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Daily blogs from the frontlines of the Greenpeace planet down under. 

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  • Exposed: Iceland's whale hunt (graphic images)

    Blogpost by James - June 20, 2013 at 9:45

    Sorry these pictures are grim, but it's important we get the message out.

    This morning, one of our undercover photographers sent pictures showing a magnificent fin whale being harpooned and diced up by an Icelandic ship. The meat will probably to be exported to Japan, where in the past some of it has been turned into dog food.



    Exposing this kind of brutality is what we do. " bearing witness" as we call it, is an essential part of our work.

    And it's effective. Spreading images these far and wide is worrying the Icelandic government.

    Already their own tourist industry has rushed out a statement condemning the whaling, pointing out that they make far more money from whale watching than they could ever make from killing the whales.

    The most effective thing we can do now is to spread thes... Read more >

  • Giving the street back to whom it belongs

    Blogpost by Bernardo Camara - June 20, 2013 at 7:48

    protest brazil

    "The people finally woke up" … and they won't be going back to sleep.

    This phrase, heard from the four corners of Brazil this Monday, reflected a infectious sentiment felt everywhere. The hours past midnight saw thousands of people still on the streets – and on social networks – sharing emotions, images and memories of a day that has already become history in the country.

    Never before has a Monday been so eagerly awaited by so many people. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred-thousand, the exact number does not matter anymore. Brazilians occupied their streets as they haven't done for a very long time; shouting clearly and loudly what was previously stuck in their throat.

    It was not only about the increase in public transport fares. The initial protests in the past two weeks were... Read more >

  • Will the World Bank act boldly?

    Blogpost by Kaisa Kosonen - June 20, 2013 at 7:37

    Unprecedented heatwaves, widespread food shortages, more intense cyclones and shifting rain patterns causing floods or droughts are just some of the future problems outlined in the World Bank's latest climate report today.

    Following its groundbreaking report that warned about a 4 degrees Celsius warmer world, the bank has now looked at what that warming would mean for South Asia, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The picture is dramatic, as this infographic illustrates, with climate change threatening the future prosperity of these regions.

    Four degrees may not sound like a lot, but it almost compares to the temperature difference between the last ice age and today – and happening during one person’s lifetime. No wonder the impacts would be dramatic!

    For the regions in question, t... Read more >

  • Japan objects to the protection of sharks - again

    Blogpost by Wakao Hanaoka - June 18, 2013 at 16:10

    The Japanese government has objected to a decision by CITES, the convention regulating the international trade of wild plants and animals, to regulate the trade of five shark species – including hammerhead, oceanic whitetips and porbeagles, which are threatened by overfishing.

    Japan tried to justify its stance by insisting that the "control of resources should be done by existing regulatory organisations," but I've been witness to enough of these organisations' meetings to know that Tokyo’s reasoning is entirely flawed.

    Caught Shark on Japanese Longliner

    There are several international organisations tasked with the regulation of fisheries that target tuna and sharks. These include the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) ... Read more >

  • "In the same boat"

    Blogpost by Kumi Naidoo - June 14, 2013 at 22:14

    When we last met the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) I had hoped that his expression that "we are in the same boat", in terms of protecting the country’s environment, would withstand the test of time. To a great extent, I am pleased to say that it has.

    07 June 2013

    Indonesian President Visits Rainbow Warrior © Ardiles Rante / Greenpeace

    Just a few hours ago, we met the President again, but this time on our iconic ship, the Rainbow Warrior, which is winding up a one-month tour through Indonesia raising awareness about the need to protect Indonesia's forests and oceans. The President visited the ship with the First Lady Ani Yud... Read more >

  • Gezi Park: A historic defence of democracy

    Blogpost by Rex Weyler - June 14, 2013 at 22:10

    "Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong that will be imposed upon them."
    – Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave civil rights leader

    ==============

    The citizens of Istanbul now appear in control of Gezi Park, protecting one of the last and most treasured green spaces in Istanbul from conversion to a shopping mall.

    The protest, which began to save the park, became a rally for genuine democracy in Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government responded with police violence – beatings, pepper spray, water cannons, and tear gas – but could not stop the protests from spreading to over 70 Turkish cities, exposing Erdogan's persecution of opposition and media censorship.

    When governments turn to violence to bully the... Read more >

  • Ross Sea doco goes global

    Blogpost by Peter Young - June 13, 2013 at 11:16

    I’m delighted to say that the feature documentary I worked on for the past six years, The Last Ocean, has just been released in 24 countries and seven different languages through  iTunes and a couple of other video on demand platforms, Cineqlic and Distrify. The film celebrates one of last great ocean wildernesses on Earth, the Ross Sea in the Antarctic, and follows the campaign to protect it.

    That campaign which now involves major NGO’s – including Greenpeace –is at a crucial stage. In six weeks’ time 25 nations will gather in Bremerhaven, Germany to decide on the fate of marine protection in the in the Ross Sea. This meeting is our one big opportunity to do something special in the Ross Sea.

    The proposal they will consider has been presented jointly by New Zealand and the United States.... Read more >

  • Our blackened boots expose the truth in the Russian Arctic

    Blogpost by Zhenya Belyakova - June 11, 2013 at 7:25

    Rosneft oil spill

    Right now I am in the Russian Arctic as part of a Greenpeace factfinding mission. We are near a town called Pyt'-Yah, in the Khanty-Mansi region of Siberia, which is surrounded by Rosneft oil fields, the largest public oil company in the world. This is the oil producing capital of Russia, a country where hydrocarbons provide 25% of the national budget, while creating terrible inflation and total dependence on oil markets.

    We are in the middle of a large bog covered with a slime of thick, black oil — there's no way to keep your clothes clean here. This is the hidden side of the raw-material economy, hidden from the eyes of European consumers and the big spenders in Russia's major cities.

    Just a few hours before we arrived at the Mamontovskoe field (one of the 10 largest oil fields in ... Read more >

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