Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Part 1

Part 2

Many a marriage and many a romance have blossomed aboard our ships, but I think this is a first.

Po Paul, a deckhand onboard the Arctic Sunrise, just proposed to his girlfriend via a banner placed on deck and transmitted via the ships’ webcam. She said yes immediately.

Now, if you’re feeling suitably inspired by that act of love and creativity, you can wish a happy road ahead for Po Paul and Gabrielle by sending a love letter to the future.

Kumi Naidoo, the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International, writes:

In several African languages we have the proverb “I am, because you are”. This means that your sense of being a human being is determined by the relationships you have with other people. This proverb has informed not only my thinking about human relationships, but also about nature and the environment. Unless we recognise that we must come together in communities, in rich and poor countries and cut across the range of divides that keep us apart, unless we recognise that we are all in this together, we will not be able to address the environmental challenges that we face and we certainly will not be able to address the problem of climate change.

Today we are at the cross roads. The future of our planet is at stake. The effects of climate change are being felt by millions of people across the world. We are at a time when civil society needs to be courageous and bold, peaceful and principled in coming together to ensure that we stop catastrophic climate change – the biggest challenge our planet has ever faced. Read more »

The Esperanza in Auckland (C) Greenpeace / Polakovic

Today the Greenpeace ship Esperanza arrived in Auckland. It’s always good to see one of the ships, catch up with old friends aboard, hear their tales from the high seas and share a beer in the mess. But before any of that can happen we always try and give them a fitting welcome with a waiata and a haka.

The crew now knows the flavour of the welcome they’re likely to get in Auckland and usually prepare a bit of a song themselves. We’ve heard a great selection of sea shanties over the years but this one was one to remember. The crew on the Esperanza created their very own version of a classic Pink Floyd song complete with a guitar and drums!

Here’s the words …

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Most people probably know we’re living in extraordinary times. I am privileged enough to have a job where I get to speak to random people on the street from a whole range of backgrounds. I’m a Greenpeace Fundraiser and I help to empower individuals who’re concerned about environmental issues and social justice.

Fundraisers (we call them “Frontliners”) are those jolly people you may have seen on the streets or opened your door to. After five years doing this I am continually amazed and inspired by what I learn. Don’t get me wrong, it’s bloody hard work and we’re subjected to an interesting range of responses – from being ignored and rejected to occasional abuse and aggression.

But I’ve have always been passionate about this beautiful planet and having met thousands of people in my work, I realise I am not alone. I cannot count the numbers of people who’ve started a conversation with me along the lines of “you’ll never change it” or ‘is this about money?’ then ended up them thanking me for being persistent and positive. There are literally thousands of examples of how people power is a mighty force that we must not ever give up on. This is Nuclear Free New Zealand after all. Read more »

Sake Barrel Smashing in Aomori

We recently opened a new Communications Centre in the northern fishing district of Aomori, Japan. As we mark 20 years of non-violent environmental campaigning in Japan this year, we’re bringing our message of healthy oceans, whale protection, and sustainable fisheries direct to the people of this port city. New Zealander, Mal Wren is there as the Project Coordinator and he writes this about his time in Aomori…

It’s certainly been a period of contrast since I arrived in Japan a couple of months ago. During the planning and development period for establishing the Aomori Communications Centre i was based in Shinjuku, Toyko, where our local train station has the best part of NZ’s population passing through – every day!

It’s far cry from home in Muriwai on the west coast of Auckland… Read more »

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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Hello, my name is Josh (or as I said to my new colleagues here in the Greenpeace NZ office – Josselin for the more reckless). Indeed, I am French.

Given that Greenpeace was moving to a new office, my first week here has been intense. I’m very pleased with being part of this great team, so merrily engaged in fighting ecological recklessness!

As part of my studies in Political Sciences and History, I’m doing an internship in Greenpeace NZ. Not only is it everyone’s duty to work in the cause of ecology, human rights and (sometimes) civil disobedience, but as a Frenchman, I’m carrying the heavy burden of past governmental blunders on my shoulders …
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Chris Robinson, Lloyd Anderson, David McTaggart, Tony Marriner and Brice Lalonde on Greenpeace vessel “Vega” before heading to Moruroa to stop a nuclear weapons test.

(Originally posted by Brian Fitzgerald from Greenpeace International)

Chris Robinson died of cancer a few hours ago at the age of 57.

Chris was a salty dog, a Greenpeace activist who spent his life on the sea, one of the original Rainbow Warrior crew and later captain of the Vega.

I find it hard to believe he’s gone. He was the guy who could sail through anything — from Pacific typhoons to Mediterranean storms in which the tiny Vega was doing 11 knots on bare poles. He ran inflatable boats under radioactive waste barrels being dumped in the sea. He challenged the French military again and again by sailing into their self-declared “exclusion zone” around the Pacific nuclear weapons test site at Moruroa. He went up against war machines and trident submarines. One activist who sailed with him said he was one of the few who you knew, if you put your life in his hands, he’d shepherd it safely through whatever it was you had to face, and hand it back to you.

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