Down here in New Zealand we like to say we’re very clean and green but the truth is … well … we’re not as green as we’d have you believe.

The Prime Minister has of late spouted forth some very green sounding rhetoric telling us all how she wants “sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity” and that “we could aim to be carbon neutral”. Well great but meanwhile, Genesis Energy a State Owned Enterprise responsible for a coal fired power station that is our single biggest point source of CO2 emission, is busy spending up large on a PR campaign portraying themselves as all clean and green.

Here’s our take on their TV ad.

Down here in New Zealand we like to say we’re very clean and green but the truth is … well … we’re not as green as we’d have you believe.

The Prime Minister has of late spouted forth some very green sounding rhetoric telling us all how she wants “sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity” and that “we could aim to be carbon neutral”. Well great but meanwhile, Genesis Energy a State Owned Enterprise responsible for a coal fired power station that is our single biggest point source of CO2 emission, is busy spending up large on a PR campaign portraying themselves as all clean and green.

Here’s our take on their TV ad.

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Greenpeace / Ralf Kiefner

Instead of simply hunting endangered whales like humpbacks, here’s a novel way of using whales as a resource – a Canadian Company has come up with a kind of wind-turbine blade that mimics the movement of a humpback flipper.

A Canadian Company as designed a new type of wind-turbine blade that mimics the aerodynamic performance of a humpback whale’s flipper, allowing a turbine to capture more of the wind’s energy at much lower speeds.

Continue reading Using humpback whales to catch the wind…

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Greenpeace / Ralf Kiefner

Instead of simply hunting endangered whales like humpbacks, here’s a novel way of using whales as a resource – a Canadian Company has come up with a kind of wind-turbine blade that mimics the movement of a humpback flipper.

A Canadian Company as designed a new type of wind-turbine blade that mimics the aerodynamic performance of a humpback whale’s flipper, allowing a turbine to capture more of the wind’s energy at much lower speeds.

Continue reading Using humpback whales to catch the wind…

Athena is the face of Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign in Asia. She has just returned from Kyoto, where she led a team pressuring the Asian Development Bank to put their money where their mouths are and invest in Clean Energy. Here’s her round up.

2 weeks ago I welcomed myself back to the city of Kyoto with high expectations: for the Asian Development Bank to honour the spirit of one of the most important environmental agreements in history – the Kyoto Protocol.

I finally got to see Kyoto on the last day of my visit to this historic city. A visit to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple and a walk along Gion made me appreciate its beauty – something I missed10 years ago during my first visit. The people of Kyoto should be proud of their home. The ADB could have made them even prouder, but they were a few steps short…

Continue reading Wanted – Energy Revolution leader for Asia…

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Greenpeace / Aoyama

One of our colleagues, George Pletnikoff, an Aleut working for Greenpeace as an oceans campaigner in Anchorage, has written an article for the Anchorage Daily News on how Japan exploits a loophole that allows it to kill nearly 1000 whales every year.

This May, Anchorage will become ground zero for a very important political battle. The 59th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will be held here for nearly three weeks. As the international body that manages the world’s populations of great whales, the IWC has as its most important and lasting concern to maintain the 27-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling.

Continue reading Japan’s ‘scientific’ whaling a slap in face of conservation…

Athena is the face of Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign in Asia. She has just returned from Kyoto, where she led a team pressuring the Asian Development Bank to put their money where their mouths are and invest in Clean Energy. Here’s her round up.

2 weeks ago I welcomed myself back to the city of Kyoto with high expectations: for the Asian Development Bank to honour the spirit of one of the most important environmental agreements in history – the Kyoto Protocol.

I finally got to see Kyoto on the last day of my visit to this historic city. A visit to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple and a walk along Gion made me appreciate its beauty – something I missed10 years ago during my first visit. The people of Kyoto should be proud of their home. The ADB could have made them even prouder, but they were a few steps short…

Continue reading Wanted – Energy Revolution leader for Asia…

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Greenpeace / Aoyama

One of our colleagues, George Pletnikoff, an Aleut working for Greenpeace as an oceans campaigner in Anchorage, has written an article for the Anchorage Daily News on how Japan exploits a loophole that allows it to kill nearly 1000 whales every year.

This May, Anchorage will become ground zero for a very important political battle. The 59th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will be held here for nearly three weeks. As the international body that manages the world’s populations of great whales, the IWC has as its most important and lasting concern to maintain the 27-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling.

Continue reading Japan’s ‘scientific’ whaling a slap in face of conservation…

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

Here’s the challenge – on May 27th, join other whale defenders in a global gathering to support the whales – by taking to the streets for the Big Blue March.It’s a simple task – make contact with other whale defenders, and get together in your city or town wearing a blue t-shirt to form a Sea of People!

You can join Big Blue marches planned from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires – or organise your own event. Some folk aim to march down a major street, others to hold a family “fun day”. In other places, whale events with food, music and guest speakers are happening. People are even having whale parties at their house! Run, dance, swim, skate – do whatever you gotta do, just do it blue!

Why May 27th? While the Big Blue March takes place, the International Whaling Commission Meeting (IWC) will be in session in Anchorage, Alaska. At the IWC, diplomats from around the world make crucial decisions on the fate of whales throughout in our oceans.

Continue reading Join the Big Blue March: Ocean of Whales, Sea of People…

by Warren Karlenzig While personal carbon calculators are turning into a dime-a-dozen offering across the web, the unveiling of Zerofootprint’s carbon counter at the C40 Climate Summit last week ushers in a new era of a large scale web-based data warehousing that can aggregate carbon emission information from city government, companies, universities, neighborhoods, groups or families. [Full disclosure: Zerofootprint provided offsets for the Worldchanging book tour in 2006.] Toronto Mayor David Miller announced that his city would be using the tool, called Zerofootprint Toronto, to calculate carbon emissions for the city’s 50,000 employees this July. The free tool will also be available to others in the city, so that it begins to build a “bottom-up” analysis of carbon emissions complementing the “top-down” analysis cities, counties and local government are currently engaged in with groups such as another Toronto-based non-profit, ICLEI. The mayor said Torontoans will be able to use the Internet-based tool to calculate their own carbon footprint–which includes the amount of energy and water used, waste generated, how they get around, consumption habits and food choices. Results can then be aggregated and sliced and diced so that profiles of city, neighborhood to glean personal carbon footprints. Zerofootprint runs on… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Climate Change at 10:32 AM)