05
January 2009 - International — Here's a
look at all the efforts for a green and
peaceful future that our supporters made
possible in 2008.
In 2008, we took action
around the world - helping to create a toxic-free
future; defending our oceans and protecting
our ancient forests; we helped protect the
polar bear from the ravages of climate change
and we discovered a new species. Most importantly
of all, we took action to catalyse an Energy
[R]evolution, showing the world how to get
from where we are now to where we need to
be. We need to see the world's carbon emissions
finally peak by 2015 before being cut by
over 50 percent by 2050 - and as 2009 dawns,
we come one year closer to this critical
deadline.
It's not just been actions
- everything we do, we back up with science
and solutions. Our Energy [R]evolution scenario
provides the practical blueprint for the
world's renewable energy future; our new
edition, released in November, was launched
with the help of a world leader who knew
how to aim high. Our Forests for Climate
proposal provides for an international funding
mechanism that can protect tropical forests.
We also opened a new
office: 2008 saw the launch of Greenpeace
Africa, with offices in South Africa and
the Democratic Republic of Congo. With an
office in Senegal to follow in the early
part of the New Year, our presence in Africa
furthers our efforts to be a truly global
organisation.
Protecting our ancient
forests
Destruction of the world's tropical rainforests
has been one of the greatest ecological
disasters of our time. Indonesia's 'paradise
forests' are being felled at a faster rate
than in any other major forested country
- and this wholesale destruction is being
driven by the world's largest food, cosmetics
and biofuels producers. In 2008, Greenpeace
took direct action against Unilever, one
of the largest users of palm oil. This included
a hugely successful online parody of Unilever's
ad for its Dove soap product, which staggered
the business world and reached the pages
of The Wall Street Journal. Unilever announced
in May
that it would support
our call for a moratorium - good news for
the climate, good news for the orang-utan
that calls the paradise forest its home,
and good news for the indigenous peoples
who depend on the forests for their livelihoods.
2008 also saw good news
for the Brazilian Amazon, and worrying news
for the forests of the Congo Basin.
Defending our oceans
During the summer, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza
was busy defending the Western Pacific from
pirate fishers and the world's largest tuna
destroyer, while the Arctic Sunrise was
defending the Mediterranean; although the
International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas rendered itself incapable
of managing the recovery of bluefin tuna
stocks in the Mediterranean and Eastern
Atlantic, at the end of the year there was
at least a glimmer of hope for Pacific bigeye
and yellowfin tuna.
In order to save fish
for the future we've been calling on retailers
and fish purchasers to stop buying all species
that are overfished or caught using fish
aggregation devices. We've been taking action
to prevent destructive bottom-trawling in
the North Sea. We've been tackling the pirates.
And, we launched two new websites: one that
supplies a list of those seafood species
at high risk of being sourced from overfished
stocks or being caught using destructive
fishing methods, and one that provides an
online database of fishing vessels involved
in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
and the companies that own them. We'll continue
to push for a global network of fully protected
marine reserves covering 40 percent of our
oceans. This will help to buffer our seas
from the ravages of climate change, restore
the health of fish stocks and protect ocean
life from habitat destruction and collapse.
Creating a toxic-free
future
In February, our report 'Toxic Tech: Not
in Our Backyard' showed how the fate of
large quantities of electronic waste is
unknown. Ghana was one place where our investigations
uncovered high-tech toxic trash causing
horrendous pollution.
We've been pressurising
the biggest electronic companies to phase
out toxic chemicals and introduce global
recycling schemes. Both of these are vital
to tackle the growing tide of toxic e-waste.
Some companies are making progress towards
taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle
of their products. However, Philips is one
company that stood out in 2008 for refusing
to accept responsibility for recycling its
old products, and we've been there to demand
that it lives up to its motto of 'Sense
and Simplicity' and joins with other companies
in stopping the dumping of e-waste in developing
countries left to face the toxic legacy.
Catalysing an Energy
[R]evolution
The Rainbow Warrior and the Arctic Sunrise
spearheaded our call on the world to "Quit
Coal", essential to a meaningful deal
to save the climate. In a year in which
Al Gore said, "I can't understand why
there aren't rings of young people blocking
bulldozers and preventing them from constructing
coal-fired power plants" we were doing
precisely that. And, in an unprecented court
case in the UK, leading climate scientists
came to our defence when the so-called Kingsnorth
Six were tried for - and subsequently acquitted
of - criminal damage to a coal-fired plant.
The jury found our actions justified when
considering the damage to property caused
around the world by CO2 emissions from the
plant.
The need to quit coal
was just one message we brought to governments
in the run up to key climate negotations
that took place in Poznan, Poland, in December.
We continued to highlight how nuclear power
undermines the solutions to climate change
- enjoying a hugely significant success
in Turkey - and we put pressure on the EU
to curb emissions from gas-guzzling cars.
And, during the climate negotiations, we
set up a Climate Rescue Station in Posnan
to make sure they knew - as UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon reminded delegates when he opened
the high-level segment of the UN Climate
Change Conference - that the world would
be watching.
While we were disappointed
with the lack of progress made at the UN
climate negotiations, together with a depressingly
diluted EU climate package, at least the
pressure we all (and we mean everyone who
sent a message, signed a petition, uploaded
a photo for Greenpeace or any organisation)
generated was enough to stop them from going
backwards! The road towards the next UN
climate meeting in Copenhagen in December,
2009 is a long one - but we'll be campaigning
for an Energy [R]evolution and we're going
to need your help to make it successful!
The Tokyo Two
Finally, to one of the major stories of
2008. Our year started with the Esperanza
protesting the hunting of whales in the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by the Fisheries
Agency of Japan. We exposed scandal after
scandal, and on May 15 our undercover investigations
exposed the smuggling of large amounts of
prime-cut whale meat from the whaling ship
Nisshin Maru. Greenpeace activists Junichi
Sato and Toru Suzuki - the 'Tokyo Two' -
took a box of intercepted whale meat to
the Tokyo public prosecutor as evidence
of the whaling industry's embezzlement.
However, in an absurd inversion of justice,
they themselves were arrested and charged
for stealing the box of whale meat, and
the scandal investigation was dropped.
Constant pressure on
Japan's whaling industry by the international
community reduced the fleet to sneaking
out of port for the 2008-2009 whaling season
in a fog of crisis and scandal, desperate
to avoid attention. The obvious disarray
within the whaling industry, the announcement
of a 20 percent reduction in the number
of whales to be hunted ths year and the
extreme over-reaction by the authorities
towards Junichi and Toru shows that we are
successfully pulling the rug out from under
the whaling industry's feet. It's the beginning
of the end, and it's time for Japanese taxpayers
to demand their government stop subsidising
this bankrupt programme.
More than 250,000 of
you sent protest emails to the Japanese
prime minister, asking for the release of
the Tokyo Two. After 26 days in custody,
they were released but are still awaiting
trial. As the world celebrated the 60th
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, we took a delegation
of people to Japan to declare the arrest
of Junichi and Toru an act of political
censorship. We told the authorities that
we, too, were complicit in working to save
the whales. We want to take a lot of you
along on this mission. With your help, we
will put whaling on trial, and demand justice
for the Tokyo Two in 2009.
2009
Let's make 2009 a year for success. With
your help - whether you make a donation,
support us with actions, volunteer, or simply
help spread the news - we can continue our
work to change attitudes and behaviours,
to protect and conserve the environment,
and to promote peace.
Here's to 2009!
