News stories
You know the story. The clever tailors that convince a kingdom that only intelligent people can see the clothes they make. Everyone talks about how fine the emperor's outfit is, until one audacious voice pipes up to say there's nothing there, the king is naked. When the reality of climate change politics is stripped of rhetoric, most of the industrialised world's leaders are seriously underdressed, and Obama isn't wearing a stitch.
If we told you that there was one single way to cut a fifth of global greenhouse emissions - that simply involved hugging trees - would you believe us? Probably not - but that's exactly what's required. And we've got 50 activists in the Indonesian rainforest together with Inglourious Basterds star Mélanie Laurent - doing just that - and calling on world leaders to do the same.
People could some day recall that it was the Information Technology (IT) industry's advocacy for strong action which tipped the balance at the Copenhagen climate summit. But that's not going to happen unless all of us press them to become climate champions. As our updated Cool IT Challenge leaderboard reveals, IT heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft and IBM are still hesitating to speak up on the urgent need for emissions reductions.
Coal and oil companies are using forest offset projects to try and cheat the climate. Our new report Carbon Scam investigates how American Electric Power, BP and Pacificorp - all investors in the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project in Bolivia - are using the forest protection project to try and avoid reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions.
Apple has stormed out of the biggest lobby group in the United States. At issue is the US Chamber of Commerce's use of funds to oppose climate change legislation. Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too.
700 volunteers posed nude in a French vineyard to send a message about climate change. This human art installation in the South of Burgundy was created by artist Spencer Tunick - to warn about the dangers of global warming.
Parental warning: the story below contains nudity
Today we have good news from the Amazon. Four of the biggest players in the global cattle industry have joined forces to reduce their carbon hoofprint and back our call for zero deforestation. JBS-Friboi, Bertin, Minerva and Marfrig are going to stop buying cattle from newly deforested areas of the rainforest.
Our jaws hit the deck and we all fell out of our inflatables when we got word that Presidents Obama, Lula, Zapatero and Prime Minister Hatoyama were going to show up in Copenhagen. And then we found out that instead of showing up in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Summit in December, world leaders were actually going to be there today, 2 months ahead of schedule, to lobby the Olympic Congress for their cities to host the 2016 Games.
Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and other world leaders took non-violent direct action today against a coal mine in Svalbard, denouncing the fossil fuel that is powering the meltdown of the Arctic.
'Dying for climate leadership' - is the message 23 Greenpeace activists, from Canada, France, Germany and Brazil, took to the heart of Canada’s deadly tar sands development today. Shutting down a conveyor belt in an open pit mine, they renewed the call for the Tar Sands to be abandoned - in the interest of the climate and the health of the local people.
