17 March 2008 - Caen,
France — We've tracked a shipment of suspect
wood from the Amazon to France on board
the cargo ship Galina III. Some hours ago
our activists climbed on the ship. Once
our activists were onboard, the ship missed
its chance to go into port. Its next chance
is at dawn with the new tide, but for now
it is headed back out to sea with our activists
occupying its cranes.
Our team in Brazil,
and here in Europe, put months of surveillance
and research into the companies behind this
shipment who engage in illegal logging and
ancient forest destruction. Now we're calling
them out in public, to get tougher laws
against people like them. Sixty to eighty
percent of timber from the Amazon is illegally
logged - with Europe a major buyer.
Victory update (7pm
local time, 18 March): We're happy to say
that the French government has promised
to support new European Union wide laws
regulating timber imports. After a 24-hour
occupation, our activists have left the
ship's cranes and ended the action.
Action details
Two fast boats from
our ship, the Arctic Sunrise, pulled up
to the 16,000 tonne Galina roughly five
kilometres (3 miles) from port. Five activists
managed to clamber onboard before the cargo
ship's crew threw the ladder off. After
reassuring the Galina's crew about their
peaceful intentions, some of the activists
occupied the ship's cranes.
The activists onboard
the Galina are from the UK, Germany, Italy
and Chile. The temperature at sea is about
four degrees Celsius (39° F).
Illegal logging exposed
Illegal logging is fuelling
the destruction of the Amazon rainforest
and this in turn is driving global climate
change, harming biodiversity and communities.
What is worse is that
the EU is complicit in this destruction
being the world’s leading importer of Brazilian
Amazonian timber. Because the EU doesn’t
verify that timber comes from legal sources,
the door is left wide open for rogue companies
to flood the EU market with illegal timber.
Today's action came
on the back of a new Greenpeace report,
‘Future for Forests’, uncovering the illegal
timber trade from the Amazon into Europe.
As well as destroying
large areas of tropical forest, illegal
logging encourages land grabbing by farmers
and speculators, and fuels corruption and
violence. As the loggers move on in their
search for high value timber, they leave
behind a network of roads opening up previously
inaccessible parts of the rainforest. Farmers
and land grabbers move in to take advantage
- burning the remaining trees to clear the
land.
Amazon and climate change
It's not just the Amazon
forest at stake; it's also our shared climate.
Tropical deforestation is responsible for
about one-fifth of global greenhouse gas
emissions, more than the world’s entire
transport sector. Last month, the Brazilian
government admitted that the rate of deforestation
is speeding up rather than slowing down.
Deforestation is the
main source of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions,
making it the most important contributing
factor to the country’s position as the
world’s fourth-largest climate polluter.
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Greenpeace takes action
against German and Dutch coal plans
19 March 2008 - International
— Europe stands on the verge of a great
opportunity. Its fleet of power stations,
built thirty years ago is reaching the end
of its life. With climate change an undeniable
threat, this is a once in a lifetime chance
to turn our back on fossil fuels and embrace
the energy revolution. A revolution which
could bring greenhouse gas emissions under
control, and help prevent catastrophic climate
change.
Netherlands - trees
against coal
In the Netherlands,
German power company E.ON plan to build
a new coal fired power station, another
four are also planned by other utilities.
Last week Greenpeace won an injunction halting
the construction from going ahead because
E.ON does not have an operating licence
for the plant, only a construction permit.
Our lawsuit secures a window of opportunity
to prevent the construction from going ahead.
Seizing the opportunity,
today, while E.ON has been seeking to improve
its image by sponsoring “national tree day”,
around 100 Greenpeace activists celebrated
the event by planting thousands of trees
on the proposed site of the company’s new
power plant.
Germany - giant metal
dinosaur
In Germany, Vattenfall
are another company building new coal fired
power plants. Once again, Greenpeace is
leading the fight to stop them. The three
new plants proposed by Vattenfall would
pump out some 18.2 million tonnes of carbon
per year. Coal power stations should go
the way of the dinosaurs, and Greenpeace
made that point by delivering a 5-meter
tall dinosaur and three tonnes of coal to
Vattenfalls’ headquarters.
With the Vattenfall
plant at Moorburg the subject of discussions
between Germany’s Christian Democrats and
Greens, as they seek to form a new provincial
government, there is a real chance to do
the right thing and consign this power plant
to history.
Better ideas on offer
Coal companies try to
disguise their filthy investments by talking
up the prospect of implementing Carbon Capture
and Storage (CCS) technology. Just one of
the problems? We need carbon reductions
now, but Vattenfall say their first ‘commercial
concept’ will be ready between 2015 and
2020 - too late to make a difference, even
it worked.
If Europe doesn’t face
up to the coal industry it will have to
face up to the consequences of climate change.
Fortunately there is an alternative.
Europe needs an Energy
Revolution. That means investment in clean
energy and enhanced energy efficiency measures.
Investing in renewable energy like wind
energy and solar power, or in combined heat
and power plants – which take the excess
heat created by electricity generation and
make it available for heating rather than
letting it dissipate into the atmosphere
- can deliver the CO2 savings we need. More
demanding energy efficiency standards for
everything from light bulbs and fridges
to cars will ensure the economy continues
to grow even as it decarbonises.
