Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Target Climate

It struck me on a number of occasions in recent weeks that I perhaps I was mad. Perhaps I was completely crazy to have agreed to give two, hour-long school presentations to 600 primary school kids. As I sat late into the evenings, deskbound and furrow-browed over how to communicate global warming to 5 year olds (and could I really show that video clip of a seal pup getting clubbed?) I vowed never to put my hand up for such certain crucifixion again. The day dawned. Luckily, I had roped in Greenpeace Communications Manager Suzette and our French communications intern Francois as trusty side kicks. Also, I hasten to add, we had a polar bear suit (the best weapon in the fight against fidgeting).
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Greenpeace Japan says thank you!

Our activist friends Junichi and Toru are still behind bars. It’s been 13 days since they were arrested after exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal. Yeah, feel free to read that sentence again if you need to. It’s as crazy as it sounded the first time.

The Greenpeace Japan staff are hugely thankful to everyone who’s supported Junichi and Toru. Over 200,000 people have already written to Japan’s prime minister calling for the release of their co-workers. On the walls you can see photos of protests at Japanese embassies around the world supporting.

Help us get to our goal of a quarter million emails. Write to free Junichi and Toru. Help bring justice in Japan!

Commercial set netting and trawling in shallow waters is threatening Hector and Maui dolphins. Maui numbers have dropped as low as 100 on the North Island.

New Zealand’s Hector and Maui dolphins – the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world - are critically endangered.

In order to help protect the dolphins, zoologist Gemma McGrath founded Music 4 Maui’s in October 2007. The project fuses NZ music with marine conservation, and aims to both raise awareness of the dolphin’s plight, as well as raise funds to help them.

Gemma convinced a selection of talented kiwi musicians to donate songs for the dolphins, building up the Music 4 Maui’s album. The first compilation titled ’Songs to save a species’ was released on June 16th and includes artists such as Minuit, The Black Seeds, Sola Rosa and Ariana Tikao. Music reaches people and talks to their spirit, so these songs about the ocean and the dolphins, the fishing industry and extinction are good means to promote positive changes. Read more »

Organising chaos

Well, a couple of months after lodgement down at Auckland City Council, our building consent has finally been approved. This is a major step forward for the development at Akiraho St for Greenpeace. It gives us the green light to get moving on the plans and start to timeline when the organisation can expect to be in its new home.

Although we are running behind the original and very ambitious timeframe we had at the beginning of the year we’ve still managed to gain resource consent, building consent and be in possession of the full fitout drawings in a timeframe that would have pleased a professional developer. Not that it’s a competition of course but the faster we get in the less impact we’ll have on the organisation’s ability to campaign and minimise the budget, so this is a very important step.

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Greenpeace Australia ship tour website

The Esperanza has arrived in Australia and over the next 6 weeks Greenpeace will be travelling up the eastern seaboard of Australia, campaigning hard to get the federal government to acknowledge that renewables can do the job and that the time is up for fossil fuels.

So stay tuned - The Energy [Revolution tour has begun! Check out the awesome website here