Greenpeace Pirates?

Greenpeace Pirates

A Russian court has just formally charged 28 Greenpeace activists from around the world, along with a freelance photographer and videographer, with piracy.

If convicted, each could face up to fifteen years in a Russian prison. All for the crime of peacefully protesting oil drilling in the Arctic. It’s the most serious threat to Greenpeace’s environmental work since French secret service agents bombed and sunk the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior — killing a crew member — back in 1985.

But we didn’t back down then and can’t back down now — no matter how far those in power go to silence the people who speak out against Arctic oil drilling and environmental destruction. With your support, we can stop drilling in the Arctic just like we stopped French nuclear weapons testing three decades ago.

The scene from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise two weeks ago was almost unbelievable.

Using a helicopter and ropes, fifteen armed Russian special forces agents boarded the ship and started rounding up everyone onboard, assembling them on the helideck and taking control of the ship. The crew was eventually moved to the main area of the ship and put under guard while the ship was towed to the Russian city of Murmansk.

It was in Murmansk where, just yesterday, the last of the Greenpeace activists and the two freelancers were charged with piracy. They’re not pirates. Peaceful protest isn’t piracy. It’s the voice that our environment desperately needs right now.

Don’t let that voice and the voices of those charged with piracy in Russia be silenced. Please help support our work to save the Arctic and protect the environment by making a gift today.

Greenpeace doesn’t take a dime from corporations or governments so we can do what’s necessary to protect the environment. Especially when corporations and governments are the ones threatening our environment in the first place.

We rely entirely on financial support from people like you to do the work that we do. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,

Phil Radford
Greenpeace USA Executive Director

P.S. A Russian court has just formally charged 28 Greenpeace activists, along with a freelance photographer and videographer, with piracy for protesting Arctic drilling.

Louder Than A Jet Engine

Louder Than A Jet Engine

There is no escaping from sound 100,000 times louder than a jet engine.

But if Big Oil gets its way, whales and dolphins from Delaware to Florida will soon be forced to flee such noise, or die trying.

Oil and gas companies want permission to use seismic airgun testing along the Atlantic Coast. This technology blasts sound waves powerful enough to detect oil deposits for offshore drilling – and destroy marine life in the process.

The government’s own reports estimate that at least 138,500 dolphins and whales – including endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale and blue whale – would be injured or killed if oil and gas companies are allowed to go forward.

The Obama administration is poised to give the green light to this project as early as this month. But we can prevent this torture if we act quickly. Just last fall, massive public outcry stopped seismic testing off the California coast. We can do the same at the national level now.

Tell the Obama administration to protect whales, dolphins and other creatures from injury and death by rejecting all seismic testing proposals off the Atlantic Coast.

The amount of seismic testing oil and gas companies want to perform is staggering. Airguns would fire every ten seconds for at least eight years in an area of ocean twice the size of California.

And this testing wouldn’t just impact marine mammals. It drives sea turtles away from their nesting grounds and destroys fish eggs, damaging East Coast fisheries.

Even when companies finish testing, the threat to the oceans and marine life won’t be over. If the companies find oil deposits, the area will be filled with new offshore oil rigs instead of airguns.

Send a message to the Obama administration telling the agencies responsible to prevent seismic testing and keep our coastlines safe for all marine life.

We’ve had some huge breakthroughs for whales and dolphins in the past year, including stopping seismic testing in the Pacific and creating a path to protection for the Bering Sea canyons. And we’ll be working on this issue throughout the summer and beyond as part of our campaign to save marine mammals.

Together, we are making real change for the millions of whales and dolphins that are in danger from sonar, seismic testing and whaling.

Thanks for speaking up for our beautiful blue planet.

For the whales,

Phil Kline
Greenpeace Senior Oceans Campaigner

Speak Up For Those Who Can’t

Gabriel,

Millions of whales and dolphins are about to be killed, permanently injured, or harmed, just so the U.S. Navy can run training exercises.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for the protection of these marine mammals, but instead of tossing out the Navy’s reckless training plan, it is about to give the Navy the green light.

We can get NMFS to block the Navy’s dangerous proposal, but we have to work fast. NMFS is gathering public comments on the Navy’s plan, and it won’t say no to the Navy unless they feel public outrage.

We have just 4 days left in the public comment period to flood NMFS with messages speaking up for the millions of whales and dolphins that cannot speak for themselves.

Act now and tell the NMFS to reject the Navy’s deadly proposal before it is too late.

Along the entire East Coast and in Hawaii, Southern California, and the Gulf of Mexico, the Navy will be testing sonar and explosive devices so deafening, they cause whales to abandon their normal feeding grounds and migration patterns. The Navy’s own report states that over 40 marine mammal species will be impacted, including the endangered humpback whale and the blue whale.

For marine mammals caught closer to the training exercises, the pain they would suffer would be immense. The powerful sonar blasts will destroy their hearing and even cause their brains to hemorrhage. Naval sonar has already led to mass whale strandings, as disoriented whales attempt to escape the noise.

We cannot allow this proposed training program to permanently disrupt the oceans these mammals call home. We must act now and demand that NMFS does its job and protect marine mammals, not aid in their extinction.

Tell NMFS that when it comes to marine mammals, there are no exceptions. We only have 4 more days to secure the safety of millions of marine mammals, so send in your comment now.

Together, we’ve won some amazing victories for whales in just the last few years. From stopping a plan for seismic testing off the coast of California to blocking South Korea’s attempts to restart its whaling program, our work is making a serious difference. With your support, we will continue the fight to protect the millions of whales and dolphins that are in danger.

For the whales,

Phil Kline
Greenpeace Senior Oceans Campaigner

Arctic Death March

Gabriel-

Instead of seeing warning signs, big oil and the government are seeing dollar signs in the melting Arctic.

There’s still time to stop the drilling, but we need 1,635 supporters from California to raise $100,000 by our December 31 deadline to make it happen.

Can you chip in to help save polar bear cubs from starvation?

A polar bear cub struggles to keep up with its mom. She’s searching for sea ice to hunt for food, but the swim is too far. The cub doesn’t make it. It was a common story this year in the Arctic.

Soon there might be nowhere left to swim. This year Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level in recorded history and if current trends continue there could be no summer sea ice at all in the next decade.

But instead of seeing warning signs in the melting ice, big oil and the government are seeing dollar signs. Shell has been given permits to drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic. If we burn the oil under the Arctic, it will spell the end for the polar bear.

Please make a year-end gift right now and help us raise $100,000 by midnight December 31 to save polar bear cubs from a melting Arctic. We need just 1,635 donors from California to make this happen.

We have to stop the drilling before it’s too late.

Shell’s plans have already been put on hold until next year thanks to Mother Nature, the company’s own incompetence and the success of our global campaign. Now is our opportunity to make sure they don’t get the chance to go back.

In the last week alone we’ve flooded the White House with over 50,000 messages asking President Obama to suspend Shell’s drilling permits and call a ‘timeout’ on Arctic drilling. Now we need your financial support to ramp up our campaign around the world calling for the creation of a global sanctuary in the high Arctic.

We’re running a worldwide campaign to create a sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the North Pole off limits to industrialization. And this spring we’ll be leading an expedition to the North Pole and planting a ‘Flag for the Future’ there. The flag will send a message of peace, hope and global community and will be designed by the world’s youth as part of an international competition. A stark contrast to the flags planted by nation states fighting over the exploitation of resources.

We’ll also be taking a time capsule to the North Pole containing the names of the over two million people who added their name to our Arctic Scroll. Once there, we will lower it four kilometers beneath the ice and plant it on the seabed as a symbol for all humanity.

None of this is possible without your support. Please make a year-end gift today to help save polar bears cubs once and for all, protect the environment and ensure that we reach our goal of $100,000 by December 31.

Greenpeace is completely independent. We don’t take a dime from corporations or governments. That means we can do whatever is needed to protect the environment. It also means we completely rely on donors like you making a gift today to support all of our campaigns.

Thanks for all you do,

Philip Radford
Greenpeace USA Executive Director

Rainforest Larger Than Texas

Gabriel,

An area of Indonesian rainforest larger than the state of Texas has been destroyed over the last 50 years.

The forest is being logged, burned, or pulped at an alarming rate and its products shipped around the planet. Often for throwaway things like chicken buckets and napkins. It’s bad news for the planet and really bad news for the 400 remaining Sumatran tigers that call the Indonesian rainforest home.

If we lose these last 400 tigers, there’s nothing we can do to bring them back. Now more than ever we need your help to ramp up the pressure on companies buying rainforest fiber and to save the last Sumatran tigers.

Please make your most generous contribution today toward our campaign to save the Sumatran tigers and help us reach our goal of $25,000.

I’ve personally visited the Indonesian rainforest and can honestly say that the speed and scale of the devastation is hard to believe.

The Sumatran tiger is already classified as “critically endangered” — on the brink of extinction and barely hanging on.

They’ve lost 93% of their habitat because companies like Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) are destroying their forest homes. Tigers are left to roam landscapes where they are easily slaughtered by poachers for their body parts.

How many more acres of destruction can the Sumatran tiger survive before its status moves from “critically endangered” to “extinct”? We have to act, and fast.

Thanks to our efforts KFC — one of the major buyers of Indonesian rainforest fiber — recently announced a process to examine where it gets its paper from. But a process alone isn’t going to help save the 400 remaining Sumatran tigers from extinction.

That’s why we’re ramping up our campaign right now to make sure KFC develops a global policy that rules out deforestation. This can only happen with your support.

Our efforts to put pressure on the KFC board and continue our hard-hitting international campaign by doing things like dipping the Colonel in a tank of his own sauce all depend on you.

Make a gift to help us reach our goal of raising $25,000 by October 31st to save the last Sumatran tigers.

Since Greenpeace takes absolutely no money from corporations or governments, we rely on the power of individual supporters like you. With your help, we can achieve this.

For the forests,

Rolf Skar
Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director

PG&E DEAFENING SEA LIFE

Gabriel,

The blue whales, humpback whales, sea otters, dolphins and porpoises living off of California’s central coast are at serious risk of coming under attack from deadly seismic testing.

An energy company called Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to get approval to continue operating a dangerous nuclear power plant that sits at the intersection of multiple earthquake fault lines. It is hoping a map of the Shoreline Fault’s deeper regions will help with the approval process.

The testing proposal calls for powerful air cannons to shoot deafening underwater explosions every 13 seconds for 42 straight days to create a map of the sea floor in an area that California has set aside as a marine reserve. According to one local official, the testing would “cleanse the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve of all living marine organisms.” We can’t let that happen.

There’s a public forum happening on Monday to discuss this issue. Greenpeace will be there and we want you to join us. Help us collect 40,000 messages of support from around the country for protecting all these amazing marine creatures by taking action today.

Tell the California Fish and Game Commission to block PG&E’s reckless seismic testing plan and to protect the blue whales, humpback whales and other creatures that call the Pacific coast of the United States home.

We know the horrible effects this kind of testing has on marine life. It’s been done before. Each underwater blast will be at a volume level that will instantly deafen and possibly kill everything unfortunate enough to be in its path in the most barbaric way imaginable.

PG&E knows what this testing will do. The company has already offered compensation to local fishermen who rely on the area for their livelihood. But the impacts of this testing would go on for years and its impossible to put a pricetag on the loss of a species like the blue whale.

Humpback and blue whales have actually just begun appearing in amazing, pre-hunting numbers in the area to feed on krill for the winter. We’ve been waiting decades for this. These whales and other marine life don’t need to die so that an energy company can profit by continuing to operate a dangerous nuclear power plant on top of earthquake fault lines.

Gabriel, this is your chance to speak out against PG&E’s crazy plan. Make your voice heard and take action today to save the marine life off the coast of central California from deadly seismic testing.

Sincerely,

Phil Kline
Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner

Tigers Time Running Out

Gabriel

Last week, over 40,000 online activists sent a message to KFC CEO David Novak asking him to end his company’s relationship with rainforest destruction.

With only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, time is running out to save their forest homes from destruction for fast food packaging.

KFC is definitely feeling the heat. KFC restaurants in Indonesia have already cut business ties with notorious rainforest destroyer, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). But there’s been nothing but a shameful silence from the company’s headquarters in Kentucky. That has to change.

It’s only going to happen if we keep up the pressure. And that’s exactly what we intend to do with your support.

Please make a donation of $5 so that we can continue to put pressure on KFC and save the Sumatran tiger from extinction.

With so few tigers left in the wild, and their habitat disappearing fast, it is important that we act now to protect them.

Greenpeace is funded by people, not corporations, and the success of this campaign depends on activists like you uniting to stand up to corporate greed.

With your support, we’ll fight back with our expert staff on the ground, international market pressure from customers, and worldwide media exposure — but we need to do it now. The Indonesian rainforest, where the only wild Sumatran tigers left on the planet live, is being destroyed every day at an alarming rate.

For the price of a loaf of bread, please donate $5 today to help save the Sumatran tigers by getting KFC to end its relationship with rainforest destruction.

For the forests,

Rolf Skar
Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director

Oil & Wildlife Don’t Mix

Gabriel,

The Arctic fox is in a losing battle to survive in a warming climate. According to experts, their presence in the Arctic indicates a healthy arctic ecosystem. Unfortunately if Shell gets its way, this ecosystem — and the Arctic fox who call it home — will be forever changed.

Oil industry Giant Shell is halfway to the Arctic to begin exploratory drilling in a region that has gone largely untouched for many years. Exploratory drilling has a high probability of leakage and accidents, and in the remote Arctic there is little chance they could contain a spill.

Should a spill occur, the oil giant’s clean up ‘plan’ is, pun intended, a hollow shell.

We have a plan to stop them, but we’ll need your help. We’re halfway to our goal of raising $100,000 by midnight July 18th. Help support our campaign to save the Arctic and protect our planet by making an urgent gift right now.

What’s our plan? It’s simple. Greenpeace has already mobilized more than half a million people around the world to help save the Arctic.

Celebrities such as Penelope Cruz, Jude Law and Sir Paul McCartney and others have also added their names to our “Arctic Scroll” petition as a symbol of their determination to save the Arctic. Once we reach a million we’re going to take those names, put it on a flag with all the others and plant it at the bottom of the sea 4 km beneath the North Pole.

But that’s not all. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is on the way to the Arctic right now. We’ll be launching a scientific dive — the first of its kind — to find out what’s actually happening below the surface. We will also continue to expose Shell in the news and social media as well as educate the public about the Arctic.

And just two days ago, we joined with several of our colleagues to challenge filing suit to challenge Shell’s oil spill response plan. We’re in this for the long haul. We need your support.

The fact is Shell isn’t prepared for a disaster in the Arctic Ocean. No one is. With constant high seas, icebergs and massive waves, there’s no way to effectively clean up an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean. Even the head of the US Coast Guard has publicly admitted that his agency would have little chance of dealing with a spill in the frozen Arctic on their own.

We can’t wait for this to happen. Make a gift right now to support our work in the Arctic. Just 375 more gifts from supporters in California to help make that happen.

This is one of the biggest campaigns we’ve ever undertaken. Shell has tried to bully Greenpeace and people like you to keep us quiet and silence our campaign. But we refuse to stand by while they and other oil industry giants destroy the Arctic and our planet.

Greenpeace doesn’t take a dime from corporations or governments. All we care about is doing what is necessary to save the Arctic. But our plans and the polar bears that call the Arctic home all depend on your support. We’re halfway there. Help support our long-term campaign by making a donation today.

Thanks for your support,

Dan Howells
Greenpeace Deputy Campaigns Director

Only 400 Left In the World

Dear Gabriel,

Only 400 Sumatran tigers are left in the world.

Just 80 years ago, there were three unique subspecies of tigers found in Indonesia. Today, two of them are extinct — and now the last one is in serious trouble.

At these horrifically low numbers, every day counts for the Sumatran tiger.

They need our help now. Please make an urgent donation to help save them.

The Sumatran tiger is classified as “critically endangered” — on the brink of extinction and barely hanging on.

They’ve lost 93% of their habitat because companies like Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) are destroying their forest homes. Tigers are left to roam landscapes where they are easily slaughtered by poachers for their body parts or shot by the people moving in.

How many more acres of destruction can the Sumatran tiger survive before its status moves from “critically endangered” to “extinct”? We have to act, and fast.

To fight back, we need your help to expose the massacre, pressure corporations like KFC to cut ties with APP and fight on the ground in Indonesia to save these last remaining Sumatran tigers.

We can’t wait another day. Not when we’re dealing with a population of only 400 tigers. If we don’t act now, these beautiful animals will be pushed to extinction — gone forever.

Since Greenpeace takes absolutely no money from corporations or governments, we depend entirely on you to power our independent and hard-hitting campaigns. Will you help save these 400 Sumatran tigers?

Please help us raise $60,000 in the next 9 days to make it possible. We need just 360 people from California to reach our goal.

Without you, these 400 tigers don’t stand a chance. APP will continue lining its pockets with profits, poachers will continue shooting these tigers and reselling their body parts in places like China, and these last Sumatran tigers will just be collateral damage.

Together, we can stop them.

With the financial help of supporters like you, we’ve already put the squeeze on APP, convincing major companies like Nestle, Kraft and Mattel to stop buying products linked to rainforest destruction. And other companies have followed suit as well.

Over the past few weeks we’ve turned up the pressure on KFC to end their relationship with APP and to stop using rainforest fiber in its throw-away paper products. We’ve hit them in the press, at their corporate headquarters, on the web, over the phone lines and at stores around the world. We have plans to do even more — but we need your support to keep this work going and save the Sumatran tiger.

Please give a gift today to help give these last Sumatran tigers a future — before it’s too late.

Together we’ve rallied to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems and won victories to protect the planet — and I know we can do it again to save the Sumatran tiger.

Together we are powerful, together we make a difference.

For the forests,

Rolf Skar
Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director

Our Oceans’ Health

Tell the State Department that you care about the health of our oceans and urge them to either take the lead on establishing a network of marine reserves or to get out of the way this summer.

Dear Gabriel,

There’s almost no protection at all for the world’s oceans. And it shows…

Companies like Chicken of the Sea are pushing some tuna and shark species to the brink of extinction in the Pacific Ocean with their destructive fishing practices.
Industrial fishing vessels are destroying the breathtaking coral habitats of the Bering Sea canyons and putting an entire ecosystem at risk.
Japanese, Icelandic and Norwegian whaling vessels continue to ignore international law and kill thousands of majestic whales from the Southern Ocean to the North Atlantic each year.
These challenges can be addressed together with a single solution — a network of fully protected marine reserves. So why is the State Department standing in the way?

It’s time they took action to protect our oceans. Urge them to take the lead in establishing a network of marine reserves before it’s too late.

Right now, less than one percent of the world’s oceans are set aside as marine reserves. That’s why we’re working on a global agreement which would allow the international community to establish a network of marine reserves on the high seas. Unfortunately, the US government seems to be standing in the way of these efforts by refusing to join along with other countries who are in favor of developing a new agreement to create a network of marine reserves.

The high seas are like the Wild West at the moment. It might be good for the companies that are making billions off the destruction, but it is killing our oceans. If we don’t start protecting and managing our oceans they aren’t going to survive. Marine reserves are a proven and cost effective tool for protecting biodiversity, rebuilding fish populations, and enhancing fisheries in surrounding areas.

The best chance we have to get the international community on the right path toward creating a network of protected areas is this summer in Brazil. The US delegation is developing their position right now. It’s the perfect time to let them know you are paying attention.

A global network of fully protected marine reserves would benefit sea turtles, whales, tuna, seals, narwhals and any other creature (including humans) that you can think of. We’ll be at the meetings this summer working hard for this outcome. Without your support, it won’t matter.

Send your letter to the State Department today and tell them that we need the US to join the G77, the European Union, and most of the rest of the world in standing up for marine reserves.

Thanks for your help.

John Hocevar
Greenpeace USA Ocean Campaign Director