Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Unfortunately the powers that be in Tauranga have said that they will not allow a public open day in the Port of Tauranga. They said that the physical layout of the Port does not allow the separation of the Rainbow Warrior from the operational areas.

We suspect it may also have something to do with our campaigning activities there in the past … [ 1 2 3 ]

This is disappointing for us and for the people who planned on visiting the Rainbow Warrior in Tauranga. If you want to let the Port know that you are disappointed that there is no facility to allow the public to visit the Rainbow Warrior then give them a call on 07 572 8899 or send them an email.

We are now looking at other options so watch this space for plan B!

All week we’ve been practicing our waiata in preparation for the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior. We have a song written by people here in the office a few years ago.

People come and go but there’s always enough of the old hands to pass the tune on to the new folk. I have to confess I’m not a keen singer (or a good one) but, despite my grumbling on the way down the stairs for our morning practice, I always enjoy it. Add the Haka to the mix and you almost don’t need a coffee to start the day. Almost.

Right now I have a ragged voice, bruised thighs and a stretched jandal but the practice is definitely worth it if we’re going to do this in public!

Our waitata speaks of Greenpeace, the people who are Greenpeace, the work we’ve done, our kaupapa and our history. We wrote it with the help of a very wise old woman known as Aunty Vepy. What seemed to me an almost impossible task actually came together with almost spooky ease. From memory it took a short session on the whiteboard and then some rather skilful arranging by from Aunty Vapi, a few simple chords on the guitar and hey presto there it was - a surprisingly very well formed little waiata all of our own.

It’s called nau Mai Piki Mai - here’s the words - maybe you can sing along some time.

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 Nau Mai Piki Mai [2:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Toi Mai: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Forest Friendly Furniture guide released last month has made a splash almost straight away - and that’s before we’ve sent it out to the 40,000 Greenpeace members.

The Warehouse scored well and lost no time on making sure that fact didn’t escape their customers.

Smiths City on the other hand didn’t score so well and initially cried foul but they have since moved forward with a change to their wood product buying policy.  As well, in a meeting with Greenpeace they have committed to stock only FSC certified outdoor furniture by 2009 and they will start making those changes in 2008.

This will see Smiths City move from up to a C+ (on the improve) rating and a new position in the guide just above BBQ Factory and just below Placemakers. That’s a good start and a great result! Read more »

The Rainbow Warrior is coming to a town near you!

The Warrior is visiting New Zealand to further Greenpeace’s international work to prevent dangerous levels of climate change, by highlighting the issues and promoting solutions.

There will be FREE public open days with tours on board the Rainbow Warrior during March and April.

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Tim Cronshaw had a very one sided article in the Press yesterday about what the Government’s ‘Emissions Trading Scheme’ (ETS) may cost dairy farmers to reduce their emissions from cows, on the farm and energy used in the manufacturing process.

Cronshaw quotes Wellington analysts Infometrics who modeled that the Government’s ETS scheme could hit dairying production by a third in 2025.

Fonterra says reducing the carbon footprint of dairy farms would cost its suppliers 3c/kg of milk solids in 2010, 10c by 2013 and 30c by 2025 calculating that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will cost its dairy farmers $500 million a year by 2025.

Those are scary numbers but so are these. Read more »

The plight of whales under the harpoon gets people pretty het up sometimes. People leading otherwise normal lives find themselves compelled to do things they may not have otherwise considered.

Last week we received an email that caused quite a stir here in the Greenpeace NZ HQ. It went something like this:

My 7 year old Whale Defending daughter, Laura, has bullied me into driving her to Wellington, from Auckland, (7 hours) so she can stand outside the Japanese Embassy with a sign demanding that Whaling in the Southern Ocean stops. Her Granny is going to be standing next to her as well as her Mum and her big brother. It will be the smallest protest in history but the biggest in her life!!!!!!!!

We will be there from 1000 hours until 1100 hours on Saturday 16 February. If you have people in Wellington that you can email this to so they can join us I am sure Laura would appreciate it.

For the record I have been a redneck all my life that cared not for the whales until she changed my mind. Keep up the good work. Read more »

New Zealand’s farmers are currently experiencing a severe drought that dairy farmer cooperative Fonterra warns may cost farmers $500M. The Government has been meeting with farmers this week to arrange a support package.

The effects of climate change are starting to be felt in New Zealand but it’s only a taste of things to come. Impacts include changes to rainfall patterns, more extreme weather events like flooding and droughts, and new pests and biosecurity problems. All these changes will make growing food much harder than it is now. Indeed the agriculture sector will perhaps be hit hardest of all as climate change begins to bite. This is not good for New Zealand. Agriculture plays an important part in our economy.

There’s an interesting irony here though.

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I haven’t managed to find a copy yet but report leaked from the IPCC sounds like it may well put the heat on NZ exporters.

According to the Guardian, the report says that scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed.

It calculates that annual emissions from the world’s merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of COv(2), or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas… that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest single sources of man made COv(2)after cars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of COv(2)emissions a year, just over half that from shipping.

Who would have thought that shipping could account for almost twice that of aviation?

In a non-lethal research breakthrough Greenpeace scientists have finally discovered what whales are actually singing about. We have harnessed that new knowledge in what could be the world’s first online whale song translator and so - if you’re looking for something different for your Valentine tomorrow - this may well be just what you need.

Over on the Greenpeace website Mr Splashy pants the humpback is making a comeback singing a genuine humpback valentines love song. You can use the automagical e-card whale song translator to create a whale song of love, or get him to sing your own words, and give your Valentine a message to remember.

Who the heck is Mr Splashy Pants? Read more »

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a multimedia-packed, animation-filled interactive town must speak a million. Which is why Greenpeace UK has launched EfficienCity (like Sim City, but greener) to explain exactly what decentralised energy is and how it works in practice (which can otherwise be a wordy business).

UK residents can find out how to make their own town climate friendly. Pretty cool.

I wonder how difficult it would be to translate it to a New Zealand context.

We don’t have nuclear power in New Zealand or even much debate about whether it is an option but in terms of distributed energy generation and renewable energy options most of the same principles apply.

Check it out at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/efficiencity