Greenpeace

Drilling Deep Again

October 8, 2010 By mariisto Leave a Comment

By Marii Stoltsen

Activists fear there is a danger of a new oil spill as the UK government throw themselves in the midst of a new drilling contract. With the devastation still prominent on the Gulf Coast, there is a worry that no lessons have been learned from the latest environmental disaster.

Last week, UK energy secretary, Chris Huhne, issued a license to Chevron allowing them to commence drilling an exploratory well in the Lagavulin prospect north of Shetland. The license was granted after a vote of the European Parliament turned out against a moratorium on deep sea drilling for oil and gas.

The decision went through despite days of protests by activists who deemed the move ‘irresponsible’. A spokesperson for Greenpeace said: “I think the oil companies and governments are not in the position to deal with such problems, the measures to tackle the disasters are not in place, as can be seen from the long response times in the BP crisis.

“We need to reassess what measures are in place before any more licenses for deep water drilling are given out.”

The vote also addressed the need for tighter safety regulations and increased compensation in the event of a spillage, which was approved by 601 MEPs. The EU energy council is expected to discuss these issues at next week’s meeting.

The location of the drilling also presents a problem for the locals. According to the West Lothian Council, around a fifth of Scotland’s population lives within a kilometre of the sea and the fishing and marine industry generates billions of pounds for the economy every year. In the case of a spillage, the clean-up could take months to complete and create irreversible damage as has been the case in the Gulf of Mexico.

Filed Under: Economy and Business Tagged With: BP, Chevron, drilling, Greenpeace, oil spill

Greenpeace members jailed in Denmark for twenty-two days for bursting official dinner

January 11, 2010 By irenesword Leave a Comment

By Irene Gimeno

Four Greenpeace members, including the president of the organization in Spain, were arrested in Copenhagen on the 17th of December 2009 to remain in prison until the 7th of January because the Danish Superior Court decided so after they faked their identities in an official dinner organized by Margarita II of Denmark for the Heads of State of those countries attending the Climate Conference.

Juan Lopez de Uralde, president of Greenpeace in Spain and Nora Christiansen, from Norway, were walking through the red carpet when the extended a banner which said “politicians talk, leaders act”. They had claimed to be the “Head of State” of Greenpeace and his wife, followed by Christian Schmutz, allegedly their bodyguard. The three of them were arrested ipsofacto whilst a fourth member of the most popular ecologist organization in the world. Joris Thijssen was arrested the next on the grounds of the mind of the action since he was the International Responsible for the Climate Change Campaign.

The usual procedure of next-day-release arrest in this kind of situations surprised everyone in the organization when Denmark’s Superior Court announced that the activists must stay in prison until the seventh of January of the following year – a total of twenty-two days of imprisonment – which resulted excessive by both the affected and their families and colleagues, considering that the arrested were deprived of spending Christmas with their loved ones, accused of offences such as “identity supplanting”.

Greenpeace claimed that during the last twenty years, world leaders have ignored the climate change problem, risking the planet’s welfare; therefore, they decided to intervene in the social act to remark that the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 was the first real opportunity to take a step, says Mario Rodriguez, Greenpeace Spain. He asserts at the Spanish website of the organization that once again politicians failed to their duty of creating “a legally binding treaty to ensure the proper reductions of greenhouse-effect-gases emission to prevent the increase of the Earth temperature by two degrees celsius”, signing instead “The Copenhagen Treaty” which constitutes, according to the ecologist member “a void shell: a hand grenade against the multilateral efforts to stop the climate change“.

Not only do the activists recently released assure that the incident will not stop them, but that it will in fact increase their fight. Their members back at home, the organization wants to make sure the average citizen know the challenge the planet is facing and that society should respond to that in a practical way. A vital call for the action is been made after the severe punishment the four ecologist received in Denmark.

Filed Under: All Politics, Life and Society Tagged With: climate change, Copenhagen, Greenpeace

Of Whales and Men

October 8, 2009 By Aly Fraser 1 Comment

by Aly Fraser- 8th October ’09

Sea Shepherds The Institute for Cetacean research in Japan recently released its kill figures for the 2008/2009 Antarctic whaling season. Of the quota of 935 Minke whales 679 were caught and only 1 of the desired 50 endangered Fin whales. However this was not the fault of nature;

This season’s catch was reduced as a result of the interference by protesters,” said Japanese Fisheries Agency Spokesman Shigeki Takaya.

Japan has come under fire from a whole host of nations concerning their whaling industry. They maintain that a requisite number of whales must be killed each year for ‘Cetacean Research’ and for the general health of whale stocks. Many authorities, charities and organizations feel it is just a thinly veiled cloak for Japans fervent commercial whaling industry.

For a number of years the two biggest charities involved in anti-whaling, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, have tried their best to hinder and stop Japanese factory boats from whaling in the Antarctic seas. They claim whaling is wrong, unnecessary, cruel and inhumane. They use a number of methods including physical contact with Japanese boats, boarding vessels, throwing a number of deterrents at the boat and crew alike. Part of the Sea Shepherds mission statement reads;

“Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas”

Recent releases on the Japanese Whaling Association website has reported of dangerous terrorists attacks on a number of vessels in its fleet by Greenpeace and the Australian-backed Sea Shepherd. President of the Japanese Whaling Association Mr Keiichi Nakajima has warned of the dangers of such actions;

“Past activities of Greenpeace have been responsible for vessel collisions that risk the lives and safety of our researchers and crew and are illegal under international maritime law”.

If someone came into your workplace or office and starting throwing stink-bombs at you if they didn’t agree with your source of income would you would have right to complain. Rightly so. It has been argued that this terrorizing of working men trying to make a living is unjust. However many believe that this is a necessary evil that will help the survival of all the protected whale species in the Southern Seas.

Filed Under: All Politics, Science and Technology Tagged With: Antarctica, Cetacean Research, Greenpeace, Japan, Sea Shepherd, Whales, Whaling

Tesco Cuts Carbon Footprint

December 9, 2008 By Kathryn Wylie Leave a Comment

tesco-every-little-helps-lo Tesco have unveiled ambitious new plans to generate energy on-site at 50 of its UK stores, it revealed earlier this month.

Making decentralised energy generation is a key part of the strategy to halve the carbon footprint of its existing estate by 2020.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Corporate & Legal Affairs Director, said: “At Tesco, we care about the environment and want to lead the way in preparing for a low carbon future. We are now ready to unveil the scale of our plans to use Combined Heat and Power to cut our carbon footprint.”

Combined Heat and Power (CHP), works by making use of the heat that is created when electricity is generated. In large power stations, this heat is dispensed as a useless by-product but by installing mini-power stations, Tesco will use the heat to warm its stores.

Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director for Greenpeace said: “As part of their responsibility to tackle climate change, it’s vital that big companies choose to put money into the most efficient technologies available. Combined heat and power stations are a clear winner in this respect.”

The technology is completely safe and can cut carbon emissions from each store by up to 10%. By building 50 of these stations, Tesco will save the equivalent energy bill of five stores. Testing of CHP has been underway since 2006, with plants currently working at 10 sites.

The chain expects investments in CHP to be paid back within 8 years as the technology is refined and the market matures. Lucy Neville-Rolfe added: “We are applying for planning permission to build a CHP plant at all our larger stores and intend to build them as an integrated part of every new Extra or Superstore. Our trials have shown us that this is a much more efficient way to create electricity so it makes sense – both financially and environmentally – for us to put our full weight behind it.”

Most of Tesco’s CHP stations will run on gas but last month it opened a plant at its Colney Hatch store which runs on bio-fuels such as UK-grown vegetable oil. As vegetable oil is a renewable material, the CO2 emitted is equal to the amount it has absorbed whilst growing, making the energy used in the store carbon neutral.

As well as supporting the store’s heating needs, the Colney Hatch plant is used to produce cooling too. Chilled water is produced supporting the energy needs of refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

Greenpeace also believe: “ In these tough economic times, this kind of canny investment is more important than ever, as the move will slash costs as well as emissions”.