March 2012

I’m in sunny Stockholm this week, spring is here for sure and woolly hats and gloves are yet again stored away for next winter.  In a grand Natural History museum, not so far from where I work, sit scientists, Indigenous representatives, civil society organisations and senior officials from Arctic States to discuss new alarming findings regarding the rapid changes that are taking place in the Arctic and how that will impact those that live there and the nature and wildlife that they depend on for their very survival.

Approximately 1.5 MILLION small-scale fishermen live and work along the coast of West Africa. They live a life directly dependent on the seas on their doorstep. And it's not just them - their families and communities depend on it too, of course. Yet here in the seas off West Africa it's clear to see their interests are being ignored in favour of allowing massive, industrialised, factory fishing vessels to gobble up all the fish. Of course some of this is illicit, but much of it is legitimised plunder, such as the huge PFA vessels down here with EU subsidies and paid-for Fisheries Partnership Agreements. 

Hot on the heels of Germany’s ambitious renewable energy plans, the Danish government went even further and announced last week that they plan to get half of their country’s total electricity requirement from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% of total energy, including electricity, heating, industry and transport, by 2050.

This week two more energy companies abandoned their plans to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. It’s left the government’s energy strategy in tatters – and it’s time for them to admit that the future is not nuclear and start investing in cleaner, safer renewable energy.

After two days of travel through the Amazon, the Rainbow Warrior arrived today in Santarem. Just a few days ago, we called on you to join Brazilians, as they demand a Zero Deforestation law to Save the Amazon. Today, we are in Santarem to meet with more people from the Amazon to discuss the impacts of deforestation and the need for a Zero Deforestation Law.

Today, the US Government approved Shell's oil spill response plan for the Beaufort Sea, a remote expanse of ocean that must count as one of the most wild and untouched places on earth. This is the second response plan to get the official thumbs up, another clear sign that the Administration has forgotten history in its determination to approve Shell's 2012 Arctic drilling program.

In early March, our colleagues in Russia visited Noyabrsk, in the middle of the West Siberian oil fields, to bear witness to a long-lasting battle between local indigenous communities and oil companies, and to document the widespread pollution caused by oil exploration.

"The road to economic recovery isn't a road - it's a flight path." That's the message currently plastered all over the London underground, courtesy of Heathrow owners BAA. The company's new campaign to reopen the third runway debate is a self-serving effort to play on people's economic anxieties at a time of fear, that much is obvious. But more than that, it's a con - both politically unrealistic and, more importantly, economically incoherent.