Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

One year ago, at the tail end of a searingly hot day on the Balinese peninsula of Nusa Dua, governments from around the world agreed on a plan to save the climate. They pledged that by December 2009, they’ll have nailed down an agreement to achieve the global emission cuts urgently required to keep climate change in check. In doing so, they acknowledged that it’s now or never; that if they fail to reach that agreement, they will be unable to look the future in the eye.

We are one year down the track. A year is a long time in today’s climate; temperature increases, global emissions and loss of ice at the Arctic and Antarctic have now overshot scientists’ worst case scenarios. The Arctic icecap has entered what’s been called a ‘death spiral’. For the first time in human history, you can take a ship right around the North Pole. There may be no summer ice left at all at the North Pole within five years. The British foreign secretary’s special representative for climate said the challenge of fighting climate change must be treated more seriously than the threat from the Cold War, and that industrialised countries should essentially put their economies on a war footing. The scientific imperative for action is growing by the day, and we have just one year left to reach a deal that sees global emissions peak in the next eight years, then drop.
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The silly season is upon us - it’s just one month until Christmas! If you’re looking for interesting presents that are environmentally friendly too - we may be able to help.  let me introduce the brand new Greenpeace Giving online shop.

We’ve got a whole range of fun and funky virtual gifts. Each gift you buy is delivered with your choice of an interactive e-card and makes a real contribution to the work Greenpeace does protecting our fragile planet.

So this Christmas, why not tell someone you care by protecting the home of the Emperor Penguin on their behalf; buy some handcuffs for a Greenpeace activist; nominate a friend as an armchair activist, or give the gift of GE free Christmas cake.

If you believe that it’s the thought that counts and you don’t want to support the frenzied consumerism that Christmas can lead to, this is the shop for you. All our gifts are virtual. All the recipient gets is a beautiful animated e-card and a good warm fuzzy feeling. When you chose a gift from Greenpeace Giving, you help fund our creative, non-violent actions and keep us campaigning for a green and peaceful future.  It’s a win win.

How do you ‘give’ a gift? It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…

1. Select a gift.
2. Choose your e-card and schedule delivery.
3. Go to the check-out. Your gift will be on its way in no time.

All gifts are tax deductible so go on, get shopping.

I’m feeling a bit despondent. I’m sure we used to write positive blogs on the Greenpeace site. In amongst news of rising global emissions and melting icecaps, I’m certain there used to be the occasional cheery reminder that all is not lost.

Not this week. This week I am cursing daily and sporting a permanently furrowed brow. It deepens when I scan the media, and see things like the warning from the Dominion Post’s Political Editor that New Zealand is at high risk of becoming a “climate change hillbilly”. Read more »

In a surprise speech to a Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles US President-Elect Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet to global leaders over climate change.

“Now’s the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” he says. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. Too often, Washington has failed to show leadership……that will change when I take office. My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change.”

He says all nations willing to fight climate change have an ally in the US.

Which begs the question: what is New Zealand to America, now we have a government that’s not even sure it believes in manmade climate change and has pledged to dismantle every single piece of New Zealand climate policy in its first two weeks in power?

National’s John Key is looking to be more sizzle than sausage on climate change…

It feels like the 80s, when coal fired power stations were still considered cool and global warming was something to worry about in the 22nd century. At least that’s how the new Government is behaving. Its confidence and supply arrangement with ACT includes the following: ditching the 10 year moratorium on new fossil fuel generation, “reviewing” the ETS (read: either scrapping it or watering it down to the point of redundancy) and maybe even…wait for it….reviewing the science on climate change.

In other words, Key is proposing to drag New Zealand backwards into the mud of global disgrace and irrelevancy. Can you imagine what it’s going to do for our country to be branded the latest climate deniers? I can see it now….as the US steps down from this unenviable dais, Rodney steps up, arms aloft in a yellow splash of victory. Read more »

The Bear Truth

In terms of climate change, Prime Minister Elect John Key is in bad company - with Rodney ‘climate change is a hoax’ Hide and Gerry ‘Sexy Coal Brownlee, but he himself is more of an unknown quantity. On Campbell Live following election night he said that now he was Prime Minister he didn’t just represent those people who voted for him - he had to represent the whole nation. So how does he know how those of us who didn’t vote for him want to be represented? Well, one way is youtube.

John Key’s victory speech is available on youtube and I’d like to encourage you to make a message for John and post it as a response to that video.

The hapless polar bear that emerged during the recent TVNZ YouTube leaders debate has resurfaced and done just that.

The planet is on the slide due to climate change,” stresses the bear. “Me and my ilk are like canaries in the coal mine. But by-God we’re not the only canaries.

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Posted by brianfit at 11:05 AM

Sjoerd Jongens, 57 years old, died yesterday in a bicycle accident on his way to work here at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam.He joined Greenpeace in 1987, when he took on the job of radio operator at World Park Base in Antarctica — a place he loved for its beauty, its solitude… and the clarity of its atmosphere as a transmission medium for radio waves.
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The National Party is set to announce its Cabinet line up in next two days. Former Shadow Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee is likely to feature as Energy Minister.

This is the same Mr Brownlee that has publicly professed a strange coal fetish. He has gone so far as to call this climate-killing energy dinosaur “sexy”. Best Gerry stays well away from Huntly if that’s the case.

He’s also a big fan of gas, another fossil fuel and contributor to climate change. This was all reflected in the party’s energy strategy, released just prior to the election. The strategy failed to even mention climate change and read like something from the 1970s. Read more »

Now is not the time for New Zealand to be sticking its head in the sand over climate change over climate change, no matter what Rodney says.

Last week, Americans around the world were being kissed by strangers; so happy was the global population that the fine people of the US of A had chosen vision and hope over fear and greed. I cannot say the same feeling prevailed over the Land of the Long White Cloud on Sunday morning. Most people were too perplexed that Roger Douglas had risen from the ashes. (I for one had been certain “80s revival” only extended to garish wardrobes, but seemingly not). Read more »

I watched the US elections last night with some disbelief. Who would have thought? Even when the polls indicated Obama had it - I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe that this young black man was going to be the next US President. But he is. And this morning when I woke up the world felt slightly different. Hope tinged with trepidation? It’s hard to express but I think Brian over at Greenpeace International does it well in his blog post this morning so I’ll share it here … Read more »