Dirty Power: Big Coal’s network of influence over the coalition government

Watch and listen to this Greenpeace research on the machinations and intrigue surrounding the Australian Government and the fossil fuel industry - “Dirty Power: Big Coal’s network of influence over the coalition government”.

Industry Lawsuits Try to Paint Environmental Activism as Illegal Racket

On a bright afternoon in May 2016, two men in a silver SUV pulled into Kelly Martin's driveway. One of them, tall and beefy with a crew cut, walked up to her front door.

Amy Moas, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace, was named
as a defendant in the RICO lawsuit brought against the group
by Resolute Forest Products.

"The guy said, 'Is Joshua Martin home?' and I said, 'No, who are you?" recalled Kelly. "He said, 'I'm with a company that's talking to current and former employees of ForestEthics, and I'm wondering if he still works there’."

Joshua had left ForestEthics, renamed Stand last year, to run the Environmental Paper Network. Kelly asked to see the stranger's ID and to snap a picture on her phone. Instead, the man retreated to the SUV and "they literally peeled out of the driveway.”

Around the same time, Aaron Sanger, another former employee of Stand, also received a visit from two men asking similar questions. So did others, some of them former employees of Greenpeace.

Then, on the last day of that month, Greenpeace and Stand were hit with an unusual lawsuit brought by Resolute Forest Products, one of Canada's largest logging and paper companies, that could cost the groups hundreds of millions of dollars if Resolute wins.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Nicholas Kusnetz  - “Industry Lawsuits Try to Paint Environmental Activism as Illegal Racket.”

Government denies claims it knocked back Chinese climate change offer and reveals ‘joint action plan’

The Turnbull government rejected a landmark Chinese invitation to issue a formal joint statement on climate change earlier this year, Greenpeace has claimed, saying Australia vetoed an unprecedented step in the Asian power's emerging international role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March.

But the Australian government has denied the claim and revealed the two countries' energy departments were working on a "joint action plan" on climate change as part of their commitments under the Paris agreement.

According to Greenpeace East Asia senior climate policy adviser Li Shuo, the government quietly knocked back an offer – perhaps the first time the Chinese government had proactively sought such an arrangement – during Premier Li Keqiang's state visit to Australia in March.

Mr Li said the offer was "very, very significant" because it suggested China had become "diplomatically proactive" after previously being on the receiving end of invitations from the European Union and United States to outline mutual commitments on climate change.

Read Fergus Hunter’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Government denies claims it knocked back Chinese climate change offer and reveals ‘joint action plan’.”

As glaciers literally crumble around him, a pianist plays an elegy for the Arctic

Ludovico Einaudi, a his grand piano
playing an "Elegy for the Arctic".

Back in June, as part of an advocacy campaign aimed at protecting the Arctic Ocean from oil and gas extraction, Greenpeace sent its ship Arctic Sunrise northward with some unusual cargo.

The ship carried renowned pianist Ludovico Einaudi, a grand piano, and a floating wooden platform made up to look like a glacier.

They put the platform in the water next to the Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. They put the piano on the platform. And there, Einaudi played a short original composition: “Elegy for the Arctic.”

Watch/listen to the Vox story - “As glaciers literally crumble around him, a pianist plays an elegy for the Arctic.”

'Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change' - Heede

Last month, geographer Richard Heede received a subpoena from Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

The output of this oil refinery in Rodeo, California,
is a small part of Richard Heede's carbon inventory.

 Smith, a climate change doubter, became concerned when the attorneys general of several states launched investigations into whether ExxonMobil had committed fraud by sowing doubts about climate change even as its own scientists knew it was taking place. The congressman suspected a conspiracy between the attorneys general and environmental advocates, and he wanted to see all the communications among them. Predictably, his targets included advocacy organizations such as Greenpeace, 350.org, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. They also included Heede, who works on his own aboard a rented houseboat on San Francisco Bay in California.

Heede is less well known than his fellow recipients, but his work is no less threatening to the fossil fuel industry. Heede (pronounced "Heedie") has compiled a massive database quantifying who has been responsible for taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere. Working alone, with uncertain funding, he spent years piecing together the annual production of every major fossil fuel company since the Industrial Revolution and converting it to carbon emissions.

Read the story by Douglas Starr on Science - “Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, this 'carbon accountant' says.”

Last remaining relic of an ancient forest faces the axe

A bison in the Bialowieza Forest, a forest
 the Polish Government wants to log.

Warsaw: It is the last remaining relic of an ancient forest that stretched for millennia across the lowlands of Europe and Russia, a shadowy, mossy woodland where bison and lynx roam beneath towering oak trees up to 600 years old.

Conservationists believe the fate of the Bialowieza Forest, which straddles Poland and Belarus, is more threatened that at any time since the communist era due to a new Polish government plan for extensive logging in parts of the forest. The plan has pitted the government against environmentalists and many scientists, who are fighting to save the UNESCO world heritage site.

Seven environmental groups, including Greenpeace and WWF, have lodged a complaint with the European Commission hoping to prevent the large scale felling of trees, which is due to begin within days. Bialowieza has been declared a Natura 2000 site, meaning it is a protected area under European law. EU officials say they are working with the Polish authorities to ensure that any new interventions in the forest are in line with their regulations, but it's not yet clear what the result will be.

Read Vanessa Gera’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Logging to begin in last remaining European primeval forest.”

Fance and China together take major climate step

I

t all depends on how you look at it.

French President, Francois Hollande.

On Monday, the presidents of France and China stood side by side to emphasize their commitment to tackling climate change, agreeing that countries signing on to a proposed global climate pact should take stock of their progress every five years with a view to regularly ratcheting up their emissions-cutting targets.

French President François Hollande called Monday’s announcement a major, historic step that “laid down the conditions for success” at global climate talks due to start in Paris in four weeks. Greenpeace termed it incremental progress that highlighted the “ambition gap” the world still needs to bridge.

Read The Washington Post story - “China tries to recast itself as a global leader in climate-change fight.”

The long, long, long story of the plastic spoon

W

ashing the dishes is a much hated chore. But the rise of disposable dishes, eating utensils and cups comes with a different kind of cost. The process of making these use-once-and-toss items is no simple feat, and at times can use up more resources than the food you’re using them to eat.

The story of the plastic spoon.

So, what goes into that plastic spoon? A new video from Greenpeace tells the story from the very, very beginning: “Watch the epic journey of a spoon”.

It's a compelling case against disposable tableware. And this short film doesn’t tell the next chapter of the story—what happens to plastic cutlery when it get thrown in the garbage. These items are often so cheap to the consumer that they’re often free, but discarded plastics make up nearly 18 percent of all the garbage produced in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s not counting the items that get recycled, nor the stuff that never makes it to the landfill, and instead ends up as litter or ocean pollution.

“We buy stuff for its convenience without realising that its production and destruction are not convenient at all,” writes Arin de Hoog on the Greenpeace blog. “The Story of a Spoon is an appeal for people to stop racing down the aisles.”

Yes, that means more dishes if disposables are something you buy to use around the house or office. Or if you only encounter single-use items when eating in or getting takeout, you can make a difference by refusing the free plastic. So, if you’ve already started toting around your sleek stainless steel water bottle, or your stylish insulated glass coffee thermos, why not also toss a metal spoon into your bag as well?

Mark Diesendorf told GV audience a year ago, now the argument is global

M

ark Diesendorf visited told a Goulburn Valley audience a year ago that

Emily Rochon of Greenpeace -
totally renewable by 2050.

Australia was well placed to immediately switch to 100 per cent renewable energy.

The associate professor from the University of New South Wales told about 200 people that a mixture of power sources made renewable energy entirely possible.

And now Greenpeace says the world can be 100 percent renewable by 2050, and 85 percent renewable in just 15 years.

A ClimateProgress story says: “The 2015 Energy [R]evolution report, the latest in a series that has offered the most accurate projections of any major analysis, worldwide, says that for the first time, the path to 100 percent renewable is cost-neutral. In addition, no new technological advancements are needed, the report says.”

“It’s basically political will,” Emily Rochon, a global energy strategist at Greenpeace, told ThinkProgress. “The primary premise of the Energy [R]evolution scenario is we have all of the solutions already on the table to get there.”

Read the story - “This Report Says The World Can Go 100 Percent Renewable By 2050”.

Environment and farmers' groups call for zero emissions by 2050

M

ore than 50 environmental, charitable and farmers’ organisations have written an open letter to the government urging it to adopt a zero carbon emissions target by 2050.

Greenpeace - one of the many
 organizations that have called
 on the Australian
Government to adopt a zero
emissions target by 2050.

The letter, signed by groups such as Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and Save the Children as well as agricultural organisations and unions, stressed the economic benefits of moving towards renewables.

“Australia and Australian people stand to lose so much from the impacts of climate change; it is in our national interest to be amongst the leading nations to ensure the world limits warming to well below two degrees,” the letter said.

The Guardian reports on this push - “Australian government urged to adopt a zero carbon emissions target by 2050”.

'Holy smoke!' - did China's carbon emissions just fall?

E

arlier this year, many of us who follow such things were astounded by news that global CO2 emissions might have actually stalled last year.

Now, comes news via the Greenpeace Energy Desk that Chinese carbon emissions may have fallen 5% in the first four months of this year.

If true, this is very big news indeed. In fact, a drop of that magnitude would—according to Greenpeace—be the equivalent of the UK's entire emissions output.

I'm not sure many of us saw this coming. While there's been plenty of evidence that China is ramping up an impressive commitment to clean tech and a lower carbon future, the much heralded China US climate pact of last year had Chinese CO2 emissions peaking around 2030. (As critics of the deal never tired of reminding us).

Read Sami Grover’s story on Treehugger - “Holy smokes! Did China's CO2 emissions actually just fall?”

Don't worry about saving the planet, save us!

The planet doesn’t care about climate change, we do!

Earth has been about for more than 13 billion years and we have only been here for about 200 000 years.

What we are concerned about is not the survival of the planet for it will go on regardless of what we do, what we are really concerned about it the preservation of the conditions that have existed for the past 10 000 years and allowed humanity to flourish.

The Huffington Post writing about the World Economic Forum at Davos discussed the dichotomy of thought in a story headed: “Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace: ‘The planet does not need saving’”.

"The struggle is not about saving the planet. The planet does not need saving," Naidoo said. "This fight is fundamentally about securing our children and grandchildren's futures."

"Sleepwalking" into apocalyptic disaster

Greenpeace chief warns of ‘perfect storm’ of crises

World leaders have been accused by Greenpeace leader, Kumi Naidoo, of “sleepwalking” into disaster.

All the details can be read here on “The Raw Story”.

(Left: Greenpeace leader, Kumi Naidoo)