March 2009

So now you're going to hear from one of the 'older' voices at Greenpeace. Yes there are a surprising number of us over 50s working here at Canonbury Villas. I joined Greenpeace eight years ago to work for our previous Executive Director as his personal assistant. I had very little experience of the green campaigning world and many of my friends thought I was joining a bunch of sandal-wearing hippies. Well there may be plenty of sandals, as well as plenty of shorts and even bare feet in the summer, but don't let any of this imagery confuse you. There is nothing fainthearted or laid-back about our campaigners. If you are fighting to save the planet you have to be clear-sighted, single minded and dedicated.

Greenpeace climbers scale the Bank of England. Green, not greed - well, it's a nice idea.

It's a cliché, but these are troubled economic times. And so it was that with great fanfare the government's pre-budget report announced a £50 billion recovery plan for the British economy.

Even better for those of us with an interest in the relative green-ness of our economy, Gordon Brown declared that about 10 per cent of the money would go to "environmentally important technologies and potentially jobs in the green industries". Sounds good. One MP said that the £50 billion was going to be used in "greening our economy as a whole".

Isn't it disappointing when something that sounds good turns out to be an illusion? According to a report we commissioned from the New Economics Foundation, any shoots of recovery from the recovery plan aren't going to be particularly green, because behind some creative accounting the government is only stumping up peanuts for the environment. It's not so much a 'green new deal' as a 'greenwashed new deal'.

My job is to write things that are easy to understand, and to explain stories in ways that interest people. I'm a press officer, with a healthy portion of forest campaigner on the side.

Much of the work that we do here at Greenpeace is based on climate science, and some of it is to do with government policy. Let's face it - words like science and policy are pretty boring. If I was a snooze button, I'd probably get pushed repeatedly in the face for even mentioning them.

Given that Heathrow's third runway is by many (fairly reasonable) standards a hugely unpopular and environmentally damaging project which would flatten a community, significantly contribute to rising UK carbon emissions, and be campaigned against by those bloody NGOs, it's fair to say that it must have been a bit of a headache for the person project managing the task of getting it approved.

If you're a project management type, a risk register (and I had no idea about this before last week), is a document where you have to list everything that could go wrong with the project, how likely it is to happen and how much of a problem it would be. You also have to say what you're going to do about it.

I started out with Greenpeace nearly nine years ago as a press officer – and on arrival dived straight in at the deep end by heading off to Norwich to deal with media for the trial of 28 activists (including our then Director, Peter Melchett) who were charged with pulling up genetically modified (GM) crops from an experimental field in nearby Lyng. The atmosphere was charged, as our people were potentially facing jail, and the media interest was intense.

As Supporter Services Manager here at Greenpeace UK it’s a big part of my job to answer your questions. Probably two of the most common are "what can I do to make a difference?" and "how can I be truly green?" or variations on those themes, by people who don't feel that they are doing enough.

My answer is that the most important thing is to set your self on a path to change, and do things a bit at a time. Its almost impossible to make dramatic changes overnight (or at least to stick to them if you do), but through gradually changing how we act or consume we can make lasting changes - and that's true for society as a whole, not just individuals.

Stupid Shenanigans from clever crew on Vimeo

Spurred on by the excellent film the Age of Stupid, some enterprising types went about town last week naming and shaming climate culprits and heaping praises on one of Ecotricity's wind turbines. I think the likes of BP, Esso and Shell deserve much more derogatory labels than 'stupid' but in line with the film's theme it sounded right.

Luke on injustice: "there's nothing more liberating than simply intervening to stop it."

I'm the Workshop Manager here at Greenpeace UK, which is a hectic and diverse role. The Workshop is an innovative creative hub, embedded into the Actions Unit, but working closely alongside other departments, deploying our technical and logistical skills wherever needed.

We research, procure, maintain and repair all the actions kit, climbing gear, boats, vehicles, solar and wind generators, battery banks etc, whilst pretty much taking care of all things practical for our academically orientated office colleagues. Need a picture hanging, bike repairing, or a bit of random advice on DIY? Well, we're here to help, although you might need to buy us a pint after work.