Also by jamie

Sinar Mas caught with pants on fire, fibbing to stock markets

Posted by jamie - 19 August 2010 at 9:24am - Comments

Shooting yourself in the foot. Getting egg all over your face. These and many more idioms apply to the Sinar Mas group which, following the release of its audit last week, has seen its executives "misreporting" the audit's findings.

Despite what company bigwigs have been saying, the audit doesn't clear Sinar Mas of operating irresponsibly or outside Indonesian law, leading to the embarrassing retraction of several claims made publicly which the audit doesn't in fact support. Worse, Sinar Mas has been telling these fibs not just to journalists, but to its shareholders, the Indonesian government and the stock exchange.

Video: Marion Cottilard meets Congo loggers

Posted by jamie - 18 August 2010 at 5:03pm - Comments

The third and fourth films documenting Inception star Marion Cottilard's journey to the Congo see her head out into the rainforest.

After meeting her hosts in Oshwe and the local forestry administration, she follows Greenpeace campaigners to see timber the loggers have left behind. Despite including sizeable tree trunks, they've been abandoned because they won't fetch enough money to make it worth the effort.

Sinar Mas remains a notorious forest destroyer, as its own audit shows

Posted by jamie - 10 August 2010 at 3:48pm - Comments

An important fact about the Sinar Mas group: it is destroying carbon-rich rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia, including endangered wildlife habitat.

If you take away one thing from this post, that's the most important.

Today, the notorious forest destroyer tried to clear its name as it released an audit it commissioned to examine Greenpeace investigations of its oil palm plantations. Ironically, the audit confirms that Sinar Mas has been clearing forests and peatland, but rather than acknowledging this Sinar Mas is trying to hide the audit through a greenwash exercise.

What happened after you left that comment on Nestlé's Facebook page?

Posted by jamie - 10 August 2010 at 10:09am - Comments

Laura from our international office updates on what's been going on since Nestlé's Facebook page went into meltdown.

"Social media: as you can see, we're learning as we go. Thanks for the comments." On 19 March, that was the status message on Nestlé's Facebook fan page - which had already been under siege for three days. The message didn't stay up there for long but it was obviously in recognition of the page administrator's poor handling of the comments and criticisms that had been streaming in since the launch of our KitKat ad spoof.

Those of us following social media/marketing blogs know what happened to Nestlé's online reputation - it quickly became synonomous with words like: "disaster", "kitkatastrophe", "nightmare", "meltdown" and so on. But what did all of those Facebook comments do for Indonesia's rainforests?

Tata's lawyers say 'game over' for cheeky turtle game

Posted by jamie - 6 August 2010 at 11:26am - Comments

Tata's port project could spell game over for a major turtle nesting site © Greenpeace

Guest blogger Ashish Fernandes, oceans campaigner from our New Delhi office, explains how corporate giant Tata is taking legal action against Greenpeace India over an online turtle game.

It's been five years since Greenpace India started its campaign against the Dhamra port project on the east coast of India which threatens a host of wild species including horseshoe crabs and crocodiles. The port happens to be a stone's throw away from one of the world's largest nesting sites for the olive ridley sea turtle and India's second largest mangrove forest, which is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance to boot.

The port is nearly built, but it's clear that we're still a huge thorn in the side of the company behind this ecological disaster, the giant TATA Steel corporation, which is a 50-50 stakeholder in the project. In the UK, the TATAs are known for their takeovers of steelmaker Corus, Tetley Tea and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.

Actress Marion Cottilard discovers the problems of the Congo rainforest

Posted by jamie - 6 August 2010 at 11:12am - Comments

In June, Oscar-winning French superstar Marion Cottilard - currently playing in Inception at all good multiplexes - took a trip to the Congo rainforest with Greenpeace campaigners to see for herself the effect that the logging industry is having on the forest and the people who live there.

Help save the rainforests at Big Chill and Vintage At Goodwood

Posted by jamie - 5 August 2010 at 1:23pm - Comments

Glastonbury is the big fixture in our festival calendar but throughout the summer our events crew are setting up shop at other big country bashes. They're getting people involved with our campaign to save the rainforests (see our new forest defenders making monkeys of themselves in the slideshow above) as well as providing plenty of activities to provide an alternative to the music stages.

Latitude and Womad have been and gone, but this weekend it's their first visit to the Big Chill. If you're heading that way look out for the Banksy backdrop where you can put yourself in the picture and declare your support, like hundreds of other people have already done.

Oil lobbyists trying to weaken law which would keep tar sands out of Europe

Posted by jamie - 3 August 2010 at 3:04pm - Comments

The BP stations we closed down last week have all long since opened again but the effects our thirst for oil is having on the planet continue. The oil spill in the Gulf is now officially the largest accidental spill ever, and the environmental havoc being wrought in China, Nigeria and elsewhere doesn't get the same news coverage but is just as disastrous.

Meanwhile, lobbyists working for BP and other oil pushers are busy trying to hobble laws and legislation which could set us on the road to reducing our oil dependency and making the transition to a cleaner energy future. One such piece of legislation is the Fuel Quality Directive and if its full potential is realised, it could prevent fuels from dirty sources like tar sands being sold in Europe.

A funeral and a celebration: grim clouds over Dalian

Posted by jamie - 28 July 2010 at 1:35pm - Comments

Fishermen scoop oily sludge from the oil spill in Dalian, China (c) Arthur JD/Greenpeace

Arthur JD writes from Dalian in China...

I arrived in Dalian on the day of the funeral for firefighter Zhang Liang, who drowned beneath the thick crude when his crew jumped into the ocean - without safety gear - to attempt, in vain, to fix an underwater pipe. Our lead photographer, Jiang He, who by now has reached legendary status globally for capturing the final seconds of Zhang's life, continued to cover the very emotional moments of this oil spill disaster.

BP stations across London put out of action by Greenpeace volunteers

Posted by jamie - 27 July 2010 at 5:58am - Comments

This morning, starting at  5.30am, teams of Greenpeace volunteers have been shutting down BP stations across London. We aim to close dozens down this morning.

Watch the action as it happens - pictures, video and text updates from the teams.

The teams - each named after an animal threatened by BP's reckless oil exploration - fanned out across the capital in their electric and hybrid cars, going station to station and disabling the pumps.

Why today? Because BP is expected to announce later the appointment of Bob Dudley as the company's new head to replace the gaffe-prone Tony Hayward, who led BP during the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

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