Our oceans are in deep peril, says a new report from the
internationally respected Worldwatch Institute. The only road
to recovery may be to declare 40 percent of the world's oceans
off-limits to human exploitation to ensure the restoration of life.
Worldwatch, Greenpeace: Oceans are in Crisis
Our oceans are in deep peril, says a new report from the
internationally respected Worldwatch Institute. The only road to
recovery may be to declare 40 percent of the world's oceans
off-limits to human exploitation to ensure the restoration of
life.
Written for the Worldwatch Institute by a team of experts from
Greenpeace's Science Unit at Exeter University - Oceans in Peril
updates an earlier study by the same team in 1998. The scientists
say they have been staggered by the scale and rate of destruction
that has occurred in less than a decade in every ocean.
The report illustrates how 76 percent of the world's fish stocks
are fully or overexploited. It also argues that the solution is
the establishment of comprehensive marine reserves all over the
world, protecting vulnerable species and habitats, and enhancing
fisheries beyond the reserve boundaries. Oceans in Peril is
available online at www.worldwatch.org
APEC Climate Declaration a Political Stunt
While demonstrators rallied against climate change and the Iraq
War in downtown Sydney, delegates to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum were signing a meaningless and ineffective
declaration on climate change.
The so-called "Sydney declaration" set a non-binding goal of
reducing "energy intensity" (the amount of energy required to
produce a given amount of economic output) by 25% by 2030.
In most APEC countries, energy intensity would improve by this
amount by 2030 anyway - however, overall emissions would continue
to rise.
Greenpeace's Cindy Baxter criticised the declaration, "APEC
leaders have supported the Australian Government in little more
than a political stunt. They have professed concern about climate
change while agreeing to no real action."
Greenpeace reiterated that the appropriate place for setting
emissions reductions targets were the binding Kyoto negotiations,
the next round of which are scheduled to take place in Bali this
December.
Greenpeace Volunteers Expose Climate Impacts
Over 600 naked volunteers gathered at the Aletsch glacier in
Switzerland in August, to draw attention to the climate
crisis.
Internationally renowned installation artist, Spencer Tunick,
organised and photographed the event. "I want my images to go
more than skin-deep. I want the viewers to feel the vulnerability
of their existence and how it relates closely to the sensitivity of
the world's glaciers," he said.
Those present on the glacier witnessed significant shrinkage.
The Aletsch Glacier retreated 115 metres in a single year from 2005
to 2006.
Over the last 150 years, alpine glaciers have reduced in size by
approximately one third of their surface and half of their mass,
and this melting is accelerating. If global warming continues at
its current rate, most glaciers in Switzerland will completely
disappear by 2080, leaving nothing but valleys and slopes strewn
with rock debris.
Whales Don’t Need to Die for Science
Greenpeace has teamed up with scientists studying humpback
whales in the South Pacific to launch an ambitious whale tagging
research project. The campaign will allow you to follow 20 tagged
Humpbacks, via a satellite map, as they migrate from breeding and
calving areas in the tropical South Pacific, past New Zealand
shores and on to their feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean.
The project will highlight the fact that it is unnecessary to
kill whales to study them. 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
"research". Over summer they aim to hunt down almost 1,000 Minke,
in addition to 50 threatened Humpback and 50 endangered Fin
whales. One season's hunt has the potential to decimate the
Pacific population, which travels in small pods.
To follow the whales' progress whales on the satellite map visit
www.greenpeace.org.nz/whales