Yesterday, Greenpeace activists unveiled 'Volkswagen: The Dark Side' billboards on a massive advertising space in London, while volunteers dressed as Stormtroopers greeted people walking on the street during the morning rush. At the same time a couple of Stormtroopers went to Milton Keynes, UK headquarters for VW, to talk to staff and kick off our campaign to get Volkswagen to clean up their act.
We're targeting VW because they've been putting the brakes on Europe's attempt to tackle climate change.
As VW's latest Star Wars-themed advert explains, the company has been seduced by the Dark Side of the Force and the twisted power of Darth Vader. We've responded in kind, with our own Star Wars video.
This is more than an excuse to dress up as Stormtroopers. European countries are in the midst of deciding two crucial laws that are vital if we're to cut our carbon emissions and save our planet from climate change.
Firstly, the EU has already agreed to cut emissions by 20% by 2020, but several countries, including the UK, are pushing for larger cuts of 30%. They're also considering new targets for car efficiency. Transport accounts for a quarter of our CO2 emissions, so it's vital that new cars are significantly cleaner than those we use today.
VW claim they want to be the most eco-friendly car company, but they're up to their headlamps in a corporate pressure group which is opposing these targets. They've also invented cutting edge technology with the potential to massively cut their cars' emissions, but last year only one car in every sixteen Volkswagen sold came with it fully installed.
If we want to see meaningful change, we've got to turn VW away from the Dark Side, and get them to support ambitious cuts in CO2 emissions.
Join the Rebellion!
As any good Jedi knows, you need a rebellion to fight the Dark Side. So once you've seen our new film, head over to www.VWdarkside.com and sign up. Then to do things offline, get in touch with your network coordinator.
Everyone who joins the Rebellion will get their own special webpage. You'll want to push this out to friends and family, because as people visit your page and sign up to the Rebellion through it, you'll unlock characters from the films and further info about the campaign.
Get enough people to visit your page or join the Rebellion and you'll win a free t-shirt. Trust us... you'll want one of these!
May the Force be with you, always.
Richard George, climate
campaigner
Forests Update - Looking Beyond Barbie
Three weeks into the campaign to stop rainforest destruction for toy packaging and there has been a fantastic public response. Hundreds of thousands of people have emailed Mattel and over 1.2 million people have watched the video moment when Ken discovered Barbie was trashing Indonesia's rainforests. So how have the companies responded?
Lego was first off the blocks saying it plans to move to recycled and FSC materials in their packaging. This is a good start, but we still don't know exactly when they'll be dropping the worst paper company - Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) - from their supply chain.
Meanwhile, Hasbro has made comments on its Facebook page that it plans to end the use of APP packaging, but this is hardly an official announcement.
Mattel has said through official channels that it plans to end the use of APP packaging, but there's no news on when this will be implemented. And Disney has yet to say anything at all.
Clearly, we've still got some way to go with all the companies and we hope to send out information regarding new activities in the next few weeks.
Ian Duff, forest campaigner
NVDA training
There are two training days on Saturday July 23rd in London and Manchester. If you are interested in getting trained in order to participate in our direct actions, please speak with your network coordinator for more information.
However, please be aware that you need to have been active with your local network for several months and involvement in actions means that you must be able to risk arrest and its consequences, and be available to participate during the normal working week (though we do try and give you as much notice as possible).
Thank you. We couldn't do it without you.
Comments