The Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) is a great ally of the oceans but its recent decision to include Chilean Seabass as ‘best choice’ in their Seafood Watch has bewildered many. Chilean Seabass includes Antarctic Toothfish from the Ross Sea, which, as the name implies is neither Seabass nor from Chile. In a blog justifying that decision, Alison Barratt from MBA said “while fishing is ongoing (in the Ross Sea), our recommendation reflects the current status of that fishery.”

The ‘current status’ is based on the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of the Ross Sea toothfish fishery as sustainable (I have yet to find MBA’s or MSC’s definition of sustainability). It is of great concern that the MSC’s assessment is strongly contended by many leading Ross Sea scientists as this short clip ... Read more >

At 10:48 am on 17 April in Beijing, Greenpeace made a bit of history: we joined the first batch of around 50 rooftop solar PV projects that connected to the grid in China.

And to our surprise, we learned that our modest five-kilowatt solar system is actually the biggest rooftop solar power project currently in Beijing.

Our “system” is 65 square meters of solar panels at the new GP China warehouse in Shunyi, on the outskirts of Beijing. At full capacity on a day with clear weather, these panels will generate around 25 kWh of electricity. To give you a sense of scale, an average urban Chinese family consumes less than 10 kWh per day.

Geeky screenshot of the production monitoring system – the panels produced 61KWh in a little over two days, “it’s a powerhouse!”

After the hurrahs, and tru... Read more >

April 26th marks the 27th anniversary of the devastating accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The radiation released into the atmosphere by the exploding nuclear reactor found its way across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and large parts of Europe.

The contamination still lingers in many places - the disaster has a legacy that continues even now.

So today, we remember those who died in the Chernobyl accident and those who must still live with the terrible after effects of the radioactive contamination that still blights their lives.

Annya story from Greenpeace on Vimeo.

Chernobyl should have been the world’s last nuclear accident. Enough of us shouted “NO MORE CHERNOBYLS!” But those with the money and the power and that strange ability to put profits before the protection of people carried on r... Read more >

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” — Oscar Wilde

With so much at stake in the Arctic, and so much mind-boggling corporate ineptitude at play in places like Alaska, Greenpeace International has taken matters into its own hands — or rather, put the power back in the hands of the everyday workers who are confronted nearly daily with the reality that the industry is simply not Arctic Ready.

The new Arctic Truth website aims to encourage employees and subcontractors of oil companies involved in Arctic drilling to come forward and to help expose the incredible risks corporations are taking as they look to plunder the resources of this pristine region — particularly on issues such as operational safety, bad practices and pot... Read more >

The passing of the Marriage Equality Bill last week was a triumph of bi-partisan politics.

Our elected leaders were able to think for themselves, ignore party doctrine and speak honestly about the concerns of their constituents.

It was celebrated in news headlines across the globe, and it made me proud to call New Zealand home.

But on the same day, the National led-Government, bound by doctrine and blinded by ideology, voted to make protesting at sea illegal. It is the latest move by Steven Joyce and John Key to re-write our laws and roll back our environmental safeguards to suit overseas oil companies.

Companies like Texan oil giant Anadarko have been spooked by how much we care about our beaches and the sea that we fish and swim in. So they’ve been meeting behind closed doors with Min... Read more >

When the Government rammed through legislation on 16 April that criminalises key aspects of peaceful protest at sea, many New Zealanders were angered. Angered by the affront to democracy and to our longheld tradition and right to peaceful protest.

As Peter Williams QC said, “The power of protest is at the heart of democracy”. Peter is himself a veteran of the 1995 flotilla protest to Moruroa against French testing. 

So we felt it was time to recall just how we have all benefited from that right and asked Peter to voice this TV clip depicting iconic moments of the sorts of protest at sea that would no longer be possible under the Government's draconian new legislation (now known as the Anadarko Amendment) if a 500 meter distance from vessels had to be obeyed.

The first footag... Read more >

70 beats per Minute. That’s 4200 beats per hour. My heart goes out the Arctic today – beating as one with 59 others assembled today at Piha beach to express our love. Love for the arctic, love for the future generations, love for our planet.

On 20^th of April 2010, 3 years ago, the Deep Water Horizon Disaster stopped some hearts from beating. 11 Workers were killed and the impact on marine life can still be seen today – not to mention the impact it had on people living along the beautiful coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico and the economy based there.

As the world starts running out of oil, governments and oil companies are jostling for position at the extreme frontiers to get at the last drops of ancient sunlight. This time it’s Shell, Exxon, Gazprom, Rosneft and again BP. And this time t... Read more >

It was the 5th of October last year when more than 20 of my colleagues and I met in Paris. We are all Volunteer Coordinators here at Greenpeace, and the question that took us to France on that day was "How can we take our demands for Arctic protection to the streets, and and make sure those in power hear the voices and creativity of an ever growing movement committed to saving the Arctic?"

So we started brainstorming. Ploi from Thailand, Sergio from Chile, Natalie from Canada, Raquel from Spain and many of my other colleagues from around the world.

When we made our way home the next day, all of us were thinking over the idea of tens of thousands of people coming together across the globe to show their love to the Arctic, to the planet, to the people. From then on we, together with the g... Read more >