This is part of a trial series
The "Tokyo Two" were featured in ABC News (Australia) saying the UN's judgment is a blow to Japan's judicial system. The UN report says the activists' detention contravenes international covenants on human rights. Read the interview with Junichi Sato here.
Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, is traveling to Japan to support Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki during the trials this week. Read his entry in The Huffington Post here.
IPCC climate scientists focusing on the physical science of climate change in the 2007 reports have criticized colleagues in the field of social and biological science, saying the latter's error has maligned their work, The Guardian reports. The WWF report was cited again for a separate human health section which also referenced two reports from Greenpeace, the World Resources Institute as well as insurance companies. In German news claims about the Netherlands and "Africagate" have traveled with comments from Greenpeace Austria, reaffirming that Greenpeace supports the IPCC and did not call for Dr Pachauri to resign.
The Ministry of the Environment in the Czech Republic has delayed a decision about utility company CEZ's plans for rebuilding coal-fired power plant in Prunerov, because of requests from Micronesia and Greenpeace Czech Republic. While significant, they said these steps don't go far enough to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. "It's a positive development as it shows that nations endangered by climate change have learned how to use all available legal tools to make themselves heard," said Jan Rovensky, an energy and climate campaigner at the Czech Greenpeace office.
The Vancouver Sun reported a coalition of BP shareholders called FairPensions - backed by Greenpeace among others - have filed a resolution calling for a review of the risks posed by the company's Canadian tar sands project, following a similar protest against Royal Dutch Shell Plc in January calling for greater financial disclosure about their tar sands business. The article explains that pension funds in the UK cannot avoid being invested in BP because it is a substantial part of the equity market.
India will decide tomorrow whether to approve its first GE food food crop Bt brinjal. It is a move that supporters argue will help to avert a global food crisis but which critics say is being rushed through recklessly. The GE eggplant will be resistant to pesticides thus requiring more chemical-intensive, ecologically damaging farming methods. Contamination of non-GE varieties can also lead to a loss of diversity which poses potentially great risks to food security in the long-term. Ten states in India have already come together in opposition to BT-Brinjal.
In Germany farmers want to claim compensation for last years losses as a result of a ban of GE corn since April last year, saying that they will go to court if necessary. Also in Germany, Greenpeace is calling for an end to the use of hazardous pesticides identified in their "blacklist" published last week - approximately one third of which are still permitted in Europe.
China may lose control of its food supply if it relies on foreign GE crops, a think-tank expert and ecologist has warned. China Business News (CBN) cited Jiang Gaoming, an ecologist at the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, warning that through monopoly status, foreign suppliers with patents can raise seed prices and drive hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers bankrupt, and this could trigger massive social unrest. Fang Lifeng, director of Greenpeace's agriculture and food program in China said that GE cotton can resist bollworms but is vulnerable to other kind of pests, which leads to increasing costs for other pesticides and pollution after years of planting. Greenpeace collected research on a field visit to cotton farmers in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.
AFP reported the Spanish Minister of Science, Christina Garmendia, has presented a plan on the development of European electric cars and called for cooperation in the EU. Greenpeace has warned that under current conditions, an increase in electric cars is likely to lead to greater production in nuclear power plants, gas and coal, without necessarily reducing gasoline demand for classic cars.
The European Commission is planning to increase the amount of palm oil used in cars and power stations under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which is intended to reduce greenhouse gases, an official document has hinted. A loophole in the draft communication from Brussels on the implementation of the directive would allow almost all palm oil currently produced to be used in vehicles on British roads. The cultivation of palm oil leads to huge deforestation of rainforests and can be environmentally very damaging. The UK Government said it is keen to avoid the use of environmentally damaging materials but admits there is insufficient data on origin of 42 percent of transport biofuel used in the UK.
Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog agency on Monday that it would begin the enrichment process on Tuesday despite international calls for stricter sanctions against this.
Vedanta Resources on Tuesday defended its industrial and mining practices in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, rebutting a critical report by human rights group Amnesty International which accused the company of polluting areas around its Lanjigarh refinery and displacing tribes in the Dongria Kondh region.
(Picture credits: Copyright Greenpeace/Henri Ismail, 08.02.2010. Greenpeace activists in front of the Japan embassy in Jakarta protest the Japanese government's breach of the human rights of the "Tokyo Two," the two Greenpeace activists detained for uncovering major corruption in the Japanese whaling program. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are due to stand trial on February 15th, charged with theft and trespass.)