Blog: Climate

Of Shell, spill plans and sea ice

Posted by ben - 8 August 2013 at 7:12pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: © Ashley Cooper
Leading polar bear expert Dr. Ian Stirling said this bear, found in Svalbard, died of starvation due to a lack of sea ice from which to hunt. In the last 30 years, 75% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared.

It's pretty safe to say that the Arctic is under pressure like never before. Climate change is warming it faster than any other part of our planet. Sea ice is shrinking. The way of life of Indigenous Peoples is seriously threatened and animal habitats are vanishing. Oil companies eye a polar bonanza while hulking fishing fleets are edging ever northwards.

The birds have gone silent: how a fracking company is changing my village

Posted by Kathryn McWhirter - 8 August 2013 at 1:08pm - Comments
Anti-fracking protester at Balcombe drilling site
All rights reserved. Credit: Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace
Balcombe is surrounded by woodland which could be affected by drilling and fracking

I’m just back from the local anti-fracking camp outside Balcombe in Sussex, where Cuadrilla workers are noisily drilling their oil well despite not having the necessary permits and huge local opposition. Many hugs from the campers and villagers down there, and frankly too many Balcombe courgettes: I’ve brought mine back home due to lack of demand.

Video: how to climb the tallest building in western Europe

Posted by victoriah - 24 July 2013 at 6:08pm - Comments

Since the six of us climbed the Shard, many people have asked: how did we do it? How much training did it take? How did we go to the toilet?

Road-building plans are being driven round the bend

Posted by Sian Berry - 12 July 2013 at 6:26pm - Comments
Car exhaust fumes
All rights reserved. Credit: Gowan / Greenpeace
New road-building plans ride roughshod over the green economy

Last week's spending round was another nail in the coffin of "the greenest government ever". Treasury minister Danny Alexander's speech was a stream of plans and proposals to carve up the countryside, ratchet up road emissions and slash funding for green transport. So much for a green economy.

Hell yeah, I'm scared, but I'm still scaling the Shard to save the Arctic

Posted by victoriah - 11 July 2013 at 8:26am - Comments
The Iceclimb team
All rights reserved. Credit: David Sandison / Greenpeace
Victoria, third from left, with her fellow activists before heading up the Shard

With any luck, as you read this I’ll be clinging to the side of the Shard, hundreds of metres up in the sky.

But as I write this, with less than a week to go, I’m just feeling... tired. I have sores on my shoulders from training with backpacks full of weights, and every night brings tiresome dreams about carabiners and tangled ropes.

Climate change is kept in the curriculum but it’s a bittersweet victory

Posted by Esha Marwaha - 8 July 2013 at 12:43pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: 38 Degrees
Esha and fellow activists handing in the petition calling for climate change lessons to be kept in the curriculum to the Department for Education

A few months ago, I sat expressing my anger towards the removal of climate change from the geography curriculum for key stages 1 – 3. The Department for Education seemed to overlook the very people who this decision would affect – school students. A few months later, I am happy and relieved to say that our request to keep climate in the curriculum has been acknowledged. 

Sympathy for the revel - Glastonbury 2013

Posted by kcumming - 5 July 2013 at 4:07pm - Comments

It’s not every day we trump the Rolling Stones. But more than once at Glastonbury 2013, I overheard people pointing to the Greenpeace field and saying “that’s been my favourite thing at the festival”.

Where did all the fun go?

Posted by Hugh Mouser - 4 July 2013 at 6:43pm - Comments
Electric car charging station sign
All rights reserved. Credit: boboroshi
Sign of the times, but car companies are dragging their heels over electric vehicles

I grew up on a diet of TV shows like Knight Rider and The A Team. I saw Ferrari and Mclaren produce faster cars as time went by. I admired how the car industry kept on trying to improve.

But it seems like some carmakers have lost the fun of innovation.

Power up: world's largest wind farm switched on

Posted by Liam Kirkaldy - 4 July 2013 at 1:40pm - Comments
Wind turbine, part of the London Array
All rights reserved. Credit: London Array Ltd
Winds of change: the London Array is the largest windfarm in the world

It would be an understatement to say that today is a big one for renewable energy in this country. Because today the London Array – the world’s largest offshore windfarm – becomes fully operational. The scale is breath-taking – it will supply electricity to around half a million homes while providing a technological benchmark for future renewable sources across the globe to aspire to.

Russian oil spills damaging impact on local wildlife and the environment

Posted by Fran G - 2 July 2013 at 12:49pm - Comments
Aerial of an oil spill in a forest near Surgut
All rights reserved. Credit: Denis Sinyakov Greenpeace
Aerial of an oil spill in a forest near Surgut. Disastrous oil spills are a daily routine at Rosneft fields near Pyt'-Yah, Khanty-Mansi region, Siberia.

Denis Sinyakov, who covered Greenpeace’s expedition to the Rosneft’s oil fields, is a Moscow-based Russian photographer, who worked as a photo editor and a staff photographer at Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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