Richard Wibley, a former Greenpeace ships capatain, passed away last week. Steve Shallhorn, who runs the Greenpeace Australia office these days, posted this reminecense:

I worked with Richard Wibley for 6 months in 1989 along the east coast of the United States. Richard was Captain of the M/V Greenpeace as it did a tour of American coastal cities, campaigning on issues ranging from the offshore drilling of oil to nuclear disarmament.

As it turned out, most of the fuss of that tour surrounded a campaign to rid the oceans of nuclear weapons. The focus of the Nuclear Free Seas campaign in the United States was the Trident missile, a 38 Billion dollar program to build a new missile that was to be launched from both American and British submarines.

Richard’s skills as a mariner were put to the test during two high seas confrontations with the United States Navy. Let me tell you how.

Continue reading Remembering Captain Richard Wibley…

Richard Wibley, a former Greenpeace ships capatain, passed away last week. Steve Shallhorn, who runs the Greenpeace Australia office these days, posted this reminecense:

I worked with Richard Wibley for 6 months in 1989 along the east coast of the United States. Richard was Captain of the M/V Greenpeace as it did a tour of American coastal cities, campaigning on issues ranging from the offshore drilling of oil to nuclear disarmament.

As it turned out, most of the fuss of that tour surrounded a campaign to rid the oceans of nuclear weapons. The focus of the Nuclear Free Seas campaign in the United States was the Trident missile, a 38 Billion dollar program to build a new missile that was to be launched from both American and British submarines.

Richard’s skills as a mariner were put to the test during two high seas confrontations with the United States Navy. Let me tell you how.

Continue reading Remembering Captain Richard Wibley…

Posted by Page (in Seattle)

Minke whale. (Click to enlarge. Photo credit: NOAA.)

For many years, we’ve known that one of the major threats to the endangered near-threatened minke whales is bycatch, where the whales are caught in nets meant for other fishing purposes. In fact, back in 2005, Greenpeace bloggers in South Korea witnessed the butchering of a young minke whale caught as bycatch (photos, story).

In South Korea, it’s legal to sell whale meat from whales caught as bycatch. One minke whale can be worth as much as $100,000, so you can imagine what the fishing industry is suspected of doing.

That’s right. Deliberately netting minke whales.

Continue reading Is South Korea deliberately netting whales?…

Posted by Page (in Seattle)

Minke whale. (Click to enlarge. Photo credit: NOAA.)

For many years, we’ve known that one of the major threats to the endangered near-threatened minke whales is bycatch, where the whales are caught in nets meant for other fishing purposes. In fact, back in 2005, Greenpeace bloggers in South Korea witnessed the butchering of a young minke whale caught as bycatch (photos, story).

In South Korea, it’s legal to sell whale meat from whales caught as bycatch. One minke whale can be worth as much as $100,000, so you can imagine what the fishing industry is suspected of doing.

That’s right. Deliberately netting minke whales.

Continue reading Is South Korea deliberately netting whales?…

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

The future of the whales will be decided in Anchorage, Alaska, in a couple of weeks time.

As a committed Whale Defender, we need you to make your voice heard once again. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

“The 59th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has begun its preliminary meeting in Anchorage ahead of the key decision making week from May 28th – 31st. Your delegation will be representing not only your government, but your electorate. We ask that you ensure that your delegation is briefed to vote for whale protection at this important meeting.”

Tell your government that you vote NO to commercial whaling »

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

The future of the whales will be decided in Anchorage, Alaska, in a couple of weeks time.

As a committed Whale Defender, we need you to make your voice heard once again. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

“The 59th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has begun its preliminary meeting in Anchorage ahead of the key decision making week from May 28th – 31st. Your delegation will be representing not only your government, but your electorate. We ask that you ensure that your delegation is briefed to vote for whale protection at this important meeting.”

Tell your government that you vote NO to commercial whaling »

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Innerspace Visions / James D. Watt

The future of the whales will be decided in Anchorage, Alaska, in a couple of weeks time.

As a committed Whale Defender, we need you to make your voice heard once again. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

“The 59th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has begun its preliminary meeting in Anchorage ahead of the key decision making week from May 28th – 31st. Your delegation will be representing not only your government, but your electorate. We ask that you ensure that your delegation is briefed to vote for whale protection at this important meeting.”

Tell your government that you vote NO to commercial whaling »

As a forest conservation activist for 18 years, who later also became a climate change advocate for the past 9 years, it is so gratifying to see recent widespread acceptance of what has become Ecological Internet’s central message — large, connected ancient primary and old-growth forests are a requirement for stopping climate change and achieving global ecological sustainability. Global survival depends upon the Earth’s last 20% of natural, primary forests remaining intact and totally protected as “global ecological reserves” with fair payments for avoided deforestation. Indeed, humanity has overshot the amount of natural forest ecosystem that can be developed while sustaining biogeochemical processes upon which all life depends and maintaining an operable atmosphere. Thus, we promote restoration ecology to expand ancient forests, “rewilding” remnant forests into old-growth habitat in a targeted manner.

While ecological science highlighting the necessity of maintaining ancient forests to fight climate change (amongst other things) has strengthened; sadly mainstream environmental groups cling to failed policies of “certified, sustainable” logging of these ancient life giving wonders. World Without Forests (WWF) is the primary culprit. Given we have already lost too much ancient forest to maintain the Earth’s climate, and that selective first time logging certified or otherwise releases carbon and forever limits carbon sink potential; it is not enough to protect half of the Canadian Boreal — as a consortium of big money logging apologists propose. Nor is it enough to cut tropical deforestation by 50% (both presented below).

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

Here’s a video put together by a bunch of busy whale defenders that met online on whales.greenpeace.org – they got together in Lisbon, Portugal, and marched down the Japanese embassy to protest against Japan’s plan to wrest away the hosting of the 2009 International Whaling Commission meeting. What fantastic work!

Here’s the campaign idea: Japan; Give Portugal a Chance!»
Here’s a blog by one of the activists, Francisco Gonçalves »

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

Here’s an interview from Australian radio by Fran Kellly, with the naturalist and world-famous documentary maker David Attenborough, where he talks about his distaste for Japan, Iceland and Norway’s whale hunting.

Listen to the interview with David Attenborough »

Story on ABC Radio’s website »