Copyright Greenpeace/Greenpeace staff Junichi Sato (seated left), Toru Suzuki (seated right), and their lead counsel, Yuichi Kaido (seated centre) face reporters at a press briefing following their first pre-trial arrangement hearing at Aomori District Court, Japan.
Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo has an appearance on the hard-hitting flagship news programme shown on BBC World News and the BBC News channel, HARDtalk. If you are in the UK you can access the interview on BBC iPlayer.
The European Commission has cast doubt on research commissioned by the Federal Government that questions the need to have laws to block illegally logged timber imports. The EU has also questioned the research's estimates on the value of illegal timber imports into Australia and found that timber in furniture is not included. A Greenpeace forestry campaigner, Reece Turner, quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, said it was time for the Government to fulfill its 2007 election promise to ban illegal timber. ''The European Commission has exposed the Government's attempts to fudge the figures on illegal timber imports,'' he said.
Greenpeace is building a new flagship, The Rainbow Warrior III, a mega-yacht, one of the greenest ships afloat, complete with satellite video system and a helipad. The satellite system will allow campaigners to stream video footage from anywhere in the world. "We have converted ships for 30 years and it's time we practiced what we preach," said Ulrich von Eitzen, a Greenpeace spokesman featured in The Guardian. "Upgrading the existing ship was not technically or financially feasible and converting a secondhand ship would compromise our campaigning and energy conservation needs." The same article mentions Sea Shepherd trying to raise money in Hollywood in order to build a bigger, better, stronger version of Ady Gil. Oceana, one of the world's largest maritime protection organizations, is also planning to launch a third ship. This story was also covered in New Zealand and Belgium.
Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics, which claims to “cut through the greenwash”, is still in the news in association with the The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Well done Nokia and Sony Ericsson for leading the mobile phone sector in eliminating some of the most harmful substances in your products,” Iza Kruszewska, Toxics Campaigner, Greenpeace International told CNN.
The Reuters story on the Greenpeace action in Germany, in which activists dumped a basketload of potatoes at the feet of German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner during a speech at the International Green Week fair in Berlin has reached Sky News.
In Canada, leader of the opposition Michael Ignatieff was interrupted during a speech in Vancouver on Friday. Mr. Ignatieff was speaking in front of a crowd of about 400 people at the University of British Columbia when about a dozen protesters — who were sitting among the crowd — stood up and broke out in a chant and shouted slogans. Some protesters also marched onto the stage with large, white banners that read: “Stop the tarsands.” The protesters, who identified themselves as Greenpeace activists, said they wanted to pressure Ottawa to halt Alberta’s oilsands development and to do more to battle climate change, stated a feature by The National Post.
Junichi Sato is featured in The Australian, in which he explains Greenpeace’s campaign strategy in Japan. He comments on the Australian media persisting to confuse the actions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation group with Greenpeace. He also comments on the counteractions of the Japanese government: “Those few who benefit from whaling have a lot of power within government. Instead of investigating the whaling industry, the government raided Greenpeace offices and arrested Toru and me. We were jailed for 26 days and we are still awaiting trial. We face up to 10 years' jail for stealing property of a whaling crew member. In running our grassroots campaign against whaling in Japan, Greenpeace has had the greatest success with providing information to Japanese people about the billions in government subsidies enjoyed by the whaling industry and the waste of public funds spent on killing whales for meat that the public does not want to eat. This is the message the Japanese need to hear,” writes Junichi.
In general environmental news, the scientists behind the warning on Himalayan glaciers have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. The New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research says Times Online.
Reuters reports that European leaders discussed ways of deepening their 2020 emissions cuts targets to help reach a deal in the final day of climate talks in Copenhagen but concluded they should not move further alone. "If the United States and China made significant moves, then maybe we could go further," said an EU source. "Talks might carry on next year, and it might be worth keeping this conditional offer to be used as a lever." A similar story has also been written by Agence France-Presse.
