Posted by michellefrey on 07/25/2008 2:50 pm

Yesterday, Ahold (aka Giant, Stop&Shop and Martin's Food Markets) announced they are going to stop selling orange roughy, Chilean sea bass and shark.  These 3 fish rank among the most imperiled on the Greenpeace seafood red list.

It was kind of wild to hear that people are still eating shark and it’s being sold in stores, but I’m excited that Giant Foods has committed themselves to removing these fish from their seafood counters. It’s a great step in the right direction for protecting the oceans.

In a ranking report released last month, Greenpeace called on the top U.S. supermarkets to improve their seafood purchasing policies and move towards sustainable seafood practices. It looks like Ahold got the message and is willing to improve their store practices to help the oceans.

You can encourage the other top U.S. supermarkets to get in the game by taking action today and writing them a letter!

-- Michelle

Posted by jhocevar on 07/15/2008 1:07 pm

Covering nearly 70% of the surface of the planet, the oceans are not escaping the impacts of global warming. Bleaching is threatening our spectacular tropical coral reefs, and melting sea ice is reducing critical habitat for seals, polar bears, and other marine mammals. And everywhere in between, rising temperatures are starting to change currents, migration patterns and even species composition. The fish that used to live in a particular area are often no longer there. On top of that, acidification, global warming’s evil twin, is turning the oceans into a corrosive bath that is rapidly becoming inhospitable to clams, corals, and everything else that forms a calcareous skeleton.

So when Randy Olson asked me to review his new movie, a “global warming comedy,” I have to admit I was curious to see where he was going to find the humor in all this. As it happens, Sizzle is a very funny film, sometimes even spit-out-your-drink funny.

Similar to Randy’s last film, Flock of Dodos, which focused on Intelligent Design, Sizzle tries to grapple with questions about the causes of global warming, the seriousness of the problem, and the degree to which humans can do anything about it. For Randy, the hordes of scientists involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and most people who read the news, these are not controversial topics. The science is clear: global warming is happening, humans are a major cause, and we can and must do something to reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately.

Of course, some people don’t see it that way, and Randy takes his low budget camera crew out to get their stories. Other than the guy who works for Okie Senator James Inhofe, who looked like an attack dog in search of someone to bite, the climate skeptics come across as surprisingly nice guys (if occasionally hapless). Most of these interviews are followed with a scene with Randy muttering “that’s not true” or “he’s got it all wrong,” and there are some strong segments from scientists like Naomi Oreskes, but in general there’s not much of an effort to debunk the skeptics. The sense you get is that there’s really no need – everyone knows the truth already. But if that’s true, why bother with the skeptics at all?

So I was left wishing for a little more exploration of the forces behind the skeptics. Greenpeace has researched this in depth, showing how leading climate skeptics tend to be funded by ExxonMobil. If something smells funny, follow the money.

Dr. Oreskes saves the day by convincing the crew to abandon plans to film yet another scientist and to go to New Orleans instead. In the most emotionally compelling part of the film, Randy and his crew see firsthand the impacts of the kind of disasters global warming will cause. The film points out that the biggest victims will be poor people, whether in Africa or in the richest nation on earth.

If there’s a take home message, other than the fact that it IS possible to find humor in even the most dire topics, it may be a reminder that it’s probably not going to be the newest data, powerpoint slides, or speeches from scientists that convince people to take action. The stories are there, but we may need more story tellers like Randy if we’re going to wake people up in time.

John H

Posted by greenpeace7 on 07/03/2008 11:11 am

A group of Japanese lawyers watching over human rights abuse around the G8 Summit has issued a statement about the arrest and detention of Greenpeace activists. The activists were arrested after exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal in Japan.

The following is the lawyers' statement:

Lawyers' Network for Human Rights Observation around the G8 Summit (WATCH)

On April 20, 2008, Aomori Prefectural Police and Tokyo Metropolitan Police Public Security Division arrested two Greenpeace Japan activists for theft and trespassing. The activists are accused first of stealing a cardboard box that contained the meat of a whale harvested by a Japanese scientific whaling ship, and which had been stored in a delivery company in Aomori; and secondly they are accused of handing over the stolen whale meat to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office. The police also searched Greenpeace offices as part of their investigation.

According to the arrested activists, their act was not a mere act of theft or trespassing, rather it was intended as a denouncement of the embezzlement of whale meat by the crew of a scientific whaling ship financed with tax payers' money. Furthermore, the activists had already submitted a report in which they disclosed the details of their plan. Also they had declared that they were willing to appear at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office anytime. There was therefore no reason to suspect that they would conceal evidence or that they would flee; this removes the justifications for the detention of the two activists.

Despite this lack of legal premises for detention, the Aomori Prefectural Police and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Public Security Division are still detaining the activists, an act which is unjust, illegal and illegitimate.

This spectacle on the eve of the G8 Summit has provoked expressions of concern in different parts of the society. Both mass media and activists are concerned that the police intend to intimidate the whole civil movement. The evening paper of Niigata Nippo as of June 20th says: "It is disturbing that there could be a link between the arrests and the G8 Summit. The police behavior can be interpreted as a warning against radical civil organisations which do not refrain from illegal acts to achieve their aims. If this assumption is true, it is very alarming (...) The implementation of law should be strict, but with no political intentions."

It is clear that the police intend to intimidate the civil movement before the G8 Summit by carrying out disproportionate control, even if it means risking international protests on the eve of the Summit. The fact that the Public Security Police lead the investigation underlines this stance.

The arrest of the two activists is not only a human rights violation with regard to the unjustifiable arrest, detention and investigation, but also a challenge against the freedom of expression. Police repression against the activists' denunciation obstructs the legitimate activities of both Japanese civil society and international society and is therefore internationally unacceptable and subject to global criticism as an affront to humanity.

The Lawyers' Network for Human Rights Monitoring around the G8 Summit is concerned that this incident will obstruct the use of freedom of speech, the protest activities and the denunciation activities concerning crimes against public interest. It thereby strongly demands that free activities and free spaces granted in the Japanese Constitution de jure be guaranteed de facto.

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