The opportunity to speak directly to the CEO, top executives and the board of a corporation usually comes but once a year, at the annual stockholder meeting. Other times, communication to them is made through layers of bureaucracy that trickle up like water evaporating. One never knows what has been distilled, dissipated and even tainted before it reaches the real decision-makers.

The shareholder meeting presents an opportunity to communicate clearly and directly to the top brass. Today, we did just that. Richard Brooks, Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace Canada, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council and myself confronted Thomas Falk, K-C CEO, their full board and all the executives who steer the company and can make a decision not to use fiber from ancient forests like the Boreal.

As far as shareholder’s meetings go, K-C’s is relatively small for a multinational company of its size, with about 80 people and held for a second year at the fortified and exclusive Four Seasons Resort smack dab in Dallas suburbia. A relatively recent occurrence, their change in meeting venue took place last year due to the Kleercut campaign and the company’s uncertainty of what to expect from Greenpeace. Whereas in 2005 we were warmly greeted by the company’s executives (that is, if you pretended not to notice the sharpshooters on the hotel roof or the myriad of non-uniformed security), this year’s meeting was much less congenial. This change in meeting’s timbre was due in large part to unexpected visitors who courageously and peacefully blockaded tissue production at K-C’s Huntsville, Ontario factory and effectively shut it down.

These 19 activists from the U.S., Canada and Belgium, like many of us, had had enough of the company’s rhetoric and lack of real movement towards ending their contribution to ancient forest destruction. While the activists hung banners, dangled from metal tri-pods and chained themselves to railroad tracks, we were able to convey their brave acts to executives, who were clearly miffed.

We also announced the late breaking news that the Director of Facility Management (the purchaser of tissue paper products) at American University sent a letter to the K-C saying that they will not use their products. We then informed them of a recent poll where over 80% of U.S. and Canadian citizens said that they would buy recycled paper tissue products even at a higher price, if no harm was done to the forest. This poll starkly contrasts the company’s insistence that Americans only want softer and whiter tissues. K-C has yet to account for the fact that once people know the manufacture of tissue paper products contributes to ancient forest ruin, their knowledge of how vital forests are to the health of planet kicks into gear.

And, lastly but certainly not least, we spoke in favor of our support for a shareholder proposal, submitted by a coalition of social responsible investment firms and religious groups holding $21,000,000 in stock, that requested the company to investigate the feasibility of producing environmentally friendly tissue paper products.  Surely, a company that purports to be the ‘greenest’ tissue maker in the world should not have a problem with a report of this nature, but they did, encouraging shareholders to vote against the proposal.

The proposal received 7.4% of the vote. Although a seemingly small percentage, for a first time proposal, this is quite good, and guarantees that the proposal can be submitted again in 2007.

At the end of the meeting, it was clear that the CEO, the VPs, and the board’s levees were breached allowing the flood of pleas to save our last remaining ancient forests to pour in. The collective voices of the many, combined with the peaceful civil disobedience of a few, spoke truth to power.

To see photos and video from the Huntsville action, please visit: www.kleercut.net and TV news coverage: www.achannel.ca/home/news_28467.aspx

Don't Say Anything at All!

That's the message the Bush administration is giving to its own scientists doing climate research.  Employees working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recently revealed that the U.S. government has "chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether."

Read the full Washington Post article.

Fortunately, not all Americans collect their paychecks from Bush, and have the freedom to speak out.  A recent Time magazine poll showed that 85 percent of all Americans now recognize that global warming is an urgent crisis.  And as Chevy Tahoe recently learned, we're spreading the word to that last 15 percent.

Chevrolet recently launched an online contest to get consumers to create ad spots for its Tahoe SUV.  Great idea, but perhaps it wasn't fully thought out.  The contest has attracted LOTS of creative submissions from environmental advocates linking the SUV to global warming.  You almost feel bad for them - almost.  Check out some of the best here.

(sorry about the 15-second ad that runs first) 

Keep an eye out for the final ad, submitted by our coalition: ExxposeExxon

Greenpeace went to HP's annual shareholders meeting in Los Angeles on March 15th to thank them for agreeing to phase out toxic chemicals from their products. We also planned to let them know that we are concerned about the "conditions" they included in their agreement to eliminate certain toxic substances by 2007. We want make sure that their "conditions" do not become loopholes.  We expected to propose that they publicly update their progress on phasing out these chemicals every six months.

However, before attending any shareholders meeting you have to either own shares or have the proxy of someone who owns shares.  Greenpeace had proxies from HP shareholders who support our efforts to detoxify the electronics industry.  With proxies in hand we had no problem attending the meeting. Kevin May from Greenpeace China was our star speaker.  He had prepared a 700 word statement to read to the HP board and shareholders during the question and answer period.  Unfortunately he was cut off after he used up the two minutes alloted to each speaker. I was standing directly behind Kevin and offered to give him my two minutes.  I also asked the chair to give Greenpeace the full 6 minutes that HP meeting rules allow for each subject as we had a third speaker Steve Smith from our media department. Instead they gave Kevin another 90 seconds after which they ejected him for going over time.  Later they ejected me for attempting to hand Kevin's statement to the board of directors while Steve spoke.  This contrasted sharply with the treatment of another gentleman who interrupted the meeting to challenge executive bonuses even before the question and answer period began. He was given four warnings but was allowed to stay.

We were amazed at HP's unwillingness to turn the Greenpeace "thank you" into a "good news" event.  However, the most important news of the day came when HP's CEO Mark Hurd responded to Kevin's statement by saying that HP "was fully committed and will follow through" on their pledge to phase out brominated flame retardants and PVC plastics.

With all the fuss over time, the meeting ended almost an hour early. Steve Smith was allowed to stay and met with reporters immediately following the meeting.  He was also approached by one HP employee who commended Greenpeace's "good work."

The next order of business is which electronics giant will agree to phase out toxic additives in computers and other products: Apple? Dell? IBM? Panasonic? Toshiba?

Greenpeace will be working with allies such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network on this next chapter of the campaign.

-Rick Hind
Toxics Campaigner 

Greetings from South Beach where I am attending Tissue World Americas, ok, ok, LoL. It might not be the most glamorous conference, but it sure is a good venue to tell Kimberly-Clark to stop wiping away ancient forests. It is here that Kimberly-Clark, other tissue making giants like Proctor & Gamble and Georgia Pacific, along with anybody whose anybody in the tissue making industry, are showing their wares and discussing the intricacies of making toilet paper, etc. One thing not on their agenda, however, is how to protect the ancient forests from which much of their raw material originates. This is where we come in.

Awesome Miami activists and Greenpeace volunteers, Julie, Andy, Susan, Eric, Carson, Yuri (you all rock), helped James Brady and myself in greeting the delegates with a 6’ x 10’ banner floating mid-air from a 10’ in diameter red helium balloon reading: Kimberly-Clark: Wiping Away Ancient Forests. As the delegates approached the entrance, Susan and I asked if they would take a tissue test, AKA the Kleercut Challenge, many of them said yes. With our tissue boxes covered in wrapping paper, we asked if they could tell which tissue comes from destroyed ancient forest and which is made from recycled paper? Not surprisingly, these experts could tell the difference, but much to my surprise when we said that Kleenex is made from old-growth trees clearcut from the Boreal forest, many were dumbfounded. When asked if they would use a recycled tissue paper brand instead of Kleenex, many said yes, and many answered that they already do. Music to our ears. And, it begs the question, why aren’t all tissue paper products made from recycled paper? One of the delegates tells me the tissue giants could do that, and even it make it as soft as tissue made from 100% virgin fiber. So K-C, what’s the deal?

After 4 ½ hours in the hot sun, we took the banner down, packed up our tissue boxes and left the world of tissues, knowing that Kimberly-Clark clearly saw and heard our message. But we are not stopping there, we will continue to show up where they least expect it, and urge people to not buy their products until they stop destroying ancient forests for Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle and Viva.

We also stopped by the hotel rooms of the tissue delegates and slid some mock USA Today newspapers under their doors.  You can check it out here.

For our latest project on how businesses can participate in the Kleercut campaign, check out www.forestfriendly500.com

--Pam Wellner, Greenpeace Forests Campaigner

In this day and age, our technology tends to be obsolete about five minutes after we purchase a new product.  So if you insist on keeping up with the Jones's, make sure you aren't just kicking the old stuff to the curb.  Many organizations offer recycling options for your old products. 

Check out First Time Computers here.

Two Greenpeace photographers won top prizes at the World Press Photo Awards.  Ironically, the images they captured were of the lingering effects of the Chernobyl disaster and a devastating drought in the Amazon  - two things that don't deserve celebrating.

Honourable Mention
©Robert Knoth/Greenpeace


3rd Prize in the Nature Category
©Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra

It has come to our attention that talk show host Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report has suggested on multiple occasions that bears are a "threat" to America as part of his bit - "the Threatdown."  Well guess what, Mr. Colbert, we are going to BLOW YOUR MIND: Not only are bears not a threat, looks like polar bears may actually be listed as threatENED.

Fasten your seatbelts: it's going to be a truthful ride!

That's right.  We teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity and sued the pants off of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (figuratively speaking, they still have pants) to list the polar bear as a threatened species.  But the Fish and Wildlife Service was clearly afraid of our awesome power and is considering our claim before ever stepping foot in a courtroom.

Mr. Colbert can put Greenpeace in the "dead to me" column if he can't deal with our advocacy, but we intend to fight for all bears, everywhere.  Mr. Colbert's silly fear of bears is wimpy and un-American.  If he needs a REAL threat for his threatdown, he should try global warming.

Oh, and by the way, after our 10-year campaign, the Canadian government announced it is going to protect the Great Bear Rainforest from logging and other destruction.  The forest is so named because it is one of the last grizzly strongholds in the world.  We're making sure that Yogi and Pooh will be around long after the Colbert Nation crumbles.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

If you thought the Energizer Bunny just kept going and going and going...get a load of Katrina.  Five months after the devastating hurricane rocked the nation there is still new damage happening.  Wreckage from oil platforms are loose in the Gulf of Mexico and at least three ships have collided with the debris since November.

Keep reading. 

The Patriot Bill just keeps getting better and better.  A new provision in the version now before Congress would allow authorities to haul demonstrators at any "special event of national significance" away to jail on felony charges if they are caught breaching a security perimeter.  So much for freedom of speech.

Read the full article on Fox News.

(Yes, we're surprised we're linking to Fox News too.)

Get your popcorn folks - it's time for a presidential address.  Tune in tonight to hear about the state of our union.  Pay particular attention to how many paragraphs are devoted to our environment and, more importantly, think about how many of the statements are actually true.  No matter how good Bush is at naming his initiatives (healthy forests, clean air, etc.), the truth is he is the worst environmental president in history.

Rumor has it he may even be touting nuclear energy as the answer to our dependence on foreign oil!  And you can bet most of the speech will be devoted to the "war on terror."  Someone needs to explain to our fearless leader that nuclear plants = terrorist targets.  He can't have his cake and eat it too.

For a laugh, check out this mock State of the Union address. 

In 1994, California became the first state to bar smoking in the workplace.  Now, more than 10 years later, it has set another healthy precedent.  Yesterday, a Californian agency voted to classify second-hand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant."  This decision is long overdue if you take one look at the 599 accepted ingredients for cigarettes.  Hopefully this move will result in ways to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke across the state and eventually the nation.

Read the full story.

The risk of getting breast cancer, like many other types of cancer, increases or decreases based on lifestyle choices and genetics.  But a new study reveals there is a third factor when it comes to determining likelihood: the environment.

According to two breast cancer groups, as many as half of all new breast cancers may be foisted upon woman by pollutants, such as the lining of tin cans or exposure to radiation from early mammograms.  Mammograms??  It is often said, "sometimes the cure is worse than the disease," but who knew that the cure could cause the disease?

Read the full report here.

The EPA recently announced that pesticide companies can test their products on humans.  But don't protest yet!  The EPA has set CRITERIA for the testing (phew!).  Namely, there is to be no testing on children or pregnant women.  However, men and other women are fair game!  Gross.

Read the full article here. 

Greenpeace has been butting heads with an unlikely foe for the past few years.  Long time environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is usually a stand up guy when it comes to the environment.  He's an enthusiastic supporter of clean energy projects like windfarms, unless - of course - they scar the view from the Kennedy Compound in Cape Cod.  Check out this article in Grist Magazine that spells out the issue quite nicely.

Greenpeace produced a provocative new ad spot to highlight the music industry's role in forest destruction.  Check it out here.