Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

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When we were in Wellington on the Global Day of Action on Climate Change [6th Dec] a small group of activists in did a demo outside a store selling products produced from illegally logged Kwila in Auckland. The protest happened to coincide with the launch of our forest friendly furniture guide. And, a few days later and BINGO! the store agreed to stop selling Kwila products!

“Mr. Walsh of the Design Warehouse agreed on Saturday that he would not import anymore Kwila products. Rainforest Action is happy, but there are many more companies to go this summer, and it is important to know that we will be watching. If new kwila appears at the design warehouse, we will return...”

This weekend they’re going to do it again, and they need your support…

Come join the demo outside the Four Seasons furniture outlet in Wairau Park this Saturday 20th December between 1pm and 3pm. Four Seasons continue to sell illegally logged Kwila products and received a C- in the Greenpeace forest friendly furniture guide.

-Gary

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful Paddy Hart, a Dublin-born, Australian ex-whaler. “What is going on?”, you may well ask. “Is Greenpeace now consorting with whalers?”. Note that I said “ex-whaler” – Paddy was in Tokyo, Japan to support Junichi and Toru – the Tokyo Two, to ask Prime Minister Aso to quite whaling, and to reassure Japan’s whalers that there is life after whaling. Naturally, if you put two Irishmen together, you’ll never get us to shut up, so I spent a few days hearing of Paddy’s adventures over the years (and I told a few shaggy dog yarns myself). As well as being a great storyteller, Paddy was the skipper and harpoonist of a whaling vessel in Albany, Western Australia, in the 1970s until public opinion and economic rationale closed down the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company – the last whaling operation in the English-speaking world. Read more »

The Rainbow Warrior carries out a dramatic rescue in the icy north …

Orang-utans are an endangered forest species. We must protect the forest to save them.

Following the release of our online shop, and to further help you in your quest for ECO gifts, today we launched the Greenpeace NZ Good Wood Guide! But wait — there’s more!! The Good Wood Guide is accompanied by an updated ranking of the very popular outdoor furniture retailers guide!!!

So now you can make sure you’re not destroying rainforests or the climate when you’re buying outdoor furniture or timber decking this summer!
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As another unfortunate police paid informant was outed over the weekend I was reminded of another day in 1985. The day the Rainbow Warrior was bombed by the French secret service killing our photographer and crew mate Fernando Pereira.

Greenpeace NZ had had a French spy working in the office posing as a volunteer for a month or more before the bombing. Everyone she had stayed with and who extended their friendship to her felt used, very betrayed and very angry.

I have often thought that had the French government’s attempt to stop Greenpeace been successful, it would have been because Greenpeace became a suspicious, closed and paranoid organisation as a result of that betrayal. Thankfully we didn’t. We remained open and up front about what we do, why we do it and how we do it. That’s a fundamental right in a democracy and we need to keep practicing it if we are going to keep it healthy and alive.
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Postcards To Poznan

Pride. For me it personifies what it means to be a Kiwi. Our country and New Zealanders are admired the world over. I’ve travelled overseas and everyone I meet likes and respects our nation. And every single person says that they would love to visit our shores.

So why is it that I’m becoming more and more despondent with where my country’s heading?

Yes, I work at Greenpeace, but I’m a small town girl and heart just trying to make my world a better place. I am deeply saddened by our Government’s performance at the just ended global climate talks in Poznan.

190 countries spent 12 days discussing our future.

4 countries stood out as being the major culprits in blocking desperately needed progress to secure a global climate change agreement.

Shamefully New Zealand stood amongst these 4 countries. Read more »

Mesmerizing timelapse video showing the making of a 17 metre fin whale sand sculpture on Bondi Beach, Sydney. Sculpture by Greenpeace activists and sand sculptures, video by Keith Loutit, music by Headstrong and Shelley Harland.

The sculpture was done as a protest against whaling, and in support of two Japanese activists who are facing up to 10 years in jail for exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal. If you don’t have tons of sand handy, you can still support them as well.

Here’s how:

1) Sign the Tokyo Two petition telling the Japanese government, “If defending whales is a crime, arrest me.”

2) Change your Facebook/Skype/whatever status to, “Wanted in Japan ”. (Winky smiley face optional, depending if you’re a winky smiley face kind of person.)

Video

As the delegates at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in Korea negotiate tuna into extinction. Our oceans team over there have been asking them to fill out this survey:

WHAT SORT OF FISHERIES MANAGER ARE YOU?

Your scientists tell you to end overfishing by reducing effort by 30%. Do you:
a) thank your scientists and reduce fishing effort by 30%
b) say “nya-nya-nya I can’t hear you” and continue fishing at current levels
c) pretend you’re being responsible while in fact negotiating another year of 20% overfishing

Read more »

Codefendant Jackson

Here’s me, mug shot and all. Scarily if does look like one of those celebrity mug shots and it does look like I’ve had a few – but no it’s a bit more pertinent than that.

I was joined today by Greenpeace supporters and members of the public at a Greenpeace anti-whaling stand set up outside the Japanese embassy in Wellington where during the lunch hour around 150 people had ‘mug shot’ style photos taken that read “co-defendant, arrest me as well I want to save the whales”.

As I type the photos are being presented to the Japanese Embassy.

Everyone was declaring themselves as ‘co-defendants’ to an upcoming court case involving anti-whaling activists.

The story unfolds like this…two of our activists that work out of Japan were arrested several months ago for exposing really dodgy dealings within the Japanese Government sponsored whaling fleet (as if whaling wasn’t dodgy enough!!).
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Today’s Guardian picks up an interview with Junichi Sato about his arrest in Japan for exposing corruption in the whaling industry. About the extreme crackdown on Greenpeace when 40 police raided the office to arrest him and seized membership lists and computer disks. About his experience of being strapped to a chair and interrogated. About being accused of being no better than Aum Supreme Truth, the doomsday cult that carried out a deadly gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

The Japan Times is finally running the story as well — the first time the truth about this political persecution is coming out in the Japanese press.

Amnesty has condemned the arrest as politically motivated.

Read more »