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THE WITNESS
Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaigner Phil Kline with one of the many whale billboards around the city.
I’m happy to say there are whales everywhere in Panama City! In preparation for the IWC meeting, Greenpeace teamed up with NOAA and local NGOs to place billboards of whales everywhere. You can’t miss these billboards right now — everywhere you turn you see one. Continue reading
PolluterWatch: Greenpeace Investigates Heartland Institute Leaked Documents – click to see investigation and ongoing updates.
What an awkward entrance into 2012 for the climate denial machine!
Among the ongoing dubious deeds of the billionaire Koch brothers, the American Petroleum Institute’s Vote 4 Energy propaganda and the House of Representative’s love affair with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, an indicator that policymakers refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of global warming, we already had plenty of debunking to do.
Then the Heartland Institute fell on its face, inadvertently aiding in a leak of its own internal documents outlining their strategies and finances for 2012. We are currently investigating several areas those documents drew our attention to — see Greenpeace’s Heartland Institute Investigations and the Joseph Bast PolluterWatch profile.
During the school year, we have our “Fun Friday” afternoons. We open the many letters we receive from school groups, tape up our favorite pictures, and send back brochures, book marks, and personalized letters. We truly enjoy reading about the many ways classes make a difference in their schools and their creative fundraising initiatives. During one staff meeting, we even broadcast a homemade video which a school group showed in their community as a fundraiser!
Now that the school year is starting up again, here are some ideas if you or your classmates want to get involved but aren’t quite sure how:
As an academic project, one group tackled global warming as a four part project including a written report, a photo report, a display board, and an action point. For their action point, they chose to raffle off three themed baskets with gift cards. The raffle tickets were sold at their class exhibition and then donated.
Student led environmental groups have set-up donation tables with materials we’ve provided covering deforestation, oceans, and toxics. A high school group chose toxic electronics, which includes video games(!), as their fundraising topic because of its relevance to their everyday lives.
One determined club made hand-sewn canvas totes to promote reusable bags and sold their totes during the school’s Earth Day festivities. They donated the proceeds raised from selling their totes to classmates, staff, and community members.
Classes have organized weekend walk-a-thons, yard sales, and recycling drives in their communities to raise awareness and fully understand how they can go green in their own lives.
If your school doesn’t have an Environmental Club, you should start one with the help of a teacher and classmates! Clubs are a great way to tell your fellow students about the importance of recycling, using reusable bags and water bottles, and turning off lights and electronics when leaving the classroom. As your club grows, you can get involved in or organize school-wide volunteer opportunities, pressure your administration to make environmentally wise purchases for the classroom, and your classmates to be responsible!
We love to hear what projects you and your friends take on at school and at home! Send us your drawings, photos, and information requests to the below DC address and we’ll try our best to get a package out to you!
There’s a lot going on in the world these days. We’re facing environmental crises the likes of which mankind has never faced before: global warming, shocking rates of deforestation, dead zones and overfishing in our oceans, massive amounts of toxic e-waste being dumped in poor countries.
The only rational reaction to these crises, as far as I’m concerned, is to take action. Now is not the time to get depressed or feel hopeless. Now is the time to do whatever we can to build a clean, healthy, and sustainable future for all life on Planet Earth.
Greenpeace is on the frontlines of the fight to build a sustainable future, and we need you to join us. The environmental crises we’re facing are immense, but together we can solve them. It will take all of us working together, though.
That’s why we’d like to invite all of you to join us on June 17th for a Greenpeace volunteer meeting. Our field organizers are hosting these meetings in 20 cities across the country. Go here and search the drop-down menu for a city near you, then fill out the form to let us know you’ll be attending. The local field organizer in your community will be in touch to let you know the details of the meeting. (You can also visit www.greenpeace.org/volunteer and look for an organizer near you on our handy Google map.)
If you don’t see a city in the drop-down menu that is within roughly 30 miles of where you live, though, don’t worry! You can still get involved! Either click the link on that same page, or simply go here, then give us your info, and we’ll be in touch to let you know how you can help build a green and peaceful future.