today penned by veteren global warming denier David Deming, Adjunct Scholar of the National Center for Policy Analysis. 

The op-ed catalogs a long list of unusual cold weather events in 2007, including the recent giant ice storm that crippled the central US.  These extreme weather events are cited as solid evidence that global warming is bunk, and since cold weather is obviously bad for humans, therefore policies to control global warming are misguided. 

Clearly behind the curve in reading his latest copy of the Deniers' fashion magazine, Deming doesn't realize that it's no longer vogue to deny the science outright, and that most of his pals are taking more of a bumper shot approach - admitting that warming is happening, but that it might not be that bad or that we should focus on adaptation...

Well thank goodness for old-school deniers like Deming still sticking to their guns! 

The last line of Deming's essay, "Global warming has long since passed from scientific hypothesis to the realm of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo."  really sums up how completely and dangerously out of touch with reality this crowd is.  Wow, we have a lot of work left.

The reality, again, is global warming doesn't mean uniform "warming" everywhere on earth.  In fact, what scientists have come to know, is adding heat to the weather system means chaotic and unpredictable weather, with average temps that trend warmer overall.

NCPA has received at least $465,900 from Exxon since 1998, including $75,000 per year for the past several years.

Speaking of animals that like things cold...we expect an answer out of the Bush Administration any day on their plan to protect (or not) the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.  The NCPA chimed in on polar bears this past May with a "Brief Analysis" by H. Sterling Burnett, citing "A new NCPA study by Dr. David Legates" which turns out to be an inaccurate assessment of ice dynamics combined with a weak analysis of bear population dynamics...Funny how the former State Climatologist of Delaware is suddenly a polar bear expert... how convenient.  Legates was also a co-author of the polar bear study we discussed here.

 

There seems to be an outbreak of oil spills in the news lately. From San Francisco to Korea, Russia to Norway and Alaska to the Antarctic, oil spills are making headlines.   What’s most aggravating to me is this notion that an oil spill can be “cleaned up,” and that an area can be restored to its pristine condition after an oil spill.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.

I live in Alaska where the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons crude oil that that blackened 1,200 miles of our state’s pristine coastline and killed untold numbers of fish, birds, whales, seals, otters and other wildlife. It also decimated local fishing and Alaska Native communities who rely on the ocean and its resources for their way of life.  I have kayaked in Prince William Sound and seen firsthand the “bathtub ring” of Exxon Valdez oil still visible at high tide line.  Scientists report that oil from the initial spill in 1989 is still being dispersed in the sound today, and could continue for decades.  Only a few species have recovered since the spill, the rest are in decline or have not recovered.  

All this against the backdrop of ExxonMobil declaring the spill “cleaned up” 16 years ago, while posting record profits and continuing to stall and delay the payment of funds to fishermen and communities still feeling the effects of the spill.   

In short, “cleaning up” an oil spill is a misnomer. Even under perfect conditions - warm temperatures, calm seas, no wind and oil, and oil spill response equipment close at hand –  only 15 percent of the oil is removed from the environment. The rest remains, smothering birds and other wildlife so that they die of hypothermia, suffocation or by poisoning themselves through ingesting oil in an effort to clean themselves.  The legacy of an oil spill lives on for decades.

It’s just one more reason we need to break our addiction to oil.  Phasing out dirty fossil fuels like oil and replacing them with clean forms of energy such as solar and wind will not only reduce and eventually eliminate the threat and impact of oil spills, it will also solve the issue of global warming.  

Above photo is me, at the site of the Selendang Ayu oil spill on Unalaska Island, Alaska, December 2004.

 

-- Melanie 

Being an activist, as you know well, is not always particularly satisfying. You read about a lot of crappy things that crappy people do. You repeat the same information to the same decision makers hoping that this will be the time they really listen. And sometimes you have a victory. And on very very rare occasions you have two in one month.

I told you about Target. And now I'm really excited to tell you about Sears and Kmart. Sears Holdings, the company that owns Sears and Kmart, has committed to phasing out PVC in their products and packaging. Sears Holdings is the nation's sixth largest retailer with over $50 billion in sales per year and approximaterly 3,800 stores. 

Center for Health, Environment and Justice has been running a super successful PVC campaign getting companies to eliminate PVC. This means that 3 out of the 6 biggest retailer stores are in the process of phasing out PVC. How's that for progress? Maybe these big wigs are finally starting to understand that we all really do care about the chemicals that are in the things we bring into our homes.

You can check out their website and see what the entire policy is, but I'll give you some highlights:

- identify safer, more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to PVC

- show preference to PVC free materials

- encourage vendors to reduce or eliminate PVC from their products and packaging

 

Pretty good. Now we need the rest of them to phase out PVC as well as brominated flame retardants. And remember they listen to people who buy their stuff.
 

Have a good week. I'm back on the east coast on Friday. I heard it snowed over there. That does not make me happy even if it is December.

Renee  

 

Hmmm...wonder why Dana Perino reacted with such passion to a question yesterday about Rep. Waxman's (proposed) report on climate science censorship by the Bush White House? 

Aside from her laughable and classic Bush-like response  - dismissing the report then admitting that she hadn't even read it but had "seen reports about the report".... a flub up reported nicely here on DeSmogBlog.

Add this to Perino's mishandling of White House censorship of Center for Disease Control Director's Senate testimony in late October, covered well by ThinkProgress and RollingStone.

Here at ExxonSecrets, we know a little more about Ms. Perino from our 10+ years of research on global warming backlash.  Her anti-environmental roots run deep. 

 

Kyoto Bashing in 1997 

First off, in our archives we have a press release she penned during her days on Capitol Hill in the late 1990s, when she was press officer for Representative Schaefer (R-CO). Her boss was admonishing the Clinton Administration in June 1997 to slow down the push toward Kyoto agreement in December 1997, saying there still were too many unanswered questions about the impact on the US economy and other common refrains of the day pushed by the Global Climate Coalition.

 

On the CEQ Denial Team 

Perino came back to DC to work as Director of Public Affairs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where she was, in fact, running cover for climate criminals Jim Connaughton and Phil Cooney, the two main culprits in the Waxman report.

At CEQ, Perino was part of the global warming policy gatekeeper team, doing damage control and coordinating with other agencies on climate policy and communications.  There are many memos to and from Perino to Cooney including this one in the midst of Cooney's EPA report editing meltdown. Here she forwards Phil a comforting article by Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, another Exxon funded front group.  Cooney responds hopefully, "do you know where this ran?"

 

Perino Hangs Out with Exxon's Main Front Group

Like Cooney, Perino also cozied up to Exxon's Denial Machine.  Here is an email from Perino to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Angela Logomasini asking for a lunch meeting and saying she had been reading the CEI's report The Environmental Source.  The global warming chapter of this anti-enviro tome, penned by Myron Ebell, looks like it became a key page in the CEQ playbook.  CEI at the time was the leading recipient of Exxon denial cash, but was dumped by the Exxon Foundation in 2006.

Here's another note from Perino to Cooney and Connaughton referencing a Myron Ebell piece in the Washington Times about a prank invitation to a CEQ reception for Lee Raymond.

 

Redacted Information 

Most of these documents were delivered to Greenpeace after multiple Freedom of Information Act requests (see previous blog) and can now be found on the White House web page and our web site.

However, many of the documents we got back from our FOIA request looked like this one, from Cooney to the entire staff including Perino - mostly redacted text, leading Waxman's team to look for what was under the black marker lines... Read their report for all the details of the investigation

 

What Else Has Perino Seen Behind White House Doors? 

One can only guess what else Dana Perino knows about the global warming Denial Machine within the White House.  She has certainly had a front row seat.  Maybe the press will ask her more questions about her experiences.  Eventually they will all be held accountable...stay tuned.

 

 

 

A new report was released yesterday by the US House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee detailing the conclusions of their extensive investigation into the obstruction and politicization of climate science by the bush Administration.  Happy reading. 

This investigation began when it was revealed that Phil Cooney, then of the White House Council on Environmental Quality was editing government climate reports, downplaying scientific certainty and urgency.  Cooney, who was at the American Petroleum Institute before the White House, left shortly thereafter to go work for, you guessed...Exxon.  Check out what we have on Cooney and friends at ExxonSecrets.

Our favorite part of the back story here, is when the Committee first asked the White House for relevant documents, they said (paraphrased) 'you might want the Greenpeace FOIAs to start'. 

We had peppered the WH for years for documents and had revealed in those docs hints at  the skulduggery that the Oversight Committee has now dug into.  Many of those documents are available here on Greenpeace Investigations in text searchable format and also on the White House webpage here and  here.

We are reminded once again by today's Washington Post coverage of Bali and the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, of Exxon's attacks on the IPCC process through the years. 

While Al Gore and IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri were on hand to receive the prize, we note that Dr. Robert Watson might have shared the stage and Nobel prize accolades..  Watson chaired the IPCC through the really tough years, fending off numerous attacks from Exxon's Denial Machine. 

A fax revealed in 2001 showed Exxon's lobbyists asking for Robert Watson's ouster from his post at IPCC.  He was displaced shortly thereafter and replaced by Pachauri, who has done a fine job.

The same Exxon memo goes on to ask for other government climate officials leftover from the Clinton Admin. to be removed and suggests replacements, including current Bush Administration climate negotiator Harlan Watson.

Both of today's Washington Post articles quote Harlan "No Mandatory Reductions" Watson in his typically negative tone.  Did someone say "duck"?

So.  Here I am at the climate conference in Bali where Exxon's team seems to be very busy trashing the science whilst the rest of the world is trying to solve climate change.

 We have all sorts of groups turning up - but it seems the main lot is the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) which has received  $US 542,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.

It got $US 70,000 just last year.

Also here is the International Policy Network which has received $US 390,000 from Exxon since 1998. 

My colleague Kert has already blogged about the Heartland Institute's behaviour early in the week...

But as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boers, said the other day "The sceptics have had their hey day".  This is abundantly clear.  Nobody's questioning the science any more.

CFACT's little tricks here are verging on the hysterical - walking around the press centre abusing journalists, and offering free massages in the hope that people will come and listen to their ranting.  Nobody is taking them seriously.  In fact many journalists I've spoken to just want to write about how much money they get from Exxon.

They have launched the International Climate Science Coalition - a group set up by a New Zealand sceptic lot - interestingly, Brian Leyland from New Zealand is leading the CFACT delegation - despite denying any connections to Exxon money.  

Meanwhile the NZ delegation seems to be taking a positive role, supporting a range of 25-40% cuts for industrialised countries.  Doesn't look like Mr Leyland's having much of an effect.

 

 

 

Well, Monday morning started with some excitement.  The first bit of draft text that will be the basis for the conference’s Bali Mandate included several of the most important aspects that we are pushing for.

The text included both a 2009 end date for the negotiation process for the second commitment period, and also included the important developed country 2020 reduction range of 25-40 percent.  This language is a crucial component that needs to be in the final version of the Bali Mandate.  The 25-40 percent range is an important signal to the developing world that developed counties will step up their level of commitment post 2012.

However, after beginning the morning with some excitement that the ranges were included in the first draft text, we were quickly thrown back when we learned that behind closed doors the United States, Canada, Japan, and even Australia had insisted that any reference to the reduction ranges be stricken from the text.  This is a very bad development that puts the Bali Mandate in question.  This is completely unacceptable.  We are now working with our international colleagues and NRO’s to pressure the delegations here in Bali.  More on how this goes later in the week.

Yesterday brought Senator John Kerry to the conference center.  He was here to talk about the other America.  This is the America that is taking action on climate at the city, state, regional, and now with the Lieberman Warner bill, even the federal level.  Senator Kerry had meetings with the EU, China, Germany, the Indonesian President of the COP, and also the President of Indonesia.  His message was clear and an important one for delegates to hear.  There is a sea change in the United States on climate, and increasing support from citizens, businesses, and now Members of Congress, is bringing the United States back to the table on climate change.  Make no mistake; there is a lot of work to do.  The Bush administration’s official delegation here in Bali is still trying to weaken the Bali Mandate in every way they can, but Senator Kerry’s message was received loud and clear in the conference, the tide is turning.

After a week of negotiations WCPFC with over 360 people from many corners of the planet you would think that we would be able to come to at least SOME agreements on how we're going to save the Pacific yellow fin and big eye tuna stocks right? Perhaps it was just me being naive but I was really expecting SOMETHING to happen. After endless days inside a huge room without windows and lots of serious people in suits, the two most valuable tuna species in the Pacific are no closer to recovery than they were before. The reduction in fishing effort that the scientists were recommending was totally ignored by Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea with Japan leading the pack and earning themselves not one but two "tuna destroyer" Greenpeace awards.

Yet again shortsighted economics continue to rule the day putting the environment, fish stocks, Pacific Island economies and the fishing industry itself at risk. This fisheries commission is now failing miserably just like all the others and as you can tell, I'm pretty frustrated about it! I came here with high hopes and of seeing measures get adopted that would ensure the sustainability of the last tuna frontier in the world. Tuna is very important to Pacific island economies and the last thing they need in addition to dealing with the effects of climate change is to have their fish stocks crash!

I have actually been dreading writing this update because it felt like all I had was bad news but there is a light shining at the end of this tunnel because the Greenpeace oceans team, as usual has a few tricks left up their sleeve :-)

Well, it’s Saturday in Bali, and the UN Climate Conference is at its midpoint.  The temperatures are soaring and the negotiations are slowing.  

We have learned a lot about global warming in 2007. There is growing support in the US Congress for legislation that caps global warming pollution, more and more states are setting emissions limits and renewable energy targets, and the Nobel Prize winning IPCC released their most comprehensive report on the science of global warming to date.  That report paints a dire picture of what the future could look like if nations don’t act decisively here in Bali.  But the negotiations don’t reflect that sense of urgency.  But on Monday, Ministers and Heads of State from around the world will arrive, and not a minute to soon frankly.  They need to jumpstart this process if we are to leave Bali able to call this meeting a success.

We’d had an expectation that things would move much faster than they have.  We’ve seen some developing country movement which is positive, - including China (to a certain extent) - but we are seeing stagnation from the industrialized world, not the leadership we need.  We hope that all of this will change once the elected officials arrive on Monday.  The Ministers and Heads of State are much closer to the people and voters than the lower level bureaucrats, so we are hopeful the pace of the meeting will increase once they arrive.

We have an impressive Greenpeace presence at the meeting, with members from all over the world.  In addition to our Solar Generation youth, we have colleagues from China, India, the EU, Pacific island nations, Canada, Brazil, and many more.  All are working hard to push delegates to agree a mandate for a negotiation process that leads to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.  This second phase of the Protocol must lead to even stronger and deeper commitments from industrialized countries and expand the number of countries willing to take on targets.  It must also find away to bring deforestation into the international agreement.  In addition, recently developed countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia should agree to join Kyoto Nations that have taken on binding targets. 

News has been flying around the conference center about the action in United States Congress this week.  This action in both the House and the Senate has undercut the official U.S. delegation here.  While the Bush administration’s delegation in Bali continues to shun targets or timelines for U.S. emissions reductions, the Senate passed from committee, legislation that would reduce emissions in the U.S. 60% by 2050.  The house also passed an energy bill that increases fuel economy standards for cars for the first time in more than 20 years.  Senator Kerry will arrive in Bali early next week to talk to delegates about progress in the U.S.  Everyone here understands the clock is running out on the Bush administration, and the action in Congress this week highlights the progress that can be made once President Bush leaves the White House.

Yesterday, our flagship the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Bali with a flotilla of more than 50 local fishing boats.  There was enormous media interest in the arrival of the ship.  Having the Warrior here in Bali gives us a platform over the next week to push for a strong Bali Mandate and engage delegates, with many scheduling visits to the ship.

And finally, at the halfway point of the meeting, today is the International Day of Action on Climate.  There are events all over the world today.  From the streets just outside the conference center where thousands of Indonesians are calling on delegates to act, to town and cities all over the United States pushing elected leaders in the U.S. to act now.

The pace of the meeting will pick up quickly on Monday morning.  Stay tuned for more.

Day four from the Bali UN Climate Conference brought an announcement from the United States delegation.  Was it that they had decided to join Australia and become the final industrialized country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?  No.  Was it that they were prepared to agree to targets and timelines for emissions reductions and join the Europeans and others in support of a 25% to 40% reduction target by 2020?  I am afraid not.  Their big announcement was that they have invited the world’s 17 largest greenhouse gas emitters to the second in their series of Major Economies Meetings, or as we like to call it, “The Big Emitters”.   

It doesn’t come as a shock that their announcement was process and not substance, but to add insult to injury, they have made clear the meetings WILL NOT lead to country specific reduction targets.  It is simply a process to run out the clock on the Bush administrations final year in office.  We understand that as of now, while the caterers and hotel rooms have been booked, none of the countries have yet RSVP’d. 

The second in the series of the Big Emitters meetings, this time scheduled for Hawaii, distracts from the process that will begin here in Bali.  By the end of next week, in order for the Bali meeting to be considered a success, delegates must agree upon nothing short of a strong Bali Mandate.  That Mandate must create a clear negotiation process that leads to an agreement for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol by no later than 2009, This mandate must ultimately produce an agreement that with reduction levels for industrialized countries of at least 25% to 40% and broaden the number of willing to take on targets.  President Bush’s Major Emitters meeting is simply a distraction from the process that will be required to produce this post 2012 agreement.

Perhaps countries should consider sending low-level staff to the Major Emitters Meeting in January.  Hawaii in January is a lovely place, and the lower level staff deserve a trip once in a while.  But high level staff should stay home and work towards delivering the Bali Mandate.  Time is short, and we cannot afford to waste it with meetings that blow nothing but hot air.

 

 

The negotiations are moving fast and furious but we still have a long way to go.  While there has been an unprecedented level of focus around the world on the issue of global warming throughout 2007, the conference has yet to be infused with a sense of urgency.  With the United States making it clear that they will not support targets or timelines for greenhouse gas pollution reduction, we are still working hard to push other countries to lead.  While members of the European delegation have been saying the right words, they have not yet been playing the leadership role we need.  But we are working hard here to change that.  

As we begin to move towards the end of the first week of the conference the level of public activity is growing.  We are all excited for tomorrow, when Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior will sail into Denpasar.  A flotilla of dozens of boats will great her arrival.  The Warrior will host delegates from all over the world over the course of the next week and give us a platform from which we can highlight the importance of a strong Bali Mandate.

Saturday brings the global day of action on climate change.  Events all over the world will shine a spotlight on negotiators in Bali, demanding bold action here.  Nothing short of a strong Bali Mandate that charts a course toward the adoption of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol by 2009 will be acceptable.  

On Sunday, thousands will gather on the beach just a short distance from the conference to create a human beach art image of the earth.  Students from Step It Up here helping to organize the image.  Look for pictures early next week.

And finally on Monday, the high level segment of the negotiations will begin as many of the Ministers begin to arrive.  While there is much talk during the first week of the meeting, in most cases the real work begins once the ministers arrive.

I am incredibly impressed with the large number youth attending the conference.  Greenpeace's Solar Generation students are here in force joining a large and focused youth movement.  The youth delegation has been working the delegates hard, and have becoming an increasingly powerful force at these meetings. 

Stand by for more from Bali.

 
Well at least there is lots of sightseeing in Bali for the grumpy team from Heartland Institute who had their fake press credentials whisked away by the UN at the last moment last week.  They might, for instance, check out some bull racing! or or maybe they can just go get their teeth filed down in the traditional Balinese coming of age ritual that banishes the evil spirits...not a bad idea for this lot.

 

photo credit: http://blog.baliwww.com/?pp_album=main

 

All year, in between expensive but fruitless newspaper ads baiting Al Gore to debate a team of bedraggled global warming deniers, the Heartland Institute has found plenty of time to attack the UN and the IPCC.  In their whining November 30 press release entitled "UN Rejects Press Credentials for Representatives of US Newspaper", they once again quote University of Washington geochemist Eric Steig. Heartland has now used Steig's comments as the lead example of IPCC "censoring dissenting voices" at least 3 times this year, here, here and last week...

Heartland says the UN IPCC process "has been criticized in the past for censoring dissenting voices in favor of a pre-determined political outcome. Even strong cautions were widely ignored, as in the Second Order Draft Comments (Chapter 6; section 6-42), when Eric Steig cautioned, "In general, the certainty with which this chapter presents our understanding of abrupt climate change is overstated. There is confusion between hypothesis and evidence throughout the chapter."

IN FACT... 

Steig wrote, in an email, on the subject:

"My views of the IPCC chapter 6, in its draft form, have been greatly misused to imply that I have a problem with the IPCC documents in general. First of all, my comments were taken into account, and the final version was much improved. This proves that the IPCC process works, which is quite the opposite of what Heartland is trying to claim. My views are consistent with that of all other serious scientists and educated people that have bothered to consider the most basic facts.  Anthropogenic climate change is a real and imminent threat."

 

Steig is a member of the IPCC and now by extension, a Nobel prize winner...good on ya Eric! and he also writes for RealClimate.

This week, Heartland was whining again in Bali...this time that the UN doesn't want to see their latest Baliwood production, the front group denier puppet show...wait for it...the International Climate Science Coalition.  Just a reminder that Heartland has been given some $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998, including over $115,000 in 2006.  We don't yet know how much Exxon cash they raked in for 2007, wait and see... Find all the details on Heartland's friends and family at ExxonSecrets. Click on SHOW ALL PEOPLE and click connecting lines to see linkages

Get your facts straight Heartland, or just go sightseeing...you aren't going to get much else done in Bali. 

 . . .  which is what it should be doing.

Articles galore, supporter feedback. Some good discussions have been coming out of the latest Guide to Greener Electronics. Our international co-worker Tom put up a blog today that I thought was pretty interesting. He talked about a number of the discussions we've seen in the past several days.

Check it out here.  

Renee 

P.S: I only have two weeks left on the west coast. I'm starting to miss California already!

 

 

Not too long ago I remember reading that fish stocks in the Pacific were relatively healthy and that it was the only region in the world where tuna was not being overfished. But a lot has changed in just a few years and scientists are now saying that Pacific tuna stocks are severely threatened from overfishing and that the situation is critical. The Pacific countries are now faced with a very difficult challenge and the fate of many economies is at stake.

I am in Guam right now at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting where more than 20 nations will be negotiating agreements on the region's fisheries, which mainly consist of 4 tuna species (yellow fin, big-eye, skip jack and albacore). The greatest concern is over the decline in yellow fin and big eye stocks which are the tunas that are sold to the sushi and sashimi markets.

Greenpeace has an observer delegation attending the meeting that consists of 5 oceans campaigners. Seni and Lagi are here from the Greenpeace Australia Pacific office in Fiji and Jason is here from the Sydney office. Sari is here from Greenpeace International in Amsterdam and Phil from Greenpeace USA arrives this evening. Inside the meeting they will be monitoring the negotiations and outside they are meeting with the delegates and encouraging the best solutions.

I am your trusty blogger for the meeting and will be letting you know exactly what happens here in Guam. You regularly get to see the heroic actions on the water but so rarely hear about the heroes who work long hours lobbying countries at important meetings like this. Of course the adrenalin levels aren’t quite the same but that doesn’t mean what goes on here isn’t exciting.

Pacific Island countries depend on tuna resources for income and food and this region has the most productive tuna fishery in the world providing over half of the total global tuna supply. Decisions made here will affect the lives of millions and determine the fate of a massive ecosystem. I don’t think you can get much more exciting than that!

We’re calling upon the WCPFC to get serious about protecting the Pacific’s valuable fish stocks by cutting fishing effort in the region by 50%, banning all trans shipments at sea (this is when fish is off-loaded onto another boat, which allows vessels to avoid reporting their total catch by not needing to come into port) and establishing a no-take marine reserve for species managed by the WCPFC. Indications suggest that some of the industrial fishing nations will block efforts to conserve the tuna and already it seems that some of them are making threats to cut the funding of the Commission if expensive measures are put into place to regulate the fisheries. If only they were as keen on cutting fishing effort as they are to cut the funding of the Commission, which only has 8 staff and costs, les than 0.12% of the annual value of the fishery.

The meeting officially starts tomorrow and I will be making a radical physical transformation that I will tell you about later. I'll be posting an update on Tuesday. 

-- Lisa