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.

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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 >

"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

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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 >

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 >

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 >

In more than three decades at sea, I have had the pleasure to sail across the world’s oceans; I have had the privilege to witness ocean life in a way that few others can; I have experienced the magic and mystery of some of the planet’s biggest, smallest, most beautiful and strangest creatures. From blue whales to the tiniest seahorses and almost everything in between!

Listen to the ocean

For me every day is an oceans day.

World Oceans Day 2013

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Captain Joel Stewart aboard the Rainbow Warrior II in 1991

© Greenpeace / Robert Visser

 

The majority of my life at sea has been on Greenpeace ships. I was drawn to them after starting out in the commercial world, working Alaskan c... Read more >

Last week, documents released to the Labour Party revealed that Government Ministers Steven Joyce and Simon Bridges had met with oil giant Shell to thrash out a back-room deal to criminalise protesting at sea.

There’s nothing new here – it’s called crony capitalism and it’s something that the John Key Government does well. It’s his bread and butter. You take a company – in this case New Zealand Inc – and you use it to line the pockets of your mates. 

Yet, it seems that in a desperate attempt to show that the Government is wagging its own tail, Simon Bridges has been caught out misleading Parliament. Originally telling Parliament that he had had no contact with oil companies about the controversial law changes, it has emerged that he had met with Shell just weeks before making his draconia... Read more >

John Wathen is an award winning photojournalist who recently toured Aotearoa recounting his experience both on the ground and in the air documenting the catastrophic 2011 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

John flew out over the gulf in a light plane and captured the event as it was unfolding resulting in some amazing footage and images of the worst environmental disaster in American history.

This video shows the most important parts of John’s presentation:

During John's tour of the country he visited schools spoke at community meetings and Marae and engaged with local business leaders where he spoke passionately about the ongoing effects the oil spill  is having on the environment and the peoples of the region including the collapse of the local fisheries and other wildlife and the cont... Read more >