Top news: The rebellion against Volkswagen continues, are you a jedi yet?; Austrians against nuclear power; Indian forest campaign boosted by Bollywood; Greenpeace asks Bharti Airtel for a Diesel phase-out; we’ll meet Aliens before 2031.

© Greenpeace / Sharbendu De

 

#Volkswagen: the Rebellion is spreading. The Jedi are 57,000, but we need more. Did you join us already? Together we can turn VW away from the Dark Side.   

 

#Nuclear: Austrians are most definitely against Nuclear Energy, according to a recent Greenpeace-commissioned poll: 74% of the population is opposed to nuclear power. The government has taken notice, nuclear power will never be part of the energy portfolio.

#Forests: Greenpeace India’s “Fools for forests” campaign is receiving a tremendous response from Indian people, due to wholehearted support from Bollywood stars. The campaign attracted more than 30,000 supporters thanks to the support of actor Vinay Pathak, who feels strongly that India’s forests need to be preserved for future generations, and thinks “Greenpeace is the right channel to create awareness about this issue.”

#Climate: Also in India, Greenpeace took action today in New Delhi, where activists blocked the entrance to the headquarters of telecoms giant Bharti Airtel, where they unfurled banners displaying the message “Airtel - Switch off Diesel”, encouraging India’s largest telecoms provider to stop using government-subsidised diesel generators. The protest came after Bharti Airtel backtracked from its earlier assurance to commit to a timeline for the public disclosure of its entire operational carbon emissions and the phase-out of diesel in powering its telecom tower operations.

#Aliens: According to a top Russian astronomer, humans will meet aliens by 2031. At the “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” symposium in St Petersburg, Andrei Finklestein claimed: “Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years.” Finkelstein, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Applied Astronomy Institute, predicts that these aliens are most likely to resemble humans with two arms, two legs and a head – possibly a disappointment for sci-fi fans.