Greenpeace

People magazine reports that Brad Pitt is sponsoring a green design contest in New Orleans.  While Brad is off in Africa helping Angelina with the new brood, he's working it state-side to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.

Brad, we want in. 

Sorry, folks, for the long delay in posting to the blog.  We've been busier than hookers during fleet week, though, making sure that the environment stands a fighting chance.

Here's the run-down of what's been going on:

1.) Protecting Offshore Wind, Stopping Dirty Politics

Ted Kennedy's at it again!  He's fallen off the clean energy (band)wagon and decided to prevent America's first offshore wind farm from even getting off the ground.  Here are some common questions about why Ted Kennedy is behind the effort to kill this important project.

So, this project is bad for the environment, right?

Actually, no.  More than 15 federal, state, and local agencies have reviewed the plans and proposals for Cape Wind.  The environmental impact assessments have so far come out A-OK. Greenpeace is one of many environmental groups, local and national, in support of this project.  Global warming is one of the gravest crises that humankind will ever face.  Sea-level rise, warming waters giving way to extreme storms, and the spread of extinction and rise of infectious disease are just some of the real perks of our changing climate.  It's good to know that Ted cares.

But, Nantucket Sound is a pristine waterway, and this sort of construction will upset a very delicate ecosystem, right?

Ah, no.  It's a highway out there.  Ted may have to be a bit more careful when yachting, but this isn't an untouched ecosystem.  It's a very well-traversed chunk of our waters.

But don't you think that our federal waters shouldn't be handed to developers?

This is an important project that needs to move forward.  Sadly, we live in a country where corporate profits are put ahead of social progress and environmental protection.  I say better that our federal waters are used for the development of clean, safe, domestic, and renewable energy than handed to oil and gas companies, or used to dump toxic waste.

Why did Ted contact Republicans, from Alaska no less, to kill this project that would save enough energy to power 170,000 homes in his own state?

We're really not sure.  Because he's a selfish coward, perhaps?

So, we launched this ad to tell Senators to make the right decisions.  We showed up at their offices.  We called them.  And we're still trying.  Tell yours to make the right move, to end our oil addiction before we end the solutions to global warming. 

Some Greenpeace media hits on it: The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Cape Cod Times, Boston Globe, even more Boston Globe, yet again the Cape Cod Times, the Associated Press,

2.) Telling Kleenex Manufacturer Not to Blow It 

Last week, we sent a team down to Dallas (we Greenpeace find ourselves in Texas an awful lot, it's true) to attend the annual shareholder meeting of Kimberly-Clark.  They're the parent company to Kleenex, Scott, and Viva brands.  So, that's a lot of paper.  And thank God companies these days realize that clear-cutting forests is bad policy and un... oh, wait.  You see, K-C doesn't even talk a good game.  They go around Canada hacking the Boreal forests to pieces, and take trees that take 90 years to grow and make them into a box of Kleenex faster than you can say "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

So, we had activists in Canada shutting down a Kimberly-Clark mill in Ontario, as our representatives in Dallas put forward a shareholder resolution that would put the company on the track to common-sense environmental policies.  Not surprisingly, the company's executives decided to keep destroying one of the world's last remaining ancient forests.

See what the Dallas Business Journal,  Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, and the local paper in Canada where the protest took place.

3.) Greenpeace Finds Itself on Thin Ice

No, we're not in trouble with the Bush administration again. We're talking about our fearless Arctic explorers who hit the ice last week- to document the impacts of global warming on the Arctic ice, and to follow what could become the first victim of our melting Arctic regions: the polar bear.  Check out our website here or about it here.

That's all for now.  Until next time, kiddies.