03 September 2008 -
Papua New Guinea — Armed police have escorted
three of our activists off a ship in Papua
New Guinea. The activists had stopped
the ship, bound for China, from loading
illegally logged timber from the Paradise
Forest. They remained harnessed to a crane
onboard the vessel for more than 55 hours
and are now safely back on the Greenpeace
ship, Esperanza.
This peaceful direct
action highlighted the impact of deforestation
on climate change and was supported by many
local people who joyously watched from boats,
singing and dancing.
The ship, Harbour Gemini,
was loading timber at Paia in the Gulf Province
when three activists from Papua New Guinea
and one from New Zealand climbed a loading
crane to hang a huge banner reading 'Protect
Forests, Save Our Climate'.
We took peaceful action
in the Paradise Forests at the invitation
of local resource owners.
Protecting forests saves
our climate.
Forest destruction accounts for around 20
percent of the world’s global greenhouse
gas emissions every year. Logging in Papua
New Guinea’s (PNG) rainforests is out of
control.
"We’ve stopped
the loading of this shipment with support
from resource owners whose rainforest, which
they depend upon for survival, is being
destroyed."
Sam Moko, Greenpeace
forest campaigner, on board the Harbour
Gemini logging ship
These ancient forests need to be protected
to save our climate and we asking the Papua
New Guinea government to establish a moratorium
on any new large-scale logging concessions
or extensions.
PNG's record of corruption
and lies
The PNG government has been asking for international
money to protect its forests and benefit
the global climate. But still illegal and
destructive logging continues.
The government has a
very poor forest management record, wrapped
in accusations of corruption and misappropriation
of funds. Recently, logging companies allegedly
paid US$67 million into a government minister’s
private Singapore bank account. If Papua
New Guinea is seeking carbon financing support
to save their forest, there must be an investigation
into these allegations.
Locals demand an investigation
Local resource owners in the region have
repeatedly asked the government for 13 years
to investigate documented breaches of forestry
laws by Turama Forest Industries, a Rimbunan
Hijau Group company. Yet nothing has been
done.
Kemaru Garry Bissue,
Chairman of the Kikori Environmental Association
and a landowner from the Kibiri tribe said
"We are here to protest the total disrespect
of Turama Forest Industries and their logging
agreement with our people. The company has
abused our sacred sites, polluted our river,
logged too close to our villages, made our
food resources scarce and is withholding
payments of royalties."
European Influence
PNG’s forests are being
destroyed at an alarming rate. One out of
every four tropical hardwood logs imported
into China comes from PNG. Most of the logs
are processed into plywood and re-exported
to large markets, including Europe
The European Commission
will soon be proposing a new law to exclude
illegally-harvested timber products from
the EU market. We are calling on the EU
to adopt new and binding laws to ensure
all wood products placed on its market come
from legal and well-managed forests.
+ More
Greenpeace activists
in the dock: Experts take ‘the stand’ on
climate change
05 September 2008 -
Maidstone Crown Court, United Kingdom —
As expert witnesses go, they don’t come
any better than Professor James Hansen,
one of the world’s leading climate scientists
and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute
for Space Studies. On Wednesday, he was
called to give evidence before a UK Court
on the threat posed by Kingsnorth coal-fired
power station to the world’s climate.
Six Greenpeace activists
are being charged with criminal damage after
they took action last October, to highlight
the threat posed by Kingsnorth.
Hansen’s evidence will
be crucial in establishing their defence,
since while the defendants accept the damage
they caused, they say they did so to prevent
much greater damage to other property and
the planet.
Lawful damage
The trial is in its
fifth day. The six Greenpeace activists
are on trial for scaling a smokestack at
Kingsnorth power station in October last
year. They have been charged with causing
£30,000 worth of criminal damage for
painting "GORDON" down the chimney.
They planned to paint “GORDON – BIN IT”,
but they weren’t able to because of poor
light.
The defendants accept
that they caused the damage, but are arguing
that is was lawful for them to damage the
chimney in order to protect other property
in Kent (where Kingsnorth is located), and
around the world, said to be at the risk
of much more serious damage from climate
change caused to a large degree by coal-fired
power stations.
Yesterday, Hansen was
called to the stand to give evidence. Hansen
has an impressive CV, having spent the last
20 years studying the Earth’s climate. As
well as numerous accolades for his work,
he has given evidence to the US Congress
and Senate several times and warned a succession
of US Vice-Presidents, including Al Gore,
about the impacts of climate change.
James Hansen in conversation
outside Maidstone Crown Court
Kingsnorth kills
He told the 12 jurors at Maidstone Crown
Court in Kent that emissions from the Kingsnorth
power station led to damage to property
worldwide, as well as the extinction of
species and the creation of climate change
refugees. During his testimony, Hansen warned
that, if the world continues with business-as-usual,
our descendants will be “left with a much
more desolate planet and much less biodiversity”.
He said that even a two degree rise in temperature
is “a recipe for global disaster” and that
the last time the Earth was more than two
degrees warmer than it is now, there was
a 25-metre sea level rise. He pointed out
that the UK bears the most responsibility
for historical CO2 emissions in the atmosphere
per person (followed by the US and then
Germany) and that, if the UK carries on
with business as usual, it could cause the
extinction of nearly one million species;
several hundred of these species extinctions
could be associated directly with Kingsnorth
power station.
It's not too late
During Live Earth, last
year, he was invited to go on stage with
Al Gore. He took his grandchildren along.
"How many species do we need to save?",
he asked them. "All of them,"
said his grand-daughter. "Me too,"
said his grandson.
"We can't save
all of them," Hansen told the Court,
"but we can still save most."
But, although "there's just barely
still time" we need an immediate moratorium
on the construction of all new coal-fired
power plants (without CCS) and the phasing
out of existing coal plants. And somebody
- whether it's the UK, US or Germany - needs
"to stand up".
"Gordon Brown,"
he said, "should announce a moratorium
on all new coal plants without carbon capture
and storage." Speaking to the Jury,
he also agreed with a statement made by
former US Vice President and Nobel Peace
Laureate, Al Gore: "I can't understand
why there aren’t rings of young people blocking
bulldozers and preventing them from constructing
coal-fired power stations".
Just before Hansen’s
evidence, another defence expert witness,
Dr Geoffrey Meaden (via video link from
Brazil), confirmed that the examples of
climate change impacts being cited by the
defendants are 'true circumstances'. "It
is overwhelmingly perceived," he said,
"by the defendants, the scientific
community and myself" that we are changing
our climate. "There's an increasing
urgency," he said, "for all citizens
and governments to take action."?
"Within five years," said Dr Meaden,
"there could be no summer ice left
in the Arctic...Ironically, the Kingsnorth
area itself will be extremely vulnerable
to flooding due to climate change. The situation
is so urgent that unless we act immediately
to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
by the next century we may have to abandon
up to 20 percent of Kent to the sea... It
behoves us to act with urgency."
Taking a stand
One of our activists,
Emily, also took the stand, and introduced
herself and how she'd come to be involved
with Greenpeace. Emily explained that whatever
emissions are in the atmosphere now will
have impacts for years to come. When asked
why she climbed the chimney, she said, "I
felt very strongly that I wanted to do that."
And, when the pictures of her hanging off
the top of Kingsnorth's smokestack were
handed out, at least a couple of jurors
gasped.
Another activist, Kevin,
was next and introduced himself as a rope
access worker from Wiltshire who had become
concerned about climate change back in the
'80s. Kevin's questions focused mostly on
the safety aspects of the direct action.
Much of the evidence presented by the expert
witnesses was of a highly complicated technical
nature and the 12 jurors really have a tough
job to take it all in. But, in the end,
burning fossil fuels causes climate change
that is wreaking massive damage to the environment,
the economy and human health. It is not
too late to bring climate change under control
and avoid the worst impacts.
Somebody needs to take a stand.
