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THE WITNESS
It was only a couple months ago that Greenpeace celebrated a big victory on the West Coast when the California Coastal Commission voted to deny the Navy permission to conduct seismic testing in the Pacific Ocean, risking the lives of whales, dolphins and other marine life.
Now we’re up against a similar fight on the East Coast. Continue reading
I’m walking away from the Greenpeace Semester program saddened to say goodbye, but empowered by all the skills now under my belt. The program aims at giving students an in-depth understanding of environmental campaigning and strategy, organizing, messaging, and non-violent direct action, a peaceful tactic to protect our natural ecosystems.. Through the course of this program, we’ve had the chance to talk to many of the people at Greenpeace working directly on environmental issues. In March, our class traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina to help with a campaign that Greenpeace is running against Duke Energy, the nation’s largest utility company and gobbler of dirty energy including coal and nukes. You can see all the action from our trip on our Tumblr. Continue reading
Often as an environmental campaigner, I find myself thinking the planet would be in much better shape if more thought was given, and caution taken, before industries are given free rein to exploit its precious natural resources. Not to mention the time, energy and money that would be saved in mopping up the mess of a particular environmental problem. As the age old saying goes, prevention is better than cure.
This same logic applies to the Arctic – surely it is better to stop oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean now before there is a catastrophic spill. Experience tells us that inevitably there will be a spill, which will be impossible to clean up in such harsh conditions. Similarly, it is far better to draw a line now and stop the northwards charge of large-scale industrial fishing vessels that are taking advantage of the melting sea ice than to do nothing and find out in a few years’ time that the fish are all gone and that fragile marine habitats have been destroyed. Continue reading
It’s World Penguin Day today, and a fine excuse to celebrate the majesty and silliness of fine-flippered friends. In that spirit, I thought it would be good to pull together some fun facts about penguins. Some are fun, some are facts, and some are both at once. And don’t miss the how you can help bit at the end.
All wild penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere, and although they are synonymous with the ice, only two species live on the continent of Antarctica. The Galapagos penguin is the only penguin that ever naturally ventures into the Northern Hemisphere on especially long feeding trips
The first bird actually called a ‘penguin’ was the now-extinct Great Auk found in the North Atlantic. Tragically, early explorers and their contemporaries found Great Auks a little too tasty, and the birds were all killed off. Continue reading
Today, Greenpeace launched a new video featuring the voice of William Shatner calling for the North Pacific Marine Fisheries Council to protect the Bering Sea canyons from industrial fishing.
Save Kipper features a happy menagerie of domesticated animals–a fish named Kipper, a dog named Sparky, a bird named Boozer, and a cat named Fluffy–all of which have their homes shockingly destroyed by methods ranging from fire to a power saw.
Life certainly was fun while it lasted out there in the ocean. I wasn’t an exceptional shark by any means–never on Shark Week or in an epic battle with a zombie–just a normal fish with a cartilaginous skeleton doing my thing, always moving and capitalizing on 64 million years of evolution. That is, until I got scooped up by the tuna industry. Then it was game over for me. Continue reading
ID: The Greenpeace airship A.E. Bates flies flies by the La Jolla peninsula near the headquarters of Chicken of the Sea canned tuna company to call attention to overfishing and bycatch issues.
We’ve seen things go from bad to worse in the conventional canned tuna industry over the last year. In 2011, with the launch of Greenpeace’s campaign to reform Chicken of the Sea, information on the sector’s destructive practices came to the forefront. Images of sharks, rays, and even cetaceans being callously slaughtered on tuna boats peppered the internet and ran rampant across social media. A tuna boat helipilot-turned-whistleblower, his voice distorted and face blacked out to ensure his anonymity, told the world about the horrors that were being committed in the open ocean in the name of cheap canned tuna. Greenpeace’s airship flew along a San Diego freeway, emblazoned with a demand for Chicken of the Sea to “stop ripping up the sea.” Continue reading
Endangered leatherback turtles migrate 6,000 miles across the Pacific each year, and at the end of their journey looms a deadly threat.
Drifting gillnets, known as “walls of death,” float just off the California coast. While their purpose is to catch swordfish, these nets have ensnared and drowned more than a hundred turtles. Continue reading
The Navy's plan to test sonar and explosives underwater will directly impact whales like this humpback.
Over the past couple of years the Obama Administration has demonstrated great international leadership on the conservation of whales. This includes the US supporting the creation of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary at the last International Whaling Commission meeting, President Obama imposing diplomatic sanctions on Iceland for their commercial hunting of endangered fin whales and numerous other conservation initiatives. However here at home it’s a very different story with the Obama administration supporting multiple activities that will result in the harm to millions of whales and dolphins. Continue reading
If you’ve never had the opportunity to see a leatherback turtle, scientists say you are running out of time. One of the most remarkable creatures on earth, these Volkswagen-sized turtles can dive down to 4000 feet and migrate distances of 7000 miles. They have been around so long that they have seen the dinosaurs come and go, and shifting continents have moved their feeding and breeding areas to opposite ends of the earth. Unfortunately, unless we get our act together, they may be headed for extinction. According to Dr. Thane Wibbels, author of a new report, “if the decline continues, within 20 years it will be difficult if not impossible for the leatherback to avoid extinction.” Continue reading