This is part of a trial series
Illegal logging in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea landowners are preparing to launch a legal battle against controversial Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau (RH). They claim the company is illegally cutting their trees and using brute force and bribery to take what they need. In 2006 Greenpeace released a report titled The RH group: Thirty Years of Plunder and in 2004 were threatened with legal action over the report titled The Untouchables - Rimbunan Hijau's World of Forest Crime and Political Patronage.
BT-Brinjal study to be peer-reviewed
European scientists have said the vital study cited by India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to justify his decision to delay the commercial cultivation of BT-Brinjal in India is flawed. The study that labeled the genetically engineered food, BT-Brinjal “unsafe” was conducted by France-based Caen University professor Gilles-Eric Séralini and his team. Ramesh told Hindustan Times he would like Séralini’s paper to be peer-reviewed.
Shell leaks data
Royal Dutch Shell was at the centre of a major security leak story last night after the names and telephone numbers of tens of thousands of the oil company’s staff were circulating freely on the internet. The Times and The Financial Times reports that the document was e-mailed out to human rights groups and environmental activists including Greenpeace apparently by a group of disaffected Shell staff who were pressing for internal changes within the company. Attached to the database was a cover letter, which set out criticism of Shell’s activities in Nigeria and called for a series of changes in policy. Shell has confirmed that the database is genuine but denies that it was sent by Shell staff.
Copenhagen Accord didn't actually change major emitting nations commitments
The Irish Times reports that an analysis by Point Carbon, a leading independent provider of market intelligence on energy and the environment, examined pledges made by 65 countries under the Copenhagen Accord, in which Australia and Japan pledged for tougher targets in the EU. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer thinks the pledges are “clear signals of willingness to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion”. However governments have actually failed to meet the Accord's objectives of taking action of limiting the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. “These commitments mean an average global temperature increase of more than 3 degrees C, compared to pre-industrial times,” said Bernhard Obermayr, of Greenpeace International. If this happened, “the environmental and social implications could be catastrophic”, read the full press release here.
Want to know what's in your food?
If you do, you will understand why the Chinese Professor Wang Canfa of the China University of Political Science and Law is calling for the government to further regulate GE labeling, including having these details prominently displayed on packaging, so consumers could choose whether to buy those items. A survey conducted by Greenpeace China last year showed a large majority of the papaya sold in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai was genetically engineered, but there was no labeling to indicate this. Read more about the costs of GE food production and its impacts on farmers, the environment and consumers.
In New Zealand, government plans are unfolding that appear to support higher allowances of bluefin tuna fishing, despite the species critically endangered condition, and even as the EU has moved closer to halting its trade. Greenpeace and supporters have written to the Ministry of Fisheries asking for a ban that would enable fish stocks to recover from extreme overfishing, and preserve the long-term viabillity of bluefin tuna The New Zealand Herald reports.