John Hocevar, from Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior, writes about the assault on the Greenpeace staff blog:
“We are in Valletta Harbor in Malta. We learned that there were two vessels here owned by Fuentes, the tuna tycoon who controls over half the bluefin catch in the Mediterranean. We decided to board the vessel to inspect the cargo and documentation. Three women, Emma, Rita, and Liz, were the first to volunteer.
After the vessels refused our polite request to allow us access, Emma stepped on board to press the point. She was immediately attacked – they punched her, pulled her hair, picked her up and threw her overboard. One person hurled a large wooden pallet which whistled by our heads, and another tossed a full bucket of paint into one of our boats. If either of those had hit their intended targets, someone could have been seriously injured, but fortunately no damage was done.”
This all reminds me about the video which shows peaceful environmental activists who were protecting an old-growth forest in Tasmania, Australia, being violently attacked by timber workers.
Today it’s Earth Day, a day intended to inspire awareness and gratitude for the environment. And could you find a better way to celebrate the Earth than becoming a climate activist? No, I think not.
“We’re mobilising 3 million people to join our fight for the climate, to force governments to act against runaway climate change. Help us reach our goal! Become a climate activist by signing up for free so we can send you action alerts and, about once a month in most countries, our newsletter.”
24 yours after the deadly attack by the French secret services against Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior it seems France and its nuclear industry is once again caught up in a major scandal involving Greenpeace.
A week ago the French media reported that the largely state-owned French electricity company EDF has been caught spying on Greenpeace France. Two senior EDF officials have been indicted in a French court. Now investigators are looking into “fraudulent intrusion” into the computers of nuclear campaigners in the Greenpeace office in Paris.
“Greenpeace is a non-violent environmental organization,” said Pascal Husting, director of Greenpeace France. “The fact that we are being treated like terrorists because we dare to question nuclear energy shows just how frightened the nuclear industry is of transparency and a democratic debate.”
In a genius attempt to stop the construction of a third runway at the Heathrow airport in the UK the TV impressionist Alastair McGowan has bought a piece of the Heathrow third runway site along with Emma Thompson, Zac Goldsmith and Greenpeace.
If constructed the third runway would make Heathrow UK’s single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s expected that the airport would emit nearly 27 million tonnes of CO2 every year. A sum that is equivalent to the emissions of 57 of the least polluting countries in the world combined. But McGowan, Thompson, Goldsmith and Greenpeace hopes to stall or even stop the third runway completely by dividing up the plot to people around the world.
“The government would use its powers to issue compulsory purchase orders for the plots but lawyers said yesterday that the existence of thousands of owners would make this process time-consuming and expensive. Similar tactics have been used successfully to protect tropical forests.”
Greenpeace says they will “resist all attempts at compulsory purchase and will represent millions of people from across the world at any planning inquiry.” And that their “lawyers are now examining ways in which all of our owners can act as a legal obstacle to plans for a third runway at our busiest airport”. So far over 5000 people have signed up for a piece of the plot.
Action on the Maasvlakte: activists plant 18 flags, one for each nationality at the camp
As part of their global Quit Coal Campaign, Greenpeace activists from 18 different countries have today occupied the construction site of a new E.ON coal fired power plant on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The construction of the plant has halted and the activists say they will stay until the coal plant is cancelled.
“E.ON is ignoring all science around climate change by insisting on plans to construct eight new European coal fired power plants. The plant in Rotterdam is intended to be the first, even though it has not yet been granted the necessary permits. The previous evening the activists put up tents, next to the building site, to bear witness to the unfolding climate disaster. Then at first light they moved onto the site, paralysing the construction of the plant.”
The activists have locked themselves onto strategic points at the construction site and occupied the building cranes.
In light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Poznan, between 1st – 14th of December, Greenpeace have set up a “Climate Rescue Station” on the edge of a coal mine. The four storey tall station “will be used as a platform to tell the world that we can save the climate, but only if we quit coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels”.
The Climate Rescue Station, which is powered by wind and solar energy, will have representatives from 15 different countries and is part of Greenpeace’s global Quit Coal campaign. The campaign is led by the flagship the Rainbow Warrior, who is currently urging governments and energy companies “to give coal the boot”.
Last week the verdict came in the case against the six Greenpeace activists – Ben Stewart, Will Rose, Kevin Drake, Tim Hewke, Huw Williams and Emily Hall – who in October last year performed a protest against the Kingsnorth coal plant in the UK.
The six Greenpeace activists tried to shut down the coal plant and paint ‘GORDON BIN IT’ down the side of the coal plant’s chimney. For this they were accused of criminally causing £30,000 ($53,000) worth of damage.
Olkiluoto, Finland, Monday 28 May 2007 – Activists from Greenpeace block the entrance to the construction site of a new nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto. Photo by: Greenpeace.
The construction of a nuclear plant in Olkiluoto, Finland, has so far been pretty miserable. The construction is 2-3 years behind schedule, 70% over the budget, experiencing 1500 construction defects and recently had do deal with a damaging fire. But it’s getting worse.
Greenpeace today found out from leaked documents that the French construction company Areva is “failing to implement vital safety procedures” that, according to Greenpeace, cannot guarantee the reactors safety.
Japanese police have arrested two Greenpeace activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, for exposing a whale meat scandal in Japans government-sponsored whaling programme last month. According to the police the activists are “being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat which they presented as evidence.”
Junichi Sato is a well-known anti-whaling blogger in Japan and Greenpeace claims that this was, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission meeting, “an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling.” The Japanese media are, according to Brian from Making Waves, saying that this arrest is “a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.”
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24 yours after the deadly attack by the French secret services against Greenpeace’s flagship the 
In light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Poznan, between 1st – 14th of December, Greenpeace have set up a “
