News stories
In a rare piece of good news for Indonesia's forest, a regional governor has announced an interim ban on deforestation in Riau, one of the areas currently worst affected by rapid deforestation. The ban, especially if made permanent, is also good news for the climate.
The fishing industry seems determined to catch every last fish in the North Sea. The governments of the region and the EU have done little to stop them, but they may soon hit a few snags: a team from Greenpeace Germany and Greenpeace Netherlands has sailed into the German North Sea and begun placing 150 granite rocks on the seabed. They are hoping that the rocks, each weighing 2-3 tonnes and measuring one square cubic metre, will prevent fishing boats from bottom trawling on the Sylt Outer Reef. This highly destructive fishing method involves a net being dragged across the seabed indiscriminately catching everything in its path.
The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.
The US Congress has sent President Bush legislation that will make toys safer for little tots and infants. The bill bans the use of six toxic chemicals, called phthalates, that are added to vinyl plastic to make it flexible.
Over the last month there have been a catalogue of accidents at the French nuclear site Tricastin-Pierrelatte. We’ve followed all the breaking stories on our new weblog ‘Nuclear Reaction’. Now Greenpeace France has launched two court cases in an effort to find out what’s really been going on at the site.
Just as the need to save the world’s forests for climate protection is becoming widely recognised, we have discovered that major logging companies - operating in the Congo basin - are increasingly destroying one of the most ecologically important forest areas on the planet while dodging taxes and robbing impoverished Congolese people of revenue.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists painted coal ships waiting in a queue at Hay Point port in Queensland with messages saying "Stop coal expansion", "Barrier Reef Gone", "Ice caps gone" and "Rudd exporting CO2".
After successful campaigns in New Zealand and the Philippines, the Rainbow Warrior spent 21 days in Thailand as part of the "Quit Coal, Lead the Energy [R]evolution Tour" promoting solutions to climate change. The tour included human banners, port blockades and a visit to the Ministry of Energy.
Austria has banned the import of the highly dangerous genetically engineered maize MON 863. The maize (corn) is produced by US agro-chemical giant Monsanto.
A world renowned coral reef scientist Dr. Charlie Veron joined Greenpeace activists underwater to make a bold statement against the shale oil industry and for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef from climate change.
