Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Reyes, one of our agriculture campaigners in India, shares her immediate thoughts on this ‘first-of-its-kind’ admission by Monsanto

This was my Saturday’s lyrics to breakfast in sunny Bangalore: Monsanto has decided to tell the truth about something: its technology doesn’t work!, reports The Hindu. I’m going to need a second cup of chai to digest this, Monsanto speaking honest!? Indian farmers and scientist have been seeing this in their Bt cotton fields for a few years: pests become resistant to Monsanto’s genetically engineered toxins and thus farmers apply huge amounts of pesticides. Monsanto has always denied this, has the recent massive rejection of its Bt brinjal in India woken up its senses?

Read more »

2009 has been a hard year for everyone, and we wouldn’t have made it without our supporters. We would like to thank you for sticking with us through the tough times, and hope you’ll be staying with us in the future. You can read the wrap-up from the Copenhagen climate summit here. World leaders walked away without a treaty that protects the climate. They’re not done yet, but neither are we so waych this space!

On behalf of all Greenpeace:  Thank you.

All 14 activitsts remain locked on to the ship just outside the Port of Tauranga.

One is on the anchor chain.

Check out new images just up on the live feed site.

The rollout of the action “went like clockwork”, according to our campaigner on the ground, and the ship’s crew were, well, really rather good about it all.

Police officers have arrived at the Port.

Meanwhile media pick up commences.

Greenpeace activists have blocked a shipment of palm kernel animal feed from Indonesia, entering Tauranga Port and destined for Fonterra dairy farms.

The 12 activists who have boarded the East Ambition, several kilometers from Tauranga port, have locked themselves to the vessel, the anchor chain and its four cargo cranes to prevent the ship unloading. News footage shows they’re all holding banners which read “Fonterra Climate Crime”.

Activist Jo McVeagh (who’s locked to one of the cranes):“Fonterra’s involvement in rainforest destruction and the massive climate impact this causes is criminal. This ship’s cargo has contributed to the release of up to 364,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. That’s the same as the emissions from 127,000 cars over a year. Fonterra and John Key have taken no steps to stop this climate crime which is why we’re taking action today.”

Stay tuned…..

I’m starting to wonder if there’s something a bit strange about the food they feed people at Parliament these days. The MPs are all acting up and acting strange. In fact, the last seven days have been downright bizarre when it comes to environmental politics. Read more »

They have only been out on the high seas for a couple of days and already they are taking action to defend the great fish of the Pacific. Here’s the latest from Mary Ann, on the Esperanza.

We arrived a few days ago in the High Seas of the Pacific. Since yesterday, we have been on constant watch, scanning the horizon by day, the radar by night, diligently on the look-out for FADs and fishing boats.

Up in the bridge, Gabriel was the first to go on FAD watch at 8 in the morning.
And lo and behold …you guessed it…he spotted the very thing we were looking for, a FAD! Read more »

:, originally uploaded by .donelle.

There’s some great pics of the Auckland EWO flash mob here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/don_elle/

and of course at http://eyeswideopen.org.nz/videos/

In which Greenpeace shuts down multiple coal fired power stations and makes a point on Mouth Rushmore.

Five coal plants occupied in Italy, an impressive action at Mouth Rushmore in the USA, a life size ice berg in the Seine River in Paris and a coal shipment from South Africa painted with G8: FAILED. A lot has been happening in the Greenpeace international world to tie in with the recent G8 summit and the Major Economies Forum

Read all about it here, and check out the incredible video of our climbers getting blown about on Mount Rushmore:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/coal-climate-G8-action090709

For a full assessment of the outcomes from the G8, see here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/g8-plummets-our-estimations-weaker-climate-even-g20-20090710

General conclusion? It ain’t good.

An update from Melanie, campaigner on board the Arctic Sunrise…

I spend waaaaay too much time in the office of this ship chained to my laptop, but sometimes sitting here in the office of the Arctic Sunrise has its benefits.

Take two minutes ago when Arne Sorensen, our ice pilot, came into the office. Arne’s job is to maneuver the ship through ice, which may sound simple, but trust me, it’s not. It takes an intimate knowledge of and experience with wind, weather, the ship’s abilities and the many states and behavior of the ice itself to chart a safe course from point A to point B. Just as importantly, Arne can use his decades long experience piloting ships in polar conditions to predict in advance and avoid any hazards that could trap, slow or jeopardize the wellbeing of the ship. Read more »

I have to confess, I haven’t achieved much today – illness and
tiredness have caught up with me. There’s a virus doing the rounds of
delegates at the negotiations as we have all become more tired and
it’s got me. So I’ve had a quiet day. When you’re at something like
this, you don’t want to waste a moment so it’s easy to overwork and
it’s also frustrating to feel less than 100%.

I missed the big event of the day when my Greenpeace colleagues set
off a large alarm outside the Maritim Hotel to highlight that failure
of countries, including New Zealand, to show the level of urgency
required to tackle climate change. There is no sense of urgency here whatsoever. Read more »