Also by bex

Sjoerd Jongens 1950-2008

Posted by bex - 17 November 2008 at 6:02pm - Comments

If you've visited a Greenpeace website, or have received an email from a Greenpeace email address, you have a man called Sjoerd Jongens to thank for laying the foundations. He built the networks connecting Greenpeace offices and people, as well as helping Greenpeace to win campaigns in Antarctica and around the world.

Sjeord died in a bicycle accident on his way to work at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam last week. Brian pays tribute on Making Waves:

Sjoerd foresaw that a new thing called 'the internet' might be something we'd want to use in future, and he started a gopher, WAIS, and FTP server back in the late 80s. He registered the domain www.greenpeace.org and put our first website up in 1992, serving as the organisation's first webmaster...

He was possibly the grumpiest support person in the history of IT support. And yet he was beloved by everyone who caught a glimpse of the heart behind the gruffness. His managers, myself among them, quickly learned to keep him close to the computers, far from the staff. Mike Townsley once approached him to say he was having trouble with his laptop. "No, Mike. I suspect we'll find that your laptop is actually having trouble with you," was the unironic response.

But those who saw him at sea or in Antarctica saw a different Sjoerd...

Read Brian's tribute on Making Waves.

Article tagged as: obituary, sjeord jongens

Rainbow Warrior impounded; 90 arrested

Posted by bex - 17 November 2008 at 11:19am - Comments

Dutch police board Rainbow Warrior in Rotterdam

Two Greenpeace ships - one of them the Rainbow Warrior - have been impounded and their captains and 90 others arrested after three days of nonviolent direct actions in the Netherlands.

Shutting down construction at Eon's proposed new coal site, Netherlands
Some of the 100 volunteers occupying the construction site of a new E.on coal plant in Rotterdam.

I'll start at the beginning. On Friday evening, nearly 100 Greenpeace volunteers pitched tents next to the construction site of a new E.on coal plant in Rotterdam (one of eight E.on plans to build in Europe), to bear witness to the unfolding climate disaster.

At first light on Saturday, they moved onto the site and occupied it, stopping construction for 10 hours before all being arrested.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, direct actions, eon, netherlands, rainbow warrior

Launching Greenpeace Africa

Posted by bex - 14 November 2008 at 6:28pm - Comments

"While the environmental threats facing Africans are urgent and critical, Africa is in a position to leapfrog dirty development and become a leader in helping to avert catastrophic climate change and protect the natural environment. We are here to help make that happen."

Amadou Kanoute, Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa.

Greenpeace Africa is here! Marking a whole new era for Greenpeace, we opened our first African office yesterday, in Johannesburg. In the coming weeks, we'll be opening two more - one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in Senegal.

Article tagged as: about, africa, climate change, congo, forests, oceans, senegal, south africa

Breaking news: High Court challenge to Stansted expansion plans

Posted by bex - 14 November 2008 at 5:02pm - Comments

After the increasing evidence of a damaging Labour rebellion on Heathrow expansion, and yesterday's "tap on the little finger" for Plane Stupid's parliament protesters, today there's news of a new challenge to the government's airport expansion plans - this time through the High Court.

Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has lodged an appeal challenging the government's decision to allow an extra 10 million passengers a year on Stansted's existing runway.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, legal, stansted, stansted expansion, stop stansted expansion

US coal development blocked

Posted by bex - 14 November 2008 at 1:14pm - Comments

From WattHead:

The Sierra Club just won a HUGE legal victory in a coal permitting case at the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Appeals Board [in the USA]...

While the Sierra Club's legal team and other lawyers are still determining the full implications of the decision, it appears that this decision will essentially stop all new coal plant permitting dead in it's tracks for at least a year as EPA decides what BACT means in the context of CO2...

In short, with this new regulatory uncertainty, it's highly unlikely anyone will want to invest a dime in a new coal plant for the foreseeable future.

Read the full story on WattHead »

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, legal, USA

All stations go for climate rescue

Posted by bex - 14 November 2008 at 12:24pm - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers worked constantly over several days to build the domed Rescue Station.

As governments prepare for the next round of crucial climate talks this December in Poznan, Poland, we're making a few preparations of our own. Obviously, we'll be at the talks, pressuring governments to quit coal and work towards a meaningful deal to save the climate - but we also have plenty planned for the run up to the talks.

On the edge of a vast open pit coal mine in Konin, Poland, we've set up a Climate Rescue Station - a four storey high earth dome powered by renewable energy - to highlight the true cost of coal in the lead up to the negotiations. People from 15 countries will be staying at the station, telling the story of how coal (the single greatest threat to our climate) is affecting our planet.

Article tagged as: climate change, climate rescue station, poznan, UNFCCC

Labour rebels: no to a third runway, yes to high speed rail

Posted by bex - 12 November 2008 at 3:50pm - Comments

A Greenpeace banner says 'yes!' to the new international terminal at St Pancras station

Greenpeace welcoming the opening of the new international terminal at St Pancras last year © Will Rose/Greenpeace

Almost a year ago to the day, we went along to St Pancras to welcome the opening of the new international terminal with an enormous Yes! banner. Our point was of course that the UK doesn't need new runways, we need new high speed rail links; then, as now, there were at least 100,000 flights a year between Heathrow and destinations easily reachable by train.

Since then, the Tories have not only opposed the third runway at Heathrow, they've also warned companies that they "should be very, very careful" about getting involved in any contract for a third runway as the Tories were "absolutely determined" to stop the project.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, heathrow, heathrow expansion, mixed mode, third runway

Update from Indonesia: Greenpeace climber brought down

Posted by bex - 12 November 2008 at 12:42pm - Comments

A policeman pushes a Greenpeace climber down from the anchor chain of the Gran Couva

An update from Indonesia: yesterday, the climber occupying the anchor chain of a ship carrying a cargo of palm oil was brought down, arrested and later released without charge.

Yesterday, we also received the intriguing photo above (later chosen by the BBC for its day in pictures). As it took us in the office a while to get our heads around what was happening, I thought I'd pass on Jamie's explanation:

Article tagged as: climate change, deforestation, direct actions, esperanza, forests, indonesia, palm oil, ship tours

Forest crimes and climate crimes: Greenpeace ships take action

Posted by bex - 10 November 2008 at 3:48pm - Comments

The Esperanza in Indonesia

The small (wet) figure above is a crew member of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. Darkness has fallen on the port of Dumai (Indonesia) since this photograph was taken several hours ago, but our climber is still there, in the dark, occupying the anchor chain and preventing the tanker from setting off to the Netherlands with its 27,000 tonne cargo of palm oil. As Jamie wrote on the Forests for Climate blog, it takes only one person to stop a giant palm oil tanker.

Article tagged as: belgium, climate change, coal, eon, esperanza, forests, indonesia, rainbow warrior, ship tours

Two opportunities to stop Heathrow expansion

Posted by bex - 7 November 2008 at 6:28pm - Comments

Thousands show their opposition to Heathrow expansion

With the decision on Heathrow’s third runway expected this year (honest), the atmosphere in Westminster is heating up.

Both opposition parties have come out strongly against the third runway; rebel Labour backbenchers are increasingly joining the opposition; there are signs that the cabinet is split over the decision; and the new transport secretary Geoff Hoon has called for a parliamentary debate on Heathrow expansion next Tuesday.

All of which means there are now two new opportunities for us (by which I mean you…) to intervene and make the opposition felt in the corridors of power.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, events, geoff hoon, heathrow, heathrow expansion

Greenpeace UK