Tag Archives: climbing

Greenpeace Semester – Learning the Ropes

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A Greenpeace Semester participant reaches the end of her rope during the climb training, which is part of Actions Week.

Greenpeace’s long history of direct action – indeed, a pillar of our philosophy – sometimes involves climbing in order to get to a place in plain view from which we can send a message or stop an environmentally destructive activity from continuing. During Actions Week in the Greenpeace Semester, participants first gain an understanding of non-violent direct action as a core of our philosophy, then spend a day learning some basics of technical climbing as it applies to activism.

The Greenpeace Semester is currently accepting applications for the summer and fall term.  Apply online here.

December 2012 Photo of the Month

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The December 2012 Photo of the Month by Christian Åslund turns perspective perpendicular. One of many actions in an imaginative global campaign that got Levi’s to commit to working with their suppliers to stop the release of hazardous chemicals into waterways, Danish activists staged a vertical fashion show on the side of a Levi’s store in Copenhagen.

Vertical Catwalk

An activist "model" walks up the side of a Levi's store

I picked the picture for the way the “model” appears close to the camera balanced and poised taking a step forward as the photographers lie flat on the ground to shoot is well balanced and the flash firing brings it all together. Continue reading →

Students: The World Needs You – Apply for the Greenpeace Semester

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APPLY FOR THE GREENPEACE SEMESTER!

Me, on a decommissioned Duke/Progress Energy smokestack (see picture below). Arden, NC. Feb, 2012.

As humans, we sometimes find ourselves in positions that change the way we view the world, or how we fit into it. This week, as we focus on recruiting students for the Greenpeace Semester, I want to share some examples of how my own time in Washington, DC three years ago led me to many of the most profound and exciting experiences I have lived through.

Let me start backwards: I do research for Greenpeace’s PolluterWatch project exposing the lies of the bad guys. Think Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Duke Energy, and other coal, oil, chemical and industrial interests. In order to protect their relentless pursuit of wealth, power and prestige, the people who lead these companies bankroll a network of propagandists to hijack our perceptions and our politics. I was introduced to this network as the climate denial machine, although their corporate agenda includes everything from cracking workers unions to suppressing voters to privatizing education.

The Greenpeace Semester led me into a climate denier conference in New York City organized by the Heartland Institute. I looked into the eyes of men who hate what I do. I shook their hands. I listened to them gripe about Greenpeace’s work to hold them accountable. I made small talk…and mischief. Continue reading →