Greenpeace

This week I traveled from my post as a Field Organizer in Baltimore up the well-seasoned train tracks of the mid-Atlantic to Philadelphia to help out Jillian, my fellow Organizer based in PA. Looking out the window on the train ride, the skyline was spotted with coal-fired power plants and massive chemical facilities. Although I admittedly see the world through an activist's eyes, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the fight we have ahead of us if we want to convert our country to a clean energy economy and break free from our addictions to fossil fuels and the stronghold that industry has on our way of life.

I made the trip to Philly to help organize a last-minute rally held today to draw attention to the fact that this business as usual won’t do, and that the American people, the labor community and business owners from coast to coast are ready to attack climate change head on.



This week, the United States Chamber of Commerce held a Regional Government Affairs Conference in Philadelphia. Speaking at the conference today was the Chamber President Tom Donohue. The chamber has been the source of much media attention in recent months as their stance on climate change and health care reform have been drawn into question. Among the various headlines we learned that the group, which is comprised of thousands of businesses ranging from your local diner to giants like Nike, has spent $34 million this year lobbying against clean energy and health care reform legislation.  

What Greenpeace and a slew of other groups, businesses, and most importantly the American public have realized is that Tom Donohue and his Chamber are lying about climate change. By doing this they are only representing a few corporate CEOs and not American businesses and the public. That’s why major corporations like Apple, PG&E and Levi’s are quitting the chamber, because they understand the severity of, and are committed to tackling, climate change. By fighting real progress, they argue, the Chamber is not accurately representing the views and priorities of its members.  

So at noon today, a chilly fall day in Philadelphia, while Donohue spoke to the crowd inside, we stood outside on a busy street corner, about one hundred strong, to tell him that he can’t speak for us anymore. Addressing our crowd were health care advocates, environmentalists and labor union members. What brought us all together is what is uniting Americans in communities everywhere: we came out in droves at this time last year to vote for then-Senator Obama because we believed he would sideline people like Tom Donahue and because we won’t stand for lies about climate change anymore. You don’t have to be an expert to know that climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and we can’t afford the policies of the past if we want a shot at a sound future.



I had a great trip up to Pennsylvania, and not because I spent time with a colleague I rarely see and got to meet her wonderful volunteers, or because I got to watch the Phillies beat the dreaded Yankees (although that was all memorable). It was a great trip because as I sit writing this on the train back down to Baltimore I look out at the smoke stacks and I don’t feel that overwhelming challenge of a country barreling down the tracks to climate destruction. I feel a real sense of pride to be part of a growing grassroots movement in this country that has had too many years of the status quo and is finally standing as a united front to call on the true culprits to use their power for good and stop climate change before it’s too late.

Greenpeace activists in two inflatable boats intercepted a ship, the Izmuir Castle, as it carried more than 15,000 tons of palm kernel oil into the French port of Montoir-de-Bretagne this morning.  Palm oil plantations are a leading cause of forest destruction in Indonesia and other southeast Asian nations.  The activists painted "Climate Crime" on the hull of the huge cargo ship.  Eleven activists climbed on top of three cranes that were unloading contents of the ship and unfurled banners reading "Funding for forest protection, not their destruction."

This happened while the European Union leaders met to discuss if they’d put on the table to help developing countries fight and deal with global warming.  It’s also on the eve of United Nations climate negotiations in Barcelona next week.

The action is part of an international Greenpeace effort to get world leaders to invest in tropical forest protection for our climate.

While everyone seems to agree that tropical deforestation must be tackled to deal with global warming, few world leaders seem ready to actually do anything about it...and forests continue to fall.  Most conspicuous is President Obama who needs to show the world that the U.S. is ready to lead the fight against global warming.

What needs to be done?  Simple.  Developed nations should pool money together, mostly from their polluting industries, and create a financial incentive for countries with tropic forests to protect forests for our climate.  In the lead up to the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Greenpeace created a proposal to do just that.

To motivate Obama and world leaders, Greenpeace launched a Climate Defenders Camp this week in the Kampar Peninsula peat forests of Indonesia.  Check out photos of the Kampar Peninsula here.

The Climate Defenders Camp has attracted international media attention as they deployed giant banners calling for forest funding, began damming illegally-drained peatlands, and worked to amplify the voice of local communities.  The action at the Climate Defenders Camp is just warming up.  You can read more first-hand accounts, see videos and get daily updates here.

The peat soils of the Kampar, which have built up over ages, store an estimated 2 billion tons of carbon, forming one of the world’s largest carbon stores on land.  When these forest are drained and burned to make way for tree farms and palm oil plantations, the consequences for our climate, and the rainforest species that depend on them, is devastating.

Learn more about peatland forests and global warming in the video below.  And stay tuned as we continue to defend forests for our climate!

-Rolf

On Saturday, October 24th, thousands of people came together calling on our world leaders to act on climate change. The Greenpeace Student Network held events across the country that got over 600 people out on campus or in the streets calling for climate action!

Here are a few highlights:

At Iowa State University, student activists marched with community members to the campus coal plant. Chanting, “no coal is clean coal, clean coal’s a dirty lie,” nearly 30 people came together to demand that Iowa State’s president power past coal. The event had great media coverage and was well received even by workers at the coal plant who were actually smiling and waving when they saw the demonstration!

 
In New York, student activists at SUNY Geneseo held a rally on campus. They had several speakers, including their university president. Over 100 people attended the rally, which wrapped up with a large photo op on the campus lawn. This photo was shown on the TV screens in Times Square with the message to world leaders: “You pick our future.”

 
In North Carolina, student activists from UNC Wilmington held a 5-hour event, which included a full lineup of speakers, music, and a candle light vigil march through the streets of downtown Wilmington. For a city located just miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the event was fittingly called “Turning the Tide,” and brought together over 100 people. Check out a short video of the event!

From rallies to marches, photo ops, and phone calls to President Obama, student activists were heard loud and clear on October 24th. Our movement is growing, and when it comes to climate action from President Obama and world leaders, we won’t take no for an answer!

Visit the Student Network website to get involved today!

You can view more event photos on our Facebook page.

For the climate,

David

Greenpeace has been working for four years on trying to develop an alternative to marine reserves in Alaska, especially in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, and now in the vast and still somewhat pristine Arctic Ocean. It should come as no surprise that the ecosystems of these once rich and living oceans are fast becoming laboratories on how not to manage, as though man could, environments delicate and complex. Because it has been politically impossible to create the successful and ocean repairing marine reserves, we have been looking at creating marine cultural heritage zones (CHZ) in and around coastal communities as well as critical habitats within our country’s 200 mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) here in Alaska.

And today we are another very important step closer to realizing our dreams. The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. Its membership includes 178 villages (both federally-recognized tribes and village corporations), 13 regional Native corporations and 12 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums that contract and run federal and state programs. This organization has and continues to successfully represent our people in Congress, with businesses, and the State of Alaska. Just a week ago, AFN unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the creation and establishment of CHZ’s to protect our foods and the habitats upon which they depend for survival. This task, given a birth by our State’s Alaska Natives remains a daunting task. The lobbyists, lawyers and politicians of the billion dollar a year industry, the commercial fishing industry, will be fighting the development every step of the way. However, one of the most powerful traits of our people is the strong attitude of patience. If nothing else we are a very patient people, and we will see this priority to fruition. We were here before our waters were destroyed and we will be here when the commercial fishers move on. This is home. What we envision CHZ’s will do is similar to what marine reserves do but with more local input in uses and management.

We want to find a way to move destructive fishing practices away from our homes and critical habitat and involve local and traditional knowledge to the management of these protected zones. We the Unangan (Aleut), Yupik and Inupiat Eskimo invite you to join, what most surely will be, our long vigil to protect our waters, our homes, our foods and the food upon which they depend. Offshore oil drillers, large commercial fishing conglomerates and fish stick sellers are a seemingly powerful group. If we work together to stop the slow death affecting our waters and our environments, we will succeed. We the Alaska Native people are not quitting, for we know our ancestors worked to ensure our survival with our bounty. Join our work.

Greenpeace is working tirelessly to join our peoples of Alaska, our peoples of the Arctic to ensure a healthy planet. A patient journey guided by the wisdom of our ancient peoples cannot fail. We are all necessary parts of this walk, a walk together that must realize the dreams of all our peoples; to live where plants and animals are not our enemies but rather our co-inhabitants of this beautiful planet.

I'm on the ground in Sumatra at Greenpeace's Climate Defenders Camp. We're here to let world leaders know that this is ground zero for deforestation and if immediate action isn't taken to end the destruction of our rainforests, climate catastrophe is all but assured.

Southeast Asia is the region most exposed to and least prepared for the impacts of climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank. The ADB warns that the poor — and especially women — are the most vulnerable. Approximately 2.2 billion Asians are subsistence farmers; they are already experiencing falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts.

As well as supporting biodiversity and forest-dwelling communities, forests and their soils are huge carbon stores; they contain nearly 300 billion tones of carbon. That is 40 times more carbon than we currently emit to the atmosphere every year.

© Greenpeace / John Novis

Tropical forest destruction accounts for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world's trains, planes and cars put together. Therefore, we can only avert a climate crisis if world leaders commit to deep and binding cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions from both fossil fuels and deforestation at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

Globally, more than one million hectares of forest, mostly tropical rainforest, is destroyed every month — that is an area of forest the size of a soccer field every two seconds. Destruction and degradation of forests drives climate change in two ways. First, the clearing and burning of forests releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; and second, the area of forest that absorbs carbon dioxide is reduced. Their role in regulating the climate is so crucial that if we destroy the last tropical forests, we will likely lose the battle against climate change.

INDONESIA'S RAINFORESTS AND PEATLANDS


On the ground, it's easy to see the massive destruction that has taken place here. A drive through the Kampar Peninsula reveals acre after acre of forest conversion from healthy rainforest to palm oil plantations. There is no sign of animal life or biodiversity — just row after row of palm. The roads are congested with trucks carrying out palm kernels and the sky is filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set to clear the land for planting.


Riau Andalah Pulp and Paper Company owned by the April Group. © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá

Indonesia is a stark example of the need for a robust plan and the provision of international funds to protect tropical forests. According to the latest available figures, it has one of the fastest rates of deforestation. This emits so much CO2 that Indonesia is the third largest climate polluter, after China and the US.

The reason these emissions are so high is twofold. It is caused by the rapid rate of deforestation, and the drainage and burning of the carbon rich peat soil the forests grow on. Deforestation of tropical forests is driven by global demand for products like paper, palm oil (which is used in toothpaste), chocolate, and as a biofuel. Since 1950, over 182 million acres of Indonesia's rainforests have been destroyed completely and others have been seriously degraded.

In a recent report, the Indonesian Government identified the oil palm, pulp and paper, agriculture, and logging industries as those primarily responsible for draining peat, for destroying its forests, and for causing the country's enormous CO2 emissions. It predicts that, unless action is taken, these emissions will continue to increase.

However, the government continues to hand out the concessions that allow these companies to destroy the remaining rainforest. The Indonesian government has laws to protect some of these carbon-rich peat areas but it fails to enforce the law and even continues to grant permits to companies to destroy them. Under Indonesian law, it is prohibited to develop or clear the forest and to drain any peat if it is deeper than three meters. Over 80% of Kampar's peat is deeper than that, but companies are still granted licenses to destroy its forests and peatlands. Only 10% of the peatlands that remain intact are officially "protected". The remaining 90% is under immediate threat, encircled by encroaching pulp and paper companies. They have been allocated for conversion in spite of the law.

THE COPENHAGEN SOLUTION

International governments give companies that are destroying the rainforest here an incentive to keep up business as usual and drive climate change by allowing imports of paper and palm oil products that come from forest destruction. With the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit just around the corner, the Heads of State of developed countries must show real leadership and secure a robust climate deal in December that includes a global funding mechanism that will transfer $42 billion annually from industrialized countries to poor forested countries like Indonesia, Congo, and Brazil, with the aim of ending deforestation by 2020. Such a deal must deliver substantial emissions reductions from deforestation as well as protect wildlife and respect the rights of forest dwelling people. It must also ensure that money does not end up in the hands of those responsible for forest destruction, like those in the logging industry.

Greenpeace is also calling on Indonesia's President Yudhoyono to commit to zero deforestation by 2015 in Indonesia and to implement an immediate moratorium on the destruction of forests and peatlands to give the climate some breathing space while the forest protection plans are put into action.

President Obama can do his part by coming to Copenhagen to attend the negotiations himself and help push other world leaders to commit to funding solutions to end deforestation. Obama must show leadership now by pushing Congress to pass legislation that will cap our emissions at the levels scientists say is safe and that will help pay for a global funding mechanism for forests. The bills in Congress are too weak and the international talks are veering off course. Now is the time for action from President Obama.

Cross posted at The Huffington Post

I don't have to tell you that the threats that face the planet are absolutely dire. People are doing things they never imagined in hopes of ensuring that our children's children have a planet that is livable.

What keeps me inspired through all of this? Working with youth that are willing to put their lives on hold, to join the Greenpeace Organizing Term. Every semester, 25-30 students are taking time off of school, fundraising to cover tuition, convincing parents to let them join, and moving their lives sometimes across the country to learn how to become leaders in the environmental movement.

The Greenpeace Organizing Term is a semester long program where students learn basic to advanced campaign and grassroots organizing skills. Students spend 12 weeks learning how to build the movement back home, pressure big corporations and elected officials, and how to inspire coming generations of environmental activists.

During the program students' travel to work on campaigns in the field, where they get to use their new skills on Greenpeace campaigns. On their expedition trip, they get a chance to see how environmental issues effect global communities, and have a chance to support those communities through organizing. .

Check out this awesome slideshow that we put together of a few of our over 200 alumni sharing why they decided to take a stand:

Do you want to be apart of this growing movement of youth who are willing to take a stand for the environment? Check out the G.O.T.’s website for more info and to apply!

The Organizing Term is an amazing experience for current undergraduate students who are 18-24. If you are, or know someone whois currently a student who is passionate about environmental change, check out our site at http://www.greenpeace.org/got and apply today for our Spring 2010 semester!

Today Greenpeace is joining 350.org and a massive coalition of organizations and grassroots activists around the world to demand world leaders do what is necessary to stop global warming. I'll be updating this blog post throughout the October 24th International Day of Climate Action with news and photos from events around the country and around the world. You can also follow Greenpeace USA on Twitter.

Twitter Updates

Live Blog

October 24 9:19 PM EST It has been an amazing day of climate action with over 4,000 events all over the world. We have made it clear to world leaders that people everywhere demand a fair, ambitious and binding UN climate deal in Copenhagen this December. As I close shop for this one momentous day I urge folks to remember what dirty energy does to our world and our communities everyday. In the words of Greenpeace Executive Director, Phil Radford, who spoke today at Chicago's march on Fisk Coal-Fired Power station:

Dirty energy is giving asthma to kids in President Obama’s hometown and pushing our planet toward a global warming catastrophe.  It’s time for Obama to live up to his promises to return science to its rightful place and stop letting coal and oil industry lobbyists write our nation’s energy policy. The world can’t afford anything less.

 9:03 PM EST Photos from Boulder's Power Past Coal Bike Ride to Valmont Power Plant are in! You can find Greenpeace Flickr Photos like this one from Colorado here, here, and here.

6:10 EST West Coast events such as the San Francisco Bicylce Tide Line and a Manhattan Beach rally are ongoing. Photos from farther east are pooring in! Check out thes photos Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, and NYC:

Created with flickr slideshow.

This is one of my favorite photos from the Boston Under Water Festival where a coalition of organizations and activists called attention to threat of rising sea levels do to global warming:

And at a rally earlier in Tampa:

 

October 23 4:52 PM EST - October 24th, the International Day of Climate Action poses to be the largest, most coordinated day of action for the environment in history. And it has already begun in New Zealand!

As part of a large global alliance of organizations coming together on Oct. 24th, Greenpeace is  calling on the world's leaders to agree to a climate deal that is ambitious, fair and binding. Together, we are pushing for a strong climate treaty that will not only reverse the march of dangerous climate change but also help us tackle some of the world’s largest challenges like deforestation.

TAKE ACTION:  Demand a global climate deal that is ambitious, fair and binding.

Participating in the day of action? Leave a comment to this blog and tell us what you are doing!

Today, President Obama gave an energy-themed speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His speech is just ahead of hearings on the climate and energy legislation scheduled to be taken up by the Senate next week.

Here's a statement by Damon Moglen, Greenpeace’s Global Warming Campaign Director:

“President Obama’s speech comes at a critical moment in the national conversation about how our country must respond to the global warming crisis, and we welcome his renewed engagement in this critical debate.

“However, with negotiations stalled just six weeks before international climate talks in Copenhagen, the world needs President Obama to go beyond political speeches and make firm commitments based on science.

“The climate and energy legislation passed in the House and now the similar Senate bill have been a source of international disappointment. The bills’ weak targets for reducing emissions, and billions in wasted giveaways to the coal industry, handicaps America’s ability to build a clean energy future at home and to provide global leadership on this life and death matter.

"It is clear that Congress will not pass legislation this year that goes far enough and fast enough in addressing the demands of climate change. The President must get out of the back seat and take the wheel of America’s climate policy. At a domestic level, the President needs to assert executive authority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate decisive growth in the clean energy economy.

"At the international level, Mr Obama should be articulating ambitious vision and commitments for Copenhagen which are in-scale with the global need to address climate change.

"Tomorrow, the most widespread day of global political action the planet has ever seen will demand that world leaders secure a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty at Copenhagen capable of preventing the worst impacts of global warming. We hope President Obama will be listening because today the American plan to address the crisis falls short of this imperative.”

When you close your eyes and picture a polar bear, what do you see? A couple years ago, when I closed my eyes, I saw a mama polar bear with two adorable baby cubs playing in the snow. But, now when I close my eyes I have the sad imagery of a desperate polar bear, thin, shaking and clinging to a small piece of ice, stranded in the middle of a cold arctic sea.

Polar bears are the unfortunate victim of our dependence on oil. When decisions are being made, big oil wins out and polar bears are left to die. They just can’t catch a real break. Their habitat is quickly disappearing – melting ice from global warming. And, if that’s not enough, the land that is still solid is being drilled and polluted for oil exploration.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to designate 200,000 square miles acres of coastal land and waters along the north coast of Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears. This proposal was in response to the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace.

But, just as the polar bears were about to celebrate we remembered that this week another Interior Department agency, the Minerals Management Service, approved oil-company plans for exploratory drilling in the polar bear’s habitat in the Beaufort Sea. And, the Interior is considering a similar drilling proposal in the Chukchi Sea.

How can polar bears survive when the agency with the power to protect them is schizophrenic?  The Department of Interior (DOI) declared its intent to protect polar bear habitat in the Arctic, and simultaneously sacrificed that same habitat to feed our unsustainable addiction to oil.

Having a hard time keeping up? Here are some cliff notes...

• May 2008 the DOI listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

• At the same time, the DOI issued a special rule exempting greenhouse gas emissions from certain provisions of the Act.

• May 2009, new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reaffirmed this Bush-era exemption for the fossil-fuels industry.

• A court challenge to this regulation by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace is ongoing.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Interior has until June 30, 2010 to finalize critical habitat designation for the polar bear. Designating polar bear critical habitat is a good first step toward protecting this species, but as long as the Secretary of the Interior maintains that he can do nothing about greenhouse emissions and global warming, protections for the polar bear will ultimately be ineffective.

 

 

I gave my Macbook a hug last night after reading on Apple's website that it has cleared the last hurdle in eliminating toxic PVC plastic. Apple is now the first PC maker to completely eliminate hazardous brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride plastic in its new iMac and Macbook.

Removing PVC from PC power cords was the last step in Apple’s industry leading position on toxics elimination. Apple was first with PCs virtually free of BFRs and PVC (except for the power cord) in March this year. While HP recently produced their first BFR/PVC free (except power cord) model, Apple has again moved further ahead of the competition.

While removing the last use of PVC might not sound like a big deal, it means Apple’s new products will be safer and easier to recycle and cause less pollution at the end of life. There were significant technical and safety certification barriers to finding PVC alternatives, but Apple has now proved it's now possible and has completed the phase out, while reducing product price and boosting profits.

Apple’s PVC free power cords are only available in certain markets currently but should be available more widely when safety certification is obtained.

This lays down the gauntlet to other major PC makers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer to catch up with Apple again, and we’ll be keeping up our pressure on them to match Apple’s lead.

A bit of history

Back in 2006 we launched our Green my Apple campaign because we knew Apple had the potential to lead the industry towards greener, less toxic products. Huge numbers of Apple fans also called for a Greener Apple and the new iMac and MacBook are the final steps on the road Apple started down with Steve Jobs May 2007. This news marks an active few weeks for Apple’s environment team. Apple deserves credit for these positive moves but also big credit to all those Apple fans who helped make environment a top priority for Apple.

On October 21st, the House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Subcommittee Chair Edward Markey (D-MA) approved comprehensive chemical plant security legislation (H.R. 2868 & H.R. 3258) in a 29-18 vote. The Committee rejected all 15 Republican amendments designed to cripple or delay both bills. The legislation is expected to go to the House floor later this fall. This is the first time this legislation has been approved by the two authorizing committees. On June 23rd the Homeland Security Committee also approved a weaker version of H.R. 2868.

“A compromise acceptable to leading industry lobbyists wasn’t enough for Committee  republicans. If they had had their way, chemical plants that pose catastrophic risks to densely populated areas would continue to put millions at risk for years to come,” said Rick Hind, Legislative Director of Greenpeace. In fact, the American Chemistry Council, in a letter to Chairman Waxman just before the committee markup, proclaimed HR 2868 "the appropriate vehicle for ensuring a permanant CFATS program."

More than 200 chemical facilities have converted to safer chemical processes since 9/11  eliminating poison gas risks to 38 million Americans. Hundreds of other plants together put more than 100 million Americans at risk. A blue-green coalition of more than 50 organizations has been urging Congress to enact legislation to eliminate these risks. They include: the  United Auto Workers, Steelworkers, Teamsters, Fire Fighters, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Greenpeace. The Department of Homeland Security and the EPA testified in favor of this legislation at an October 1st hearing held by the Subcommittee.

*The final version of the Energy and Commerce Committee bills (H.R. 2868 & H.R. 3258) would:

• Conditionally require the highest risk plants to use safer cost-effective chemical processes where feasible and require the remaining high risk plants to “assess” safer processes;
• Eliminate the current law's exemption of thousands of chemical plants, such as waste water and drinking water facilities;
• Involve plant employees in the development of security plans and provide protections for whistleblowers;
• Preserve state’s authority to establish stronger security standards, and
• Provide up to $225 (H.R. 2868) and $375 (H.R. 3258) million respectively toward the implementation of safer chemical processes over a three-year period.*

 “Although this bill is a compromise, it is a giant step forward for communities at risk. We look forward to working with the House leadership in moving this bill to the House floor this fall,” said Hind.

Among the compromises, the legislation narrows the number of high-risk chemical facilities to approximately 107 that may be required to eliminate catastrophic risks with safer chemical processes. It also allows chemical plants a second appeals process to challenge agency decisions and exempts them from citizen enforcement suits. Instead, the bill contains a petition process giving citizens the right to initiate a government investigation into potential violations by a chemical facility. The legislation also does not ensure that residents living downwind of high-risk chemical plants will be informed if nearby facilities are in compliance with security regulations or even part of the program.

In June, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a different version of H.R. 2868, which included four major loopholes not contained in the Energy and Commerce bills.

--Mae

Our tour is wrapping up. We steamed into port here in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, on the 19th. We spent the last few days of the tour in high seas pocket number 3 (see a map of the high seas pockets here), looking for fishing vessels that are threatening the future of the Pacific. And let me tell you, we had absolutely no problems finding them.

On Thursday, the 15th, we found a Taiwanese long-liner, Kai Jie No. 1, that had no license to fish in the waters of any Pacific island countries. This does not make it illegal for them to be fishing on the high seas, since these waters belong to no particular nation, but this is one of the main ways fishing fleets get around the regulations that Pacific island countries are introducing to better manage their tuna stocks.

We spoke with the captain of the vessel and explained that what he was doing was decimating the tuna stocks that Pacific island nations rely on and asked him to pull in his line. When he refused, we took action. We went out and, using a special contraption designed by our fitter from the first leg of the tour, Jono, to hold the line up out of the water, we went down the long-line and removed the bait from their hooks.

I shot this video of the action, in which our resident marine life expert, Gabe, explains more about the process:


This ship may not have been a pirate fisher in a legal sense — though it was operating in an area known to host a lot of the region’s illegal fishing — but it was certainly plundering the Pacific. That’s why we’re trying to shut down the four high seas pockets to all fishing.

The next day we spotted yet another unlicensed Taiwanese long-liner fishing on the high seas. It might seem unlikely for us to come across one vessel after another in an ocean as vast as the Pacific, but when you consider that these ships are part of a massive fleet of more than 1,300 long-liners — and that’s just the Taiwanese fleet — you begin to realize how big the problem is and why we keep encountering them.

Again, we went and spoke with the captain, passed him information about our campaign and the science showing that Pacific tuna stocks are in bad shape, and asked him to stop plundering the Pacific. He also refused to haul in his line, as you’ll hear our translator Tan-chi tell us in this video:



As you could see, the captain of this ship was quite an agreeable guy who seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. He sat and read our campaign materials for several minutes. He was even very hospitable towards us: when we refused the grape sodas he offered after reading our literature, he insisted we take them so vehemently that he actually threw them onboard our boats. We are not trying to set ourselves up in opposition to this hard-working captain and his crew.

As Tan-chi translated for us, the economics of the situation make it impossible for him to stop fishing and head back to port. And that’s what we are trying to change. You can read more about this situation — the vicious cycle of fishing in the Pacific and the diminishing returns these vessels are producing as Pacific fish stocks grow more and more depleted — in this blog by Karli, our onboard campaigner.

Karli is the lead campaigner onboard the Esperanza for the Defending Our Pacific tour.

Last week, we found no less than four Taiwanese fishing vessels on the high seas in the space of just three days. We took action against two of them (Mike wrote about those vessels and the actions we did in this post). Though this makes it seem as if these vessels and their crews are our adversaries in the fight to save the Pacific tuna stocks and close the four high seas pockets to all fishing, that is not the case. We were not there to try and tell these captains what to do, but rather to give them the information their employers might not be giving him, to appeal to their sense of morality, and to ask them to stop plundering the Pacific.


Greenpeace activists ask the captain of the Ming Jhy Fwu No. 16 to haul in his long-line after giving him information about our campaign and the state of Pacific fisheries. © Paul Hilton/Greenpeace

What we do oppose is the corporations they work for, which are colluding with the Taiwanese government – just as so many other corporations are colluding with governments around the world – to trap them and their crews into economic circumstances that only benefit the corporation, while also blatantly disregarding the plight of Pacific fisheries and the theft of fish right out of Pacific islanders’ waters.

Our adversaries are also governments, like that of Taiwan, that continue to ignore the warnings of scientists about Pacific fish stocks and instead allow new fishing vessels to be built and sent out to chase after fewer and fewer fish. One of the ships we encountered last week, the Ming Jhy Fwu No. 16, was just built in 2006 – at a time when we were already aware that overfishing in the Pacific was having dire consequences.

The captain of the Ming Jhy Fwu No. 16 seemed like a thoughtful guy. As Mike described, he sat right down and read the campaign literature we gave him with genuine interest. We are not against this captain or his crew. If anything, we have total sympathy for him and are glad to be on his side.

By allowing this vessel, and many, many others like it, to leave the ship-building yards and join the already bloated fleet in the Pacific, countries like Taiwan are locking their own fishing industry – and people like the captain of the Ming Jhy Fwu No. 16 – into a vicious cycle whereby they must fish to make a return on what they have invested in their fishing ship and gear. If governments do not take responsibility, the fishing industry will simply fish itself to death.

Though Taiwan has reduced its fishing capacity in the past years, they still build more vessels and then simply get them flagged under foreign nations. But it's usually still owned by the same owners. The fishing industry is always trying to find and exploit loopholes to avoid national, regional and international regulations. This irresponsible behavior on the part of the fishing industry compromises Taiwan's efforts.

The Taiwanese government and the regional fisheries management organization have to take a much stricter stand on the continued introduction of new capacity into the region and drastically reduce the masses of overcapacity of the fleets that currently exists.

It’s not just Taiwan that has such recent additions to its fleets. In fact, you might recall that on the first leg of the tour we exposed a refueling operation involving a brand new “super-seiner,” a massive fishing vessel with nets large enough to encircle whole schools of tuna and all the other marine life that is swimming with them. That ship, the American Legacy, only left the shipyard for its maiden voyage in 2008.

This is a cycle that we need to break, and this year is going to be a deciding moment for the Pacific. Through the Defending Our Pacific expedition, Greenpeace has again provided evidence that fishing in the high seas is undermining management and threatening the Pacific. We’ve also demonstrated that transshipment by long-line vessels and the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) by purse seiners are enabling the plunder of marine life.

It’s time for those countries that want a future for their fishing fleets to stand up and be counted alongside the Pacific island countries in their call for the high seas to be closed to fishing.

- Karli

On October 14th, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment chaired by Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) approved comprehensive chemical plant security legislation (H.R. 2868 & H.R. 3258) in an 18 to10 party-line vote. The Subcommittee rejected 13 Republicans amendments aimed at crippling the legislation that will be taken up by the full Energy and Commerce Committee this week. This is the first time this legislation has moved through the Homeland Security Committee.  

“Given a choice between protecting millions of Americans at risk and doing nothing, Subcommittee Republicans not only chose nothing, they proposed doing nothing for three more years,” said Rick Hind, Legislative Director of Greenpeace.  “The compromises contained in each bill weren’t enough for subcommittee Republicans. They also tried to gut provisions in both bills that would eliminate catastrophic risks in densely populated areas,” said Hind.

The compromise legislation narrows the number of high-risk chemical facilities to approximately 107 that are required to eliminate catastrophic risks with safer chemical processes. It also allows chemical plants a second appeals process to challenge agency decisions and exempts them from direct citizen enforcement.  Instead, the bill contains a petition process affording citizens the ability to initiate a government investigation into potential violations by a chemical facility.  The compromise legislation also does not ensure that residents living downwind of high-risk chemical plants will be informed if nearby facilities are subject to or in compliance with security regulations.

 “This bill clearly represents a compromise on some major issues. We look forward to working with the Energy and Commerce Committee this week to improve the bill further,” said Hind.

More than 200 chemical facilities have converted to safer chemical processes since 9/11 eliminating poison gas risks to 38 million Americans. Hundreds of other chemical plants together put more than 100 million Americans at risk. A blue-green coalition of more than 50 organizations have been urging Congress to enact legislation to eliminate these risks. They include: the United Auto Workers, Steelworkers, Teamsters, Fire Fighters, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Greenpeace. The Department of Homeland Security and the EPA testified in favor of this legislation at an October 1st hearing held by the Subcommittee.

In June, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a different version of H.R. 2868, which included four major loopholes not contained in the Energy & Commerce bills.

The Energy & Environment Subcommittee version of H.R. 2868 and H.R. 3258 would also:
- Eliminate the current law's exemption of thousands of chemical plants, such as waste water and drinking water facilities;
- Involve plant employees in the development of security plans and provides protections for whistleblowers;
- Preserve state’s authority to establish stronger security standards, and
- provide up to $225 (H.R. 2868) and $375 (H.R. 3258) million respectively toward the implementation of safer chemical processes over a three-year period.

Earlier this week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere as well as NOAA Admisistrator – not to mention a member of President Obama’s Ocean Taskforce – finally broke the silence by officially weighing in on bluefin tuna.

Lubchenco announced that the United States is “sending a clear and definitive statement to the international community that the status quo is not acceptable.”  She formally acknowledged the peril facing the Northern bluefin tuna, citing stock declines of 72% and 82% in the eastern and western populations, respectively.  The good Doctor levels blame for these declines directly at the ineffectual International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), as well as the irresponsible activities of certain countries that target bluefin in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Lubchenco calls for ICCAT to address overfishing by setting responsible quotas, increasing enforcement, and instituting fishing closures during spawning periods.   She then goes on to declare the United States’ “strong support” for Monaco’s proposal to prohibit the international trade of the species by way of a CITES Appendix I listing.

Sounds great, right?  And it is, in a way.  It’s a strong proclamation that lets the world know the United States is seriously concerned about this issue.   So why aren’t I out in the street right now, lighting fireworks and drinking to excess?

What’s more important than what Dr. Lubchenco said is what she didn’t say.  Specifically, one particular word, the absence of which leaves me worried and somewhat dismayed.

That word is “sponsor.”

Lubchenco’s statement, while full of authority and righteous indignation, undercuts itself by failing to take up Monaco’s proposal whole-heartedly and champion it at the upcoming CITES meeting in March.  Here’s what I mean:

Sponsoring the proposal would have meant that the United States would have submitted Monaco’s resolution to the CITES parties itself.

Strongly supporting the proposal means that the United States is behind the idea in theory, but won’t stand alone to bring it to the table for due consideration and a vote.

The United States’ government has cast its weight behind a plan that would theoretically repair ICCAT rather than seek endangered species status for the bluefin.  And yes, there is some merit to this.  If ICCAT had the capacity to set quotas based on ecologically sustainable yield (ESY) as well as the teeth to enforce them in the face of pirates and greedy European bureaucrats – then it just might work.  In fact, by demonstrating its capacity to rebuild the tuna stock in the face of unrelenting market pressure, it could even prove a model for other fishery management tools.  But based on ICCAT’s shameful history, not to mention the infuriating myopia and relentless rapacity demonstrated by some of the countries participating in ICCAT, I am forced to remain skeptical.

While Lubchenco’s statement rings loudly, its effectiveness is yet to be determined.  The gap between sponsorship and strong support is wide indeed – potentially wide enough to swallow up all that’s left of the once-mighty bluefin tuna.

Being that I’m in the middle of the Pacific on an Oceans campaign, I thought it would be appropriate if I celebrated Blog Action Day ’09 with a post about the effects global warming is having on the world’s oceans.

I wrote yesterday about the obligation of the developed world to help developing nations deal with the impacts of climate change on the oceans, but I didn’t really specify what those impacts might be. Here are a few of the major impacts we can expect if global warming is not put in check:

• Coral bleaching
The world’s coral reefs are some of the most amazing and diverse ecosystems on the planet, but they’re in grave danger from global warming. Corals contain microscopic algae that provide the coral with food and give them their vibrant colors. Rising ocean temperatures cause corals to expel these algae, thus turning them white or "bleaching" them. Worse, the corals die if the algae don’t return.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, experienced its worst ever case of coral bleaching in 2002, when over 60 percent of the reef was affected. Unless projected levels of climate change are slowed, much of the reef will be dead in decades. Worse, hundreds of species relying on the reef will also die out along with their living home.

Corals the world over are facing the threat of bleaching, from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to the Galapagos Islands and the Philipines.

•Global melting
As global temperatures rise, the world’s ice melts. It’s as simple as that. And we’re already witnessing this happening. Our recent Arctic Impacts expedition was all about documenting the meltdown of Greenland’s glaciers and trying to understand the mechanisms behind it.



The melting of the world’s sea ice and glaciers will have a number of implications, perhaps the most discussed being that as Arctic sea ice melts there will be less habitat for polar bears, further imperiling this already endangered species. But global melting will also contribute to sea level rise and change the salinity of the oceans, hurting fish stocks and disrupting ocean circulation patterns.

Most worrisome is the fact that as the ice melts, more land and ocean water is exposed. The white ice reflects the sun’s light, but the darker water and land absorbs it, thereby potentially creating a negative feedback loop in which the melting of the world’s ice and the heating of our planet is accelerated. Already the Arctic is melting much faster than anyone predicted.

•Sea level rise
Melting sea ice does not contribute to sea level rise because that ice is already floating, but melting glaciers most certainly will cause the world’s seas to rise. A very sobering report was released earlier this month by the United Nations Environmental Program that forecasted a 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. This would mean as much as a six-foot rise in sea levels.

Even a sea level rise of just around three feet, meanwhile, is projected to displace millions of people who live in low-lying parts of the world. In fact, the president of the Maldives, a Pacific island nation that is only 4.9 feet above sea level on average, recently held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat that the looming climate crisis and sea level rise pose to his country.

You can check out this Google Map to see what various degrees of sea level rise might look like.

•Threats to marine life
Coral and Polar bears aren’t the only species threatened by global warming. Rises in ocean temperatures will impact the entire web of marine life. For example, phytoplankton, which is the main food source of small crustaceans like krill, grow under sea ice. A reduction in sea ice implies a reduction in krill — and krill feeds many whale species, including the great whales.

Whole species of marine animals and fish are directly at risk. A recent study found that warmer waters, for instance, can lead to some species becoming more aggressive and more vulnerable to prey.

Ocean acidification is another problem threatening marine life. As more CO2 is pumped into our atmosphere, more CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, which decreases the pH level of the oceans. Unfortunately, ocean acidification is happening much faster than anyone predicted, making life harder and harder on organisms like molluscs that depend on calcium carbonate shells, which can be weakened or even dissolved by acid.

These are just some of the main impacts I wanted to talk about, but by no means all of them. I barely touched on what a change in ocean currents due to decreased salinity might mean to weather patterns, for instance. And speaking of weather patterns, you’re probably already aware that warmer ocean temperatures are widely considered to make tropical storms bigger and more frequent. There’s even some compelling evidence that climate change is causing the El Niño phenomenon to be more frequent and more persistent.

All of this, I think, makes it abundantly clear that we need to put pressure on President Obama and other world leaders to sign an ambitious climate treaty in Copenhagen this December.

For more than two decades, Daniel Beltrá has been saving the world, one photo at a time. Now, the world is recognizing him for the astonishing work he has produced for Greenpeace and for the work he has produced as the winner of a 2008 World Photography Award special category sponsored by Sony for the Prince's Rainforest Project.

On Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, Beltrá will be named "Person of the Week" on ABC's " World News with Charles Gibson, at 6.30 Eastern Time, and 5.30 Pacific. The scheduled program will showcase his year-long tropical rainforest project, broadcast an interview with Beltrá, and display images from an exhibition at the Mercy Corps Action Center which runs through Nov. 15th at 6 River Terrace, Battery Park City, New York, NY.

The segment will also feature footage of Beltrá at work in Sumatra where he was shocked to find that more than 80 percent of the original forests have been destroyed and replaced by monocultures of palm oil, acacia, and eucalyptus.

I'll be watching the footage of this master environmental photographer at work hoping to pick up any clues to his technique and to try and figure out how he is able to keep looking through the lens and making equally incredible images of the beauty of the natural world and the full horror of its ongoing destruction. I hope you will tune in whether you have appreciated his past work or are just discovering something new.  

Through Beltrá's lens we see the majestic grandeur of polar ice formations and the plight of polar bears leaping between melting ice pods in their disappearing habitat. Through him, we look down into depths of the Amazon forest and see the variety of plant and animal life and we see it disappear in a plume of dark smoke blotting out the wide horizon as it billows from the blackened earth under broken trees. Through his images, Beltrá takes us to the far reaches of the world bearing witness to what is happening to Mother Earth. He wields his camera to pierce the smoke and shatter the mirrors with which governments and corporations attempt to hide the awful truth of their plunder.

Is the Climate Bill morphing into an excuse to promote fossil fuels and new nuclear power plants? 

Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) recent promotion of a pro-nuke/pro-drilling/pro-coal agenda in the name of Climate Protection has been highlighted in a New York Times op-ed co-authored with Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC). The piece brands nuke power "our single largest contributor of emissions-free power." It advocates abolishing "cumbersome regulations" so utilities can "secure financing for more plants." And it wants "serious investment" to "find solutions to our nuclear waste problem." 

The Senate Bill as now drafted also includes a "Clean Energy Development Administration" that could deliver virtually unlimited federal cash to build new reactors and fund other mega-polluters. 

Also on the table are vastly expanded permits for off-shore drilling. And Kerry/Graham have talked of making the US "the Saudi Arabia of clean coal" while bringing "new financial incentives for companies that develop carbon capture and sequestration technology." 

If you think pushing nukes, oil wells and coal mines to "prevent global warming" is counter-intuitive, you ain't seen nothin' yet. 

The give-aways are allegedly meant to attract GOP votes. The joint Kerry/Graham op-ed is being billed as a "game changer." 

But even with provisions pushing a hundred new reactors in the US alone, some GOP stalwarts hint they would NEVER vote for a bill that includes cap-and-trade clauses. So is the GOP set to play the same game with Climate legislation as it has with health care: prolong negotiations, gut the substance of reform, demand---and GET---untold corporate give-aways, and then oppose the bill anyway? 

What thin green substance survives could be limited to a few showpiece handouts for renewables and efficiency, with cap-and-trade as the centerpiece. But many environmentalists argue that cap-and-trade could create yet another costly bureaucracy with little real impact on the climate crisis. 

To get real about solving this crisis, Congress should demand---and fund---a definitive national transition to energy efficiency and modernized mass transit. We still waste half the energy we consume. There's no source of usable juice cheaper and quicker to install than increased efficiency. 

Taxes on carbon and other forms of "ancillary" pollution would help if they assess radioactive emissions (from coal as well as nukes), destruction of our oceans, lakes and rivers, removal of mountain tops, creation of nuclear waste, and so on. Merely axing the subsidies to King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas) and rendering a level playing field for true green energy sources to fairly compete with the old fossil/nukes would take us a long way up the road to Solartopia. A feed-in tariff that rewards renewables for the pollution they avoid would also help. 

Without all that, the Climate Bill's outright negatives could be huge. Atomic reactors can do little or nothing to bring down carbon emissions. Projected construction costs for new nukes have jumped from $2 billion to $13 billion and counting. Body-blows to the all-but-dead Yucca Mountain nuke waste dump have left the industry, after 50 years, with nothing tangible to do with some 50,000 tons of spent lethal radioactive fuel rods. And after a half-century, the industry cannot command private construction financing or private liability insurance to cover a catastrophic melt-down or terror attack. Even if reactors could help with greenhouse gas emissions, it would take a trillion dollars or more to make a noticeable dent, and a decade or more for such reactors to begin to come on line. 

But the reactor lifeline does not flow through licensing or waste. Because it has failed as a commercial technology, the industry must have massive infusions of cash and loan guarantees. The Climate Bill's real damage will be measured by the size and scope of reactor subsidies, if any. 

Kerry's willingness to entertain "clean coal" and new offshore oil drilling as "solutions" for climate chaos staggers the imagination. It seems to signal that King CONG still owns Washington, and that any meaningful Congressional push for green power will demand serious re-direction from the grassroots. 

DC insiders generally doubt that any Climate Bill can pass this year. Afghanistan and health care still dominate the national agenda. 

But Democrats are desperate for SOMETHING to show at December's Copenhagen Climate Conference. The question is: how much will they give fossil/nuke Republicans to get a bill---ANY bill---with the world "Climate" attached? 

The anti-nuclear movement has three times defeated proposed $50 billion loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. The environmental community still understands that solving the climate crisis requires the ultimate phase-out of fossil fuels. “A carbon-free, nuclear-free energy future is within the Senate’s reach," says Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. "The approach laid out by Kerry and Graham would lead to a climate bill in name only." NIRS is organizing a national call-in this week. A nationwide series of demonstrations for the environment will take place October 24. 

Preserving our ability to survive on this planet demands we phase out fossil fuels and nuclear power, and win a green-powered Earth based solely on renewables and efficiency. Ultimately, we cannot live with less.

--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at www.solartopia.org. He is senior advisor to the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and senior editor of www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Thursday, dozens of activists gathered outside the Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco. Activists hoped to get a glimpse of President Obama as he approached the fundraiser to speak to his party.

 

 

San Francisco has long been a city that’s given President Obama strong support-- in part, this support hinged on his promise to lead on global warming. Unfortunately, Obama has so far allowed industry lobbyists to drive US climate policy, in spite of the billions of people whose lives are touched by climate change. Like many regions of the world experiencing the early effects of global warming, California has suffered from record wildfires and water shortages.

To make sure he'd get the message that more is required, activists stood on the street corner and used music players to broadcast samples of Obama’s statements committing to leadership in addressing climate change. The audio also included a challenge from activists to live up to his promises to lead the world toward a solution to the crisis.

Activists had a very simple message of the President, “please be the leader you vowed to be.”

President Obama needs to go to Copenhagen and push for a strong world treaty that does what science says will protect future generations. So far, he's let Congress take the lead, but they have fallen dramatically short of what science says is necessary. The world desperately needs the president to be the leader he promised he would be.

Take action

It's finally here, a day when over 7,400 blogs with over 11,000,000 million readers will all be blogging about one thing on one day: climate. It couldn't come at a better moment, it is only 9 day before Greenpeace, 350.org and a host of coaltion partners and grassroots activists are calling for a Global Day of Action for the Climate!

What is today? It's Blog Action Day 2009, "an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web." This year, the organizers of blog action day chose climate as their issue and I couldn't explain why this is such an important move better myself:

Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees.

Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

 Blog Action Day is perfectly timed to mobilize folks all over the world to participate in the October 24th International Day of Climate Action, when thousands of people just like you will Gather in more than 150 countries worldwide with the same message to world leaders: stop playing politics and save the planet.

And while we write about climate almost everyday, if you're a blogger, here are two things you can do to pitch in on Blog Action Day:

1. Write about the one of more than 2,400 events around the world happening closest to you.

2. Call your readers to action by posting this video:

Then, from the internet and in the streets, we can take this planet back!

When we caught the Japanese ship Koyu Maru 3 illegally fishing in Cook Islands waters, I made the point that their actions were not just illegal but immoral. I thought I'd write a little bit more on that, as well as the moral obligations of the developed world to deal with issues like overfishing and climate change — issues that developed nations are overwhelmingly responsible for creating.


September 02, 2009 - Activists from the Esperanza display banners alongside a Taiwanese fishing vessel that was illegally transferring fish to another vessel in the Western Pacific Ocean. The transfer of fish at sea is one of the methods used around the world to cover up illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU or pirate) fishing activities. © Greenpeace/Paul Hilton

Last week, The Commonwealth released a report written by 26 scientists and academics that underscores the drastic need for government action on overfishing and climate change in order to stave off a collapse of global fisheries. The report warns that the oceans could soon become as barren as deserts and goes on to say:

The study reveals that those least responsible for the state of the oceans are most likely to suffer the consequences of poor management and climate change. Small island states in particular are vulnerable to illegal and unfair fishing by foreign fleets and to migration of fish away from warming seas.

The Esperanza has been in the Pacific region since May to support Pacific Island countries on issues ranging from climate change to fisheries collapse and marine conservation (read more here and here).

But of course Greenpeace’s history in the Pacific Ocean goes back much further than that — all the way back to the early 1970s when we were protesting the French nuclear blasts at Moruroa. The fallout from these blasts also disproportionately affected those Pacific islanders living downwind from the blast sites — another instance of those not responsible for a problem suffering the most. While there was nothing technically illegal about these blasts, the total disregard for human health and welfare only highlights how egregiously immoral they were.

The industrialized commercial fishing vessels that are literally stealing fish from Pacific island nations' waters is just another example of the developed world doing as they please and disregarding the well-being of the people affected by their actions. That's why it’s very encouraging that eight Pacific island nations have come together and are standing up for their rights against the invading international commercial fishing fleets.

Pacific island states are not the only developing nations that are banding together to force the developed world to live up to their moral obligations: “Africa will demand billions of dollars in compensation from rich polluting nations at a UN climate summit for the harm caused by global warming on the continent, African officials said Sunday.”

Lest we doubt that there is any need for this stand by African nations, even the World Bank, which has not historically been known as a good friend to the developing world (Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine documents ample evidence of this assertion), is warning of the threats those nations are facing as the climate crisis looms: “The World Bank estimates that the developing world will suffer about 80 percent of the damage of climate change despite accounting for only around one third of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

So the real question we must be asking ourselves is: Will the developed world stand up and do the right thing in regard to these moral obligations?

Greenpeace released the “America’s Share of the Climate Crisis: A State-By-State Carbon Footprint” report back in May to highlight the United States’ responsibility for leading the world's efforts to stop global warming given our outsized role in creating the problem.

Sign our petition to President Obama letting him know that Americans expect world leaders to agree to a climate deal that is ambitious, fair and binding this December in Copenhagen.

René Ngongo has been working closely with Greenpeace to save the Congo Basin Forests (the second largest tropical forest after the Amazon) since 2004. And, he is now being recognized for his good work.

René began his work for the Amazon first in his capacity as head of OCEAN and now as Political Advisor for Greenpeace Africa when he led the opening of our first office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Right Livelihood Award is also known as the alternative Nobel Prize. It honors those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today. Several winners are announced every year and receive the prize in early December. We are beyond happy that René is one of them.

Congratulations René!!

 

Global warming is the challenge of our generation. And, while the issue may be daunting, it is inspiring to know that people everywhere are taking action to save the climate.

Our future depends on an ambitious global climate deal. Are you up for the challenge?

Live in the Washington DC area? Want to do something fun and show your green?  Greenpeace will be at this year’s Green Festival at the Convention Center in Washington DC Saturday from 10am-7pm and Sunday 11am-6pm.  Come over and say hello to our friendly volunteers who will be spreading the word about the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen and what folks can do to get our leaders to engage in a fair, ambitious, and binding international treaty to curb global green house gas emissions and prevent the worst of climate change impacts. There will be information about many Greenpeace campaigns, so come to booth 122 with questions, concerns, or even a high five. If you can’t make the festival this weekend, you can sign on to our petition now, or find out about the International Day of Climate Action event in your area.

At Green Festival you can sample organic foods, listen to new music, learn about green innovations, see an environmental movie, listen to speakers like Ed Begley, Jr., Amy Goodman, and just announced, Ralph Nader.  Find out more at the Green Festival website.   Hope to seeyou there!

 

 

 

 

I'm always amazed at all the beautiful pictures Greenpeace captures. I wanted to share a slideshow of images from around the globe. Greenpeace is an international organization with offices in more than 30 countries. Take a visual tour with me and discover some amazing actions from around the world.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures :)

-Michelle 

Just the other day, I was having a discussion with Karli, one of our onboard Oceans campaigners, about the origin of the phrase “caught red-handed.” One website I found said that it came about as a reference to literally being caught with blood on your hands after the commission of a murder or a poaching session.
 
Whether or not that’s the true origin of the phrase, it makes an apt introduction to what we witnessed yesterday. We literally caught the Japanese ship Koyu Maru 3 red-handed, hauling in its long-line and catching tuna within Cook Islands waters, where the ship does not have a license to fish.


The Koyu Maru 3 in Cook Islands waters. Image © Paul Hilton/Greenpace

We provided the Cook Islands Ministry of Marine Resources and the Fisheries Agency of Japan with photographic evidence of the illegal activity, which you can see here, and are now calling for the arrest of the ship’s captain.


The crew of the Koyu Maru 3 hauling in their long-line. Image © Paul Hilton/Greenpace


The crew of the Koyu Maru hauling a tuna onto their ship. Image © Paul Hilton/Greenpace

Greenpeace is also demanding that the Japanese government order Koyu Maru 3, which is owned by Tokyo-based World Tuna Co Ltd., to stop its illegal fishing activities and sail to the nearest port for further investigation.

This is more than an issue of what’s legal and illegal. The Koyu Maru 3 and other pirate fishing vessels are stealing fish from these waters and using it for their own profit, depriving the people of the Cook Islands of a vital source of income. Josh, another Oceans campaigner onboard who is from the region, put it well when he said, “These pirates of the Pacific must be stopped from plundering ocean life and robbing local communities.”

With that in mind, we decided that documenting the plundering of their seas and providing that evidence to Cook Islands officials, and thereby helping empower them to police their own waters, would be more effective than taking action against the vessel ourselves.

Globally, more than $9 billion dollars is lost each year to pirate fishing fleets, who reap their profits in European, American and Asian markets while threatening Pacific fish stocks and depriving coastal communities of much-needed income. A recent report estimated that pirate fishing in the Pacific accounts for an average of 36% of the fish caught there, much higher than the global average of 19%.

Long-liners like the Koyu Maru 3 mainly target bigeye, yellowfin and albacore tuna, as these species fetch top dollar in sashimi markets in Japan and other countries where this delicacy has become popular. Scientists have warned, however, that some Pacific tuna stocks, particularly bigeye and yellowfin tuna, are being fished beyond their limits. Pirate fishing further threatens the stocks and undermines conservation and management attempts in the region. That’s why it’s important that local Pacific islands governments have the resources they need to protect their waters.

As I sat on the bridge one day doing my regular watch duty, I pulled out my trusty digital camcorder and shot this quick pan across the bridge windows. This is pretty much what I spend two hours a day doing — staring out at the open sea, looking for other vessels, FADs, long-line beacons, whales, dolphins, or anything else there might be to see.
Sadly, I have never seen anything of much interest on any of my watches (aside from the occasional flying fish or seabird, that is). But one morning I did see some sperm whales spouting way in the distance — our wake-up call went something like this: "Good morning! It's 7:30, and there are whales off the bow!"

I didn't get to go out there and swim with the whales, but our photographer did:




Images © Paul Hilton/Greenpeace

This exclusive interview was conducted by Greenpeace correspondant Ashley Mirabile, and is cross-posted from the Greenpeace community blog.

The popular grocery store, Trader Joe's, known for stocking its shelves full of affordable products with natural and organic ingredients, has dodged many attempts by Greenpeace USA to discuss its less than satisfactory seafood buying policy. Despite the company's commendable evasive techniques, they have failed to silence deranged spokesman/ deviant pirate, Traitor Joe, who leaked some truly embarrassing seafood secrets in an exclusive interview with an official Greenpeace volunteer this week.

Traitor Joe, who has lately been rumored to frequent The Reef in order to feed his growing addiction to karaoke and the age-old pirate tradition of gluttonous drinking, was discovered mid-musical number on stage in a state of discombobulation Monday evening. The intoxicated pirate, whose already encumbered sight due to the necessity of an eye patch appeared to be blurred, spilled a flask of rum down a ragged t-shirt bearing the Trader Joe's insignia. His speech was slurred and his voice was hoarse from the repetition of his favored melodic verse:

 

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We're shady, deceitful, so we can make loot,
Eat up me 'earties, yo ho.
We peddle red-list fish, and don't give a hoot,
Eat up me 'earties, yo ho."

When he stepped down from the stage and sat back down at his regular stool at the bar, Traitor Joe appeared to be loose-lipped with the unconcerned bartender about certain red-list fish species that have made it to the frozen aisles in various Trader Joe's locations.

There are 22 species included in the Greenpeace Seafood Red List and according to Greenpeace, "they have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries or unsustainable aquaculture operations."

Greenpeace surveys have found that Trader Joe's sells 15 of these red-list seafoods including orange roughy, Alaska pollock, and Greenland halibut.

Joe, in his state of inebriation, fortunately failed to recognize his interested bar companion to be a member of Greenpeace and so did not bother to relent in his speech when approached by aforementioned environmental activist.

"Arghhh, Matey. My favorite snack is Trader Joe's lightly breaded fish sticks," Joe said. "They've got a secret ingredient in them that makes me think them a tasty treat. It's Alaskan pollock!" 

For the last five years, survival of juvenile pollock has been recorded as below average in the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Chain and Bogoslof area due to overfishing. Pollock fisheries may also be responsible for the rapid population decline of endangered Steller sea lions and northern fur seals.

"But you'd never know that the ingredients in me favorite Trader Joe's products were unsustainable 'cause of our ambiguous packaging," Joe said.

Trader Joe typically labels its products to help consumers purchase vegan, gluten-free or other diet-specific foods, but the labels on their seafood products inadequately advise customers who would otherwise commit to sustainable shopping.

 

Joe, smacking his lips in delicious delight, continued to list various other seemingly innocent Trader Joe products such as the "Wild Sashimi Grade Ahi" which contains longline-caught yellowfin tuna, and "Trader Joe's Seasoned Turbot" which is actually the bycatch-heavy Greenland halibut. Both of these are red-list species.

"I just wish all 'em darn activists would stop sending those bloody Singing Billie the Chilean sea bass telegrams," Joe said. "They be gettin' on me last nerve!"

Traitor Joe then abandoned the conversation and approached the stage once again to commence in singing his own rendition of "Row Row Row Your Boat."

The interview, however brief, gave insight into Trader Joe's unsustainable seafood buying policy and should encourage Trader Joe customers to continue to put pressure on the popular grocery store.

The debate over toilet paper softness is not going anywhere soon, not in the blogs, not in the media, and certainly not in my parents' house.

I will admit I was a loyal Angel Soft user for years, from high school when I would ask Mom to "buy the TP with the baby on the front" (how is that for brand imaging?) to college when I would throw it in my own cart at the grocery store.  I do not know what it was about that toilet paper that made me love it so, but I was one sure hooked consumer.

In college there was no Kleercut campaign on my campus.  We all happily used our Kleenex, 3-ply toilet paper, and Bounty paper towels like there was an endless supply of one roll after another.  All that changed though when I learned I was wiping up party spills with virgin wood fiber.  With the aid of the Tissue Guide I switched brands.  Yes, when my roommate and I ran out of TP one day this past spring I stopped in the paper products aisle and stared, stared at the baby and back again at the recycled toilet paper.  I had never paused before, had never considered buying another brand, but I did it.  I slid the package of recycled toilet paper under my cart and went about my grocery shopping.

When my roommate did not say anything about the new toilet paper in the bathroom I figured she had not noticed.  Not like I was trying to hide the package and trick her into thinking it was the cushy 3-ply we had been using, but a whole week went by without comment.  What was going on here?  Was the girl that had bought only Charmin really using recycled tp without a fuss?  Turns out, she was.  We went through roll after roll and when it came time to buy tp again I bought recycled.  I finally had to ask, "How do you feel about the recycled toilet paper we have been using?"  Her response, "Umm.. I don't know if I knew it was recycled."  She had even kept a roll bedside during a particularly nasty cold, how is that for an argument against all those tissues with lotion for red, scratchy noses!

Mom, on the other hand, is still a change in progress.  Before my younger sister left for college Mom bought a pack of recycled tp for the house but she promptly replaced it with that baby on the front tp.  Does she know what that baby stands for?? 

This past weekend, I was home enjoying an afternoon with my parents when a stray paper towel blew across the backyard.  As Dad chased it down, Mom joked, "In 20 years it'll break down!"  I stood up, walked to the paper towel holder, and said, "You know, you could at least use recycled paper towels, I don't think the countertops will complain." 

Take this time to thank Kimberly-Clark for their commitments to protect the Boreal Forest, and please sign those petitions we mailed to you demanding sustainable practices from Proctor&Gamble!  Shop with the tissue guide and introduce those in your life to recycled paper products.  I promise you, if my twenty-something year old friends can make the switch you can too!  In the meantime I will keep working on Mom to get those paper towels changed out..

Before we left Vanuatu for the second leg of the current tour, our onboard videographer did a quick dive test to check his underwater camera. He swam under the Esperanza and filmed the whole thing. I thought the footage was pretty amazing and definitely worth sharing with you all. But to make it even more interesting, I asked the Esperanza's chief engineer, Freddy, to narrate what we were seeing. Check out the video and a note from Freddy, who has been working on Greenpeace ships for quite a while — in fact, he was even there for the very beginning of the Defending Our Pacific tour way back in 2004.

My name is Freddy, I am from Argentina and am the current chief engineer on board the Esperanza. Since 1994 I have worked as an engineer on tankers and fishing vessels in my country. In 2002 I had the opportunity to start working as electrician on board the Arctic Sunrise, and I gladly took the opportunity. I have continued working as electrician and engineer on board all three Greenpeace ships since then.

Since people think I'm not busy enough with my 12 hours of work every day (at least), they sometimes ask me to tattoo them. I had to stop, though, because high stress levels were leading me to confuse fairies with pin-up girls... dangerous if the tattooed subject is a big hairy sailor asking for a pin-up girl.

In 2004 I had the opportunity to be part of the crew helping launch the Defending Our Oceans campaign to establish marine reserves on board the Rainbow Warrior. It was there that I found out what a FAD is and the destructiveness of the purse seiner method of fishing. Last year I was here on the Espy and again witnessed the same thing, with the only difference that the quantity of fish on the nets was getting lower and lower.

I hope this time we are able to get the full reserves and then start heavily with the enforcement. I feel really proud of having done my bit these past few years.

Bowing to pressure from the pro-nuclear lobby, Senators Boxer and Kerry have included nuclear power into their bill to address climate change. In their proposed legislation, the Senators claim that "nuclear energy is the largest provider of clean, low-carbon, electricity...." Funny we've heard that before. In fact, the bill's nuclear section reads like it was lifted off the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) website, despite its lack of veracity.

Over a decade ago, environmentalists challenged the nuclear industry's propaganda that they were clean and green. As a result, the Better Business Bureau's ( BBB ) National Advertising Division found that the Nuclear Energy Institute's ads falsely claimed that nuclear reactors make power without polluting the air and water or damaging the environment. The BBB said that, "The nuclear industry should stop calling itself 'environmentally clean' and should stop saying it makes power 'without polluting the environment.'" The director of the division said such claims were "unsupportable." The bureau agreed with environmentalists that nuclear fuel is made using electricity from coal plants and that nuclear waste poses a threat to the public health and safety.

The nuclear industry's brazen disregard for the BBB prompted the environmental groups to bring NEI before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC found that

 

[B]ecause the discharge of hot water from cooling systems is known to harm the environment, and given the unresolved issues surrounding disposal of radioactive waste, we think that NEI has failed to substantiate its general environmental benefit claim.

 

Unfortunately those same false claims have now found their way into the legislation offered by Senator's Boxer and Kerry.

Even Andrew Kadak, "Professor of the Practice" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has acknowledged that nuclear power contributes CO2 to the environment. In a speech before the American Physical Society entitled "A Renaissance for Nuclear Energy?" Kadak bemoaned the fact that the international community had already rejected nuclear power as a solution to climate change. However, Kadak recognized that:

 

For many years, nuclear energy, while arguably a -CO2 emitting energy source, has been judged to be unacceptable for reasons of safety, unstable regulatory climate, a lack of a waste disposal solution and, more recently, economics.

 

If the Senators actually want to abate climate change rather than merely enriching nuclear corporations, we need solutions that are fast, safe and affordable, and that rules out nuclear power. The Congressional Budget Office has already determined that the risk of default on the nuclear loan guarantees congress will supply to the nuclear industry is well above 50%. Is it really the Senator's intent to support the next taxpayer bailout?

Mid American, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, has already conducted their economic due diligence on a new nuclear plant and determined that it does not make economic sense to build. If the "world's greatest investor" will not waste his resources on new nuclear power, perhaps the Senate should listen.

But Warren Buffet's corporation isn't the only one who thinks nuclear power is an economic non-starter. In April, Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, stated that new nuclear and coal plants are not needed. Renewable energy like wind & solar and improvements in energy efficiency will provide enough energy to meet our future energy demands. Wellinghoff concluded that nuclear and coal plants are too expensive.

In June, Moody's Investor Services released their analysis of new nuclear generation and determined that nuclear power was a "bet the farm" risk. Why should the American taxpayer be expected to support such an investment?

The history of nuclear power plant cost overruns that led Forbes magazine to call nuclear power the "largest managerial disaster in business history" is repeating itself with the current generation of nuclear reactors. Last month, the French nuclear giant, Areva announced that they had lost 550 million euros, a 79% drop in their profits, due to construction delays with their reactor in Finland. According to Areva, the 3-billion euro nuclear plant has now accumulated 2.3 billion euros in estimated losses. Does the Senate really want to repeat this fiscal fiasco in the U.S.?

Nuclear power is a deadly and dangerous distraction from real solutions to climate change and our energy needs. Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomical & unnecessary. Rather than greenwashing nuclear power, Senators Boxer and Kerry should cut the nuclear title from their bill and work to oppose any attempts to support this failed experiment.

Jim Riccio, Nuclear Policy Analyst  

I may be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right now, but I’m very excited to take a break from campaigning for marine reserves to bring you some HUGE news about our campaign to stop deforestation in the Amazon.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – In a major step forward for climate protection, today four of the biggest players in the global cattle industry — Marfrig, Bertin, JBS-Friboi and Minerva — joined forces to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon from their supply chains, backing Greenpeace’s call for zero deforestation in the rainforest.

The move follows the release of the Greenpeace report ‘Slaughtering the Amazon’ in June, which exposed the link between forest destruction and the expansion of cattle ranching in the Amazon. This prompted calls for action from key international companies, including Adidas, Nike and Timberland, which committed to cancel contracts unless their products were guaranteed to be free from Amazon destruction, encouraging today’s move.

The announcement was made at a high-level event in Sao Paulo organized by Greenpeace, where each of the companies declared the adoption of environmental and social standards to ensure their products are free from cattle raised in newly deforested areas of the rainforest.

Measures include the monitoring of their supply chains and clear targets for the registration of farms that both directly and indirectly supply cattle as well as measures to end the purchase of cattle from indigenous and protected areas and from farms using slave labor. “This is an important step in the fight to stop the destruction of one of the world’s most critical rainforests and vital to helping tackle climate change,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign director.

The Brazilian cattle sector, which occupies 80 percent of all deforested areas of the Amazon, is the country’s leading carbon polluter.

As the press release quoted above notes, this is not just a victory for the Amazon, but a victory for the climate as well. Deforestation is responsible for more global carbon emissions than all the planes, trains, and automobiles in the world combined.

I’m personally very glad to see that these companies have agreed to help safeguard the rights of indigenous communities as part of the deal. For more info, read the full list of minimum criteria these companies have committed to, and the full press release.

Teams from professional disaster relief agencies are now firmly in place in Samoa. With the agreement of local authorities, the Esperanza has left the area and returned to our campaign in the Pacific Ocean.

We were close by when the tsunami hit and were able to help immediately. For three days we transported and donated supplies of fuel, water, medicine and food, and carried out aerial surveys with our helicopter.

Before departing Samoa we offered our assistance to the nearby island nation of Tonga, but it was not needed.

We are thankful we were on hand to support the people of Samoa and our thoughts remain with them, as well as with American Samoa and Tonga, as they begin to rebuild their communities.

The Esperanza had previously been in Samoa just this past July. This was certainly not the way the crew had imagined going back, but they are very happy to have been of service to the many brave Samoans they met back then.

We have now returned to the high seas, where we’re campaigning to create a global network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world's oceans (read the Defending Our Pacific blog for more). Such a network would give protection to vulnerable areas like the high seas pockets between Pacific islands’ national waters, which are currently being overfished by foreign fleets and threatening the health of the tuna stocks and therefore the livelihoods of local communities.

Like the rest of the world, we were shocked and saddened when we heard the news about the tsunami that had hit the Samoan islands. And because of our proximity to the affected areas, we were in the unique position of being able to offer aid very quickly.
 
The Esperanza was sailing to support Pacific countries in oceans conservation when the earthquake that caused the tsunami hit. We immediately offered assistance and equipment to the people of Samoa, and our offer was accepted by the Samoan authorities. We have medics, engineers, technicians, and logisticians on board the ship as part of the 34-strong crew. We will provide whatever help we can, under the direction of the Samoan disaster relief teams.
 
We have put our campaign on hold and are currently in Samoa doing whatever we can to help. I am sure you will all understand that we will be too busy to post any further blogs for now.

 

This past Tuesday the Supporter Care team and a handful of Frontline staffers were fortunate enough to represent Greenpeace at the U2 concert in Washington, DC.  Greenpeace's history with U2 goes aways back, from U2 partaking in an anti-nuclear action with our UK counterparts in the early 90's to a stop aboard the Rainbow Warrior II.  If you look inside an older U2 cd, you will see a tear-out to join Greenpeace.  Believe it or not, some still trickle in with the mail.

That afternoon the thirteen of us piled into the van headed for FedEx stadium to meet with volunteers from Amnesty International, One (Bono's own), and Free Burma.  After a quick run down of our do's and don'ts: no stickering concert goers and meet back at 8:30 or else, we set off to canvass the grounds.  Our goal:  gather 900 signatures to show our government leaders they have grassroots support for strong, ambitious, science-based climate legislation in Copenhagen.  This early in the afternoon though the only people there were back in the gravel lot where the van was or rushing to claim their space in the general admission line. 

Not wanting to trek right back over the stream and through the woods, quite literally, I positioned myself near the general admission line ready to catch someone on their way to pick up their holy wristbands.  The first young man I stopped enthusiastically signed the petition but asked no questions, instead I found myself asking him questions about U2.  He said, “This is my 29^th U2 show, I’ve been following them around the states.”  Yes, you read that correctly, twenty-nineth U2 show.  I can not even wrap my mind around seeing a show twenty-nine times!  I quickly realized while these people would spare a second to sign the petition, they could not physically spare another second to talk about climate legislation.  I wondered if such die-hard Greenpeace fans existed somewhere out there in the parking lots..

Josef and I figured we would try our luck back in the gray lot where we had parked the van.  We tried our luck with a few tailgaters, got a few signatures, before spotting a couple enjoying some good eats and the afternoon sun by a bright yellow VW bug.  As we approached with clipboards outstretched and our respective Greenpeace shirts on, I opened our pitch, “Hi!  We’re with Greenpeace..” but was quickly cut off, “Oh!  Greenpeace! How awesome!”  Had we met our equivalent of the die-hard U2 fan?  Yes!  Yes, we had!  We talked about climate legislation, told them about the Greenpeace Organizing Term their freshman college daughter may be interested in, who wouldn’t be?!  An action-packed semester of organizing, non-violence training, and traveling to see first-hand areas of devastation!   I passed along my contact information for their daughter and we wished them a good time at the concert.  Riding high from meeting this couple from the DC suburbs, Josef and I headed back to the stadium ready for the show itself.

By the time 8:30 rolled around, we were being briefed on our part during the show.  We, all forty or so of us, were going to walk out on stage with U2 during “Walk On", the tribute song to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  Excitedly we were led down to the inner circle, the best seats in the house, and sang along through “It’s a Beautiful Day”, and the other songs that have brought U2 international acclaim the past two decades.  Finally, it was our time.  Mixed inbetween volunteers from One and the other organizations we were handed our masks of Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest in Burma.  Bono began “Walk On” and with that we filed out one by one to the front of the raised platform.  There we stood in our respective t-shirts holding our masks in unity looking out over a crowd of nearly 90,000.  I honestly do not remember hearing Bono sing, I simply remember looking down from the bottom of the mask and eyeing a sea of people and feeling an incredible, unexplainable calm.  We were sharing the stage with U2 and looking out over the same crowd.  I thought, “How many of these people did we talk to today?  Does anyone out there think, ‘Hey! I talked to that Greenpeacer earlier!’” 

Despite our exhaustion the following day, we all retold our stories from the U2 show, from meeting truly cool people and talking about Greenpeace to canvassing for food in the parking lots before the gates opened, to being a part of “Walk On” and showing our solidarity.  It was a day none of us will forget and that was only made possible by Bono’s generosity and belief in Greenpeace’s campaigns.

I have attached a video of “Walk On” from the DC show, but there are other videos available on YouTube capturing the quiet..

Today the Obama Administration, represented by DHS Undersecretary Rand Beers and EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, Peter Silva testified in support of assessments of safer more secure chemicals for all 6,000 regulated chemical facilities, and conditional implementation of safer more secure chemicals at the highest tiered facilities (approximately 800). Full Copies of their testimony (and all witnesses from the second panel) can be found here:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1755:energy-and-commerce-subcommittee-hearing-on-hr-3258-the-drinking-water-system-security-act-of-2009-and-hr-2868-the-chemical-facility-anti-terrorism-act-of-2009&catid=130:subcommittee-on-energy-and-the-environment&Itemid=71

Excerpts of Beers and Silva identical statements on safer more secure technologies included:

"*The Administration supports consistency of IST approaches for facilities regardless of sector.

"* The Administration believes that all high-risk chemical facilities, Tiers 1-4, should assess IST methods and report the assessment in the facilities’ site security plans. Further, the appropriate regulatory entity should have the authority to require facilities posing the highest degree of risk (Tiers 1 and 2) to implement IST method(s) if such methods enhance overall security, are feasible, and, in the case of water sector facilities, consider public health and environmental requirements.

“* For Tier 3 and 4 facilities, the appropriate regulatory entity should review the IST assessment contained in the site security plan. The entity should be authorized to provide recommendations on implementing IST, but it would not require facilities to implement the IST methods."

The hearing also made clear that the neither bill (H.R. 2868 & H.R. 3258) creates a command and control structure.  Instead it establishes conditions and incentives:
1) safer chemical processes must be feasible
2) safer chemical processes must not impose onerous costs on a facility
3) safer chemical processes must not shift risks to any other facility
4) safer chemical processes must reduce risks
5) safer chemical processes are proposed by the facility itself
6) only the highest risk facilities are required to implement safer
chemical processes
7) there is funding in both bills to assist with implementation costs

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Every morning the first mate comes around at 7:30 and wakes us up. That gives us a half hour to grab some quick breakfast before we do our ship cleaning duties at 8:00. I'm not much of a breakfast person anyway, though, so many mornings I just go out to this one spot towards the bow of the ship and drink some tea. Just thought I'd share this short video I shot to give you an idea of what it's like out here.