04/08/2010 Greenpeace is calling for an end to the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia.
Another action took place yesterday in the North Sea in Belgian waters, publications De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws from Belgium report. Greenpeace continued campaigning against the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza pursued the Russian transport ship 'Kapitan Kuropte' which is on its way to Russia carrying nuclear waste from France to Russia. Activists in rubber boats got along side the ship displaying banners that read "Russia is not a nuclear dump", before being sprayed with water canons. Greenpeace hopes the action points to the large amount of nuclear waste being dumped in Russia. "We call on all European countries, including Belgium, to make an end to the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia," said Jan Vande Putte of Greenpeace.
04/08/2010
The French nuclear energy company Areva pronounced today that they have managed to load some nuclear equipment/materials to be transported to Japan with no disruptions by Greenpeace. The loading in the port of Cherbourg took place under maximum security and this was reported by Ouest France.
Greenpeace has launched a series of actions against exports of nuclear waste from France to Russia. Since the actions Areva and its subsidiaries which engage in such activities have asked the court to ban Greenpeace from disrupting their transports. The penalty fine will be 75,000 EUR per violation and prohibits Greenpeace activists from approaching within 150 meters of the convoys on land within 300m offshore to the limit of territorial waters, hinder or obstruct the loading.
Marketing 2.0 and Social Media Conference 2010 - will Nestlé please stand up?
"Is anyone from Nestlé present?" and indeed there was one person from their communication's department, there to learn about social media, reports Handelsblatt. The conference's goal is to exchange ideas and learn how to handle the dramatic changes in media, marketing, and consumer behaviour and to discuss the future of marketing, (social) media, and advertising, as well as new technology.
If you want a recap of this campaign click on the news article above or see it directly on the campaign site by clicking here.
Talks about the under water creatures
AFP reports that key nations in the whaling debate submitted comments to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to be used in further talks at the meeting in June in Morocco. The article goes into a discussion on key nations stance on whaling. Phil Kline, senior oceans campaigner for Greenpeace USA is quoted saying "South Korea's position is a clear indication that this is a slippery slope, if you restart commercial whaling, you know that others are going to be waiting in line."
Genetically Engineered Maize - might affect fertility but will be allowed until its double checked
09/20/2002 Greenpeace marks a maize field with signs showing corn with a 'question mark' indicating that 1 in 200 maize crops can be genetically contaminated if the draft EU seed directive is passed. Numerous organisations among them Greenpeace demand that the new EU Seed Directive garantees the purity of seeds sold and planted in Europe instead of tolerating any levels of contamination in them.
De Morgen features Dirk Inze, a molecular biology professor from University of Gent, criticizing Greenpeace for wrongly campaigning against GE and GE maize in particular. The high profile study on the long term effects of GE undertaken by the Austrian government, was said to not have shown any relevant statistical results. Mr Inze said that this must have hit Greenpeace hard as the study was used as underline for Greenpeace's GE campaign - nah, it didn't. In the autumn of 2008 the Austrian Federal Ministry for Health, commissioned a different study which came out with alarming results. Mice that were fed GE corn NK603xMON810 had less offspring. NK603xMON810 is a corn variety that produces an insecticide and resists the herbicide glyphosate. In some, yet unexplained way, the fertility of the mice was affected, according to the article the maize will continue to be recommended until the study is fully peer reviewed and confirmed.
Picture credit: © Pierre Gleizes / Greenpeace, Export of french nuclear waste to Russia, 04/08/2010
Picture credit: © Martin Langer / Greenpeace, GE Protest against EU Seed Directive, 09/20/2002