Feel like making a film? Check out The Outlook For Someday competition - I’ve never thought about making films but I am now!
The Outlook for Someday, began last year as “A Sustainability Film Challenge for Young New Zealanders” and this has morphed into “The Sustainability Film Challenge for Young New Zealanders”.
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Junichi Sato is not only a whale activist in Japan (and there ain’t many people who can put THAT on their business card), he’s also a blogger. And he’s been arrested for the crime of exposing the truth
We’re asking bloggers around the world to blog this story in solidarity with Junichi and blog him out of jail! Read more »
So World Environment Day has come and gone, and we’re all being encouraged to “kick the carbon habit”. But what does this entail exactly?
The Government has been banging on about carbon neutrality, emissions trading and our Kyoto responsibilities, and while it is slowly making good on its promises much more work is urgently needed.
New Zealand is among the worst countries in the developed world for emission increases. We’re the world’s 12th worst polluter on a per-capita basis, and the greenhouse gas intensity of our economy is fourth-highest in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) by GDP.
In recent years, our emissions have grown even faster than the United States. Not something we can be particularly proud of, but something we can change with the right attitudes. Read more »
“I don’t think I’ve ever held this much money in my hand at one time!”
So exclaimed Greenpeace New Zealand Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid as she clutched a cheque for $20,000 today on Oriental Parade (it was a little windy, and one doesn’t want to lose that kind of sum to a rogue gust).
The money had been generously gifted by the estate of late, renowned New Zealand sculptor Colin Webster-Watson, from the proceeds of an exhibition of his work at Eastbourne’s Rona Gallery.
Colin’s niece Anne Manchester presented the cheque at the site of one of his sculptures – Tail of the Whale –, which takes pride of place just beside Oriental Bay Beach. Colin had been passionate about animal welfare issues and felt particularly strongly about whaling. His family had made the decision to gift the money to Greenpeace just as our ship the Esperanza set off on its recent expedition to the Southern Ocean. They decided Greenpeace’s Defend the Whales campaign was a very fitting cause.
As Bunny pointed out, this scale of gift is quite uncommon, and it was very humbling to accept something that will go a long way to helping us continue with our whales work. Thank you from all of us to Colin and his family and friends.
Even though it’s not actually part of my job at Greenpeace, as a keen cyclist and climate change activist, I try to keep an eye on what’s going on with transport in NZ.
As you all probably know, if you’ve ever tried to take a bus or train in NZ, the transport sector in NZ is in a sorry state. Public transport is appalling, we have extremely high rates of car ownership, and greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector are skyrocketing.
However, the good news is there are lots of great campaigns being run by volunteers around NZ to try and get more sustainable transport. I mainly know about Auckland based groups although I’m sure there are lots of others going on. Read more »
The plight of whales under the harpoon gets people pretty het up sometimes. People leading otherwise normal lives find themselves compelled to do things they may not have otherwise considered.
Last week we received an email that caused quite a stir here in the Greenpeace NZ HQ. It went something like this:
My 7 year old Whale Defending daughter, Laura, has bullied me into driving her to Wellington, from Auckland, (7 hours) so she can stand outside the Japanese Embassy with a sign demanding that Whaling in the Southern Ocean stops. Her Granny is going to be standing next to her as well as her Mum and her big brother. It will be the smallest protest in history but the biggest in her life!!!!!!!!
We will be there from 1000 hours until 1100 hours on Saturday 16 February. If you have people in Wellington that you can email this to so they can join us I am sure Laura would appreciate it.
For the record I have been a redneck all my life that cared not for the whales until she changed my mind. Keep up the good work. Read more »
Ever wonder where your beautiful BBQ table came from?
Today Greenpeace NZ along with the Indonesia Human Rights Committee released a new ‘Guide to Forest Friendly Outdoor Furniture Retailers‘. It shows that the majority of outdoor timber furniture sold in New Zealand is contributing to the destruction of tropical forests in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Can you create a picture that’s worth a thousand whales? Would you like the chance to win some cool Greenpeace stuff? We’re inviting Canon users to enter a new competition.
We’re looking for images that will encourage the CEO of Canon Japan, Mr. Mitarai, to speak out against whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and live up to his company’s reputation as a wildlife defender.
The winning entry will be the one most likely to convince him that he can and should save thousands of whales by applying domestic pressure within Japan. Want to find out more?
What’s this all about?
Our ship has had to leave the Southern Ocean but the campaign to save the whales is far from over. We’re focused on shooting whales… with cameras. But we were surprised to learn that Canon, the world’s number one digital camera producer, isn’t willing to condemn using harpoons — despite their high-profile advertising and sponsorship programmes dedicated to wildlife and endangered species.
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Just came across this on the Be The Change website. A Christchurch couple, Matthew and Waveney, have challenged themselves to a ‘rubbish free year’.
The challenge is for our household to create no rubbish for the landfill from 1st February 2008 to 1st February 2009. However it is very likely that, despite our best efforts, some rubbish will be unavoidable. We challenge ourselves to keep this in no more than one official council rubbish bag.
And they look serious! They’ve got a website and they’ve got a plan …
Welcome to the GPNZ blog! Here we'll tell tales, cast nasturciums, talk in parables and offer opinions on stuff that it is, at least in some way related, to the work we do.
