All articles
-
Macken Sense: And the winner is….
Last week produced two powerful stories that define the perimeters surrounding the increasingly contested space in Australia’s economic and energy future. Just as history is written by the victors, there’s little doubt the future is in part created by the stories that prevail today – but which one will win the day? The first…
-
Groups want action not closed-door negotiations on Super Trawler
Press release – 23 July, 2012Environment groups have today rejected an offer from Federal Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig to enter into negotiations with Tasmanian company Seafish as the closed-door negotiations are an attempt to avoid rather than promote public debate on an issue of state and national importance.The rejection of this process by conservation groups,…
-
New PNG Government must restore customary ownership of stolen land
Despite criticism that many voters were unable to vote, polling in the largely peaceful eighth PNG national elections closed on Friday 13 July. The bitter pre-election battle between former PM Sir Michael Somare and the leadership team that ousted him in August 2011 – Peter O’Neill and Belden Namah -has hopefully been put to rest.…
-
Indonesia leading the way in KFC’s response to deforestation
Blogpost by Rolf Skar – July 10, 2012 Still no news from KFC headquarters in the US despite the fact it’s been six weeks since Greenpeace International exposed the company’s links to rainforest deforestation. But while KFC bosses in Kentucky remain silent on whether it will cut forest destruction out of its supply chain globally,…
-
Macken Sense: Media Madness
Amid all the sound and fury generated by Gina Rinehart’s assault on the Fairfax board, the slashing of over 1,900 jobs from The Age, the SM and the AFR and the threat of hundreds if not thousands of jobs being lost at News Limited, it was easy to miss this announcement last week. For those…
-
Opposition rising to fading whaling industry
Whale conservation has lost out to the fading, but still defiant pro-whaling forces, at this year’s International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting. The meeting in Panama City had initially offered the world hope that the IWC would actually help to save whales, not whalers, after the Latin American nations proposed the creation of a whale…
-
Munmorah made me the criminal I am today
This week saw a small step taken towards the energy revolution in Australia as Munmorah, one of the oldest and dirtiest coal power stations in the country, announced its closure. Munmorah is near the New South Wales central coast and has been burning black coal since 1967, before Greenpeace was even founded. It had already…
-
Police remove Greenpeace blockage of super trawler
Press release – 3 July, 2012Wednesday 4 July 2012: Last night at around 7pm EST, Dutch police ended the Greenpeace blockage of the Margiris, one of Europe’s largest fishing vessels. For five and a half days Greenpeace activists prevented the vessel from departing to Tasmania, Australia. Alongside Greenpeace, local fishermen and environment organisations in Australia…
-
Macken Sense: How change happens…..
Everyone from the fossil fuel industry to Greenpeace’s own Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, has conceded Rio + 20 was a total waste of space. Naidoo’s take on it was pretty simple: ”Rio has turned into an epic failure. It has failed on equity, failed on ecology and failed on economy.” Apart from that it was…
-
Towards an Environment of (Gender) Balance
I was recently humbled to accept an invitation from UN Women Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet, to join her Global Civil Society Advisory Group. In reflecting on the appointment, I’d like to call to your attention the passionate environmentalist and politician Wangari Mathaai. Blog by Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International It’s almost a year since Wangari’s passing;…