Whales must not be allowed to die in the thousands for needless, discredited "research," and we're satellite tracking whales in the Southern Ocean to prove it. The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was meant to be a safe haven but every year the Fisheries Agency of Japan send a fleet of whaling ships to kill in the name of science. For the third year running they aim to hunt down almost 1,000 minke whales. This year, they also plan to kill 50 threatened humpback whales and 50 endangered fin whales. All of these whales will die for so-called 'scientific research' - but even the International Whaling Commission has labelled the "research" needless and urged the Japanese government to stop.

The Great Whale Trail is a collaboration between Greenpeace and scientists working on humpback whales in the South Pacific. With financial support from Greenpeace, humpback whales from Rarotonga and New Caledonia have been satellite tagged by the Center for Cetacean Research and Operation Cetaces, respectively. The whales' migration from their breeding areas in the South Pacific to the feeding grounds of the Southern Ocean is now being tracked in order to produce vital data on their movements, habitat use and population structure.

We’re inviting you to join us as a Whale Defender to end whaling! You can name the whales, and create your own fundraising page, asking your friends and family to support your journey to protect the threatened humpbacks. Be a part of an international network of Whale Defenders today!

To register, please Click here

Indonesian forests are being destroyed faster than any other major forested countries for logging and oil palm plantations. Burning of the forest and peatlands results in the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse gases making Indonesia the world’s third largest climate polluter after China and the US. With about one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions being caused by forest destruction we are highlighting how Indonesia is at the heart of this problem.

To raise awareness of the destruction of Indonesia’s forest and the climate change impacts ahead of December’s critical Kyoto Protocol discussions in Bali, Indonesia, Greenpeace has set up a Forest Defenders Camp (FDC) in Riau Province, Sumatra. We are working with the local community and scientists to witness and document the rampant destruction of the region’s peatland forests.

Greenpeace China Forest Campaigner, Li Yifang, has been in Riau to witness the destruction, to meet with the local villagers to prevent the Palm Oil companies from destroying the forest, and to take part, with the community, in forest fire training.

To read Yifang’s blog and others from the camp, please Click here

Enough disposable chopsticks are produced in China every day to fill up Tiananmen Square! Most of the wood used for the disposable chopsticks is from China, wasting the country’s limited forest resources. So, Greenpeace has been working with restaurant businesses and a famous Chinese web portal to organise the “Save the Forest, Say No to Disposable Chopsticks” campaign, which was officially launched in Beijing on 9th October. We aim to persuade residents to avoid using disposable chopsticks in order to protect China’s forest resources as well as forests across the region. Using disposable chopsticks is such a waste.

More than 300 restaurants in Beijing have already promised to stop providing their customers with disposable chopsticks and we will continue to invite more restaurants to join the initiative.

As a self proclaimed ‘World City’, Hong Kong’s policies to act against climate change lag far behind other world cities as well as falling short of the measures mainland China is taking. In China's National Climate Change Program issued on 4th June this year, the government pledged to promote clean energy technologies, improve energy efficiency and set a target to reduce 20% of its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2010. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s only response was to propose the planting of 11 million trees for past few years, which highlights our government’s ignorance of the climate change issue. On 2nd October, eight Greenpeace trees visited Government House to meet with Mr. Tsang to urge him to belatedly include his government’s plans for stopping climate change in his policy address.

Hong Kong emits around 38 million tones of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually and planting 2 billion trees to absorb all CO2 is impractical and this is way too little and too late to make much difference. What is needed is a revolution in the way we produce energy and an evolution in our energy use. We need to massively invest in the readily available clean renewable energy technologies and use our energy more smartly.

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