March 2011

Drilling in the Arctic is a risky business. So it’s a good thing that the only company with a license to drill in the Arctic isn’t comparing the whole endeavour to hanging out in Vegas and trying your hand at shooting craps.

Oh wait. That’s exactly what they’re doing.

In response to Rachel's recent blog about taking in part in direct actions in such a male-orientated world as Greenpeace, Esther explains that you don't necessarily have to climb tall buildings to have an impact.

Some women have a touch of the Lara Croft about them, but others - no matter how hard we try - would always prefer a nice bit of cake and a day out shopping to climbing up chimneys. Not that there is anything wrong with this – after all, there is more than one way to save the planet.

Jacob Namminga, one of our radiation safety advisors, spoke to Brian Fitzgerald at our international office, about the radiation monitoring that began on Saturday March 26, in a rural area of Japan to the north west of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The trip's aim was to asses the true extent of radiation risks to the local population, which has reported radiation levels of up to ten micro sieverts per hour in Iitate village, 20km beyond the official evacuation zone - levels high enough to require evacuation. As told to Brian, here are Jacob's reflections on the trip.

You might remember in September some of our activists swam in front of a drill ship, operated by oil giant Chevron, in an attempt to stop them drilling the first deep water well in the UK since the Gulf of Mexico spill. Chevron are showing a complete disregard for the environment by pressing on with their plans to drill in deep water. By their own admission, a Macondo style blow out at Chevron's deep water well to the west of Shetland would reach the shores of Norway and Greenland. And Chevron's cavalier attitude doesn't stop there.

So yesterday's budget was from the self-proclaimed 'greenest government ever', but was it the greenest budget ever? How could it be, when it has done nothing to break our addiction with oil, hobbled the Green Investment Bank before it's even started, and provided a windfall for nuclear power.

The government will present the budget on Wednesday and motorists are hoping George Osborne will make fuel cheaper for them as energy prices soar. While this may ease the wallet squeeze in the short term, the last year has shown us that we are at the mercy of world events for fuel prices – first with BP’s oil spill in the Gulf and now because of unrest in the Middle East. And the consequences of these events are more far reaching than pump prices.

One week after the earthquake and tsunami, humanitatian relief efforts continue while workers at the Fukushima power plant strive to bring the situation under control. Overall, with possible exception of the spent fuel pool of reactor 3, the status of all facilities is very similar to yesterday - which is a bad thing.

While the humanitarian crisis and nuclear emergency unfold in Japan, an interesting observation has arisen from the devastation: Japanese wind farms have rebuffed critics, by withstanding both the tsunami and earthquake to continue delivering electricity to the tragedy-struck nation.