All articles
-
Greenpeace’s Head of Pacific Net slams Australia for selling out its Pacific neighbours
Press release – 12 April, 2017“Australia – you are either with the coal industry, or with the Pacific”, said Greenpeace’s Head of Pacific Net Matisse Walkden-Brown in response to this week’s lobby trip by Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to meet the CEO of the company behind the proposed Carmichael megamine, Mr Gautam Adani."This week,…
-
Pacific Islanders call out Australian Climate Change Ambassador’s breathtaking hypocrisy
Matisse Walkden-Brown is Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s Fiji-based Head of Pacific Net. Greenpeace Australia Pacific is a member of the Pacific Island Climate Action Network. As a Pacific climate activist one of the hardest things to swallow is that our fate lies in the hands of other people. Other governments. Big governments with big investments. Big…
-
Top 5 Alternatives to Shark Nets
The NSW Government has allowed for more lethal beach nets to be dropped in NSW beaches. Ineffective nets which don’t protect people but do indiscriminately kill marine life such as dolphins, turtles, dugongs, rays and endangered sharks. So if nets aren’t the answer to beach safety, what is? Scalloped Hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) cought in…
-
Why are we under attack?
The jig’s up, my friends! This week green groups were ‘exposed’ for collaborating to protect the environment by the fossil fuel lobby, right-wing commentators in the media, and the Turnbull government. Not really that surprising. However, their criticism inadvertently revealed a far scarier truth: That the lobbyists, right-wing media and government are collaborating to do…
-
Pray for our Pacific: Finding strength in solidarity
Earlier this month, Pacific Island communities gathered together to summon the strength to confront the climate battles ahead. They were joined by communities from all over the world in a show of solidarity and support to collectively hold space for the Pacific. Faith is a central tenet of Pacific Island communities, and climate change is often…
-
A Pacific Islander mother’s letter to her children about climate justice
My little darlings, on 28 July 2016 as you slept with the sound of the ocean keeping you both company, there was a big commotion on the other side of the ocean. The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines asked 47 fossil fuel companies, including BHP Billiton, Shell and BP, to respond to a 60-page legal petition alleging…
-
Why Pacific Islanders will lead the fight against climate change
Most of us know the story of coal miners and their caged canaries. When my seven-year-old daughter heard it, she was sad that the canaries had to give up their lives to warn the miners to get out. She asked me if miners still use canaries today and I reassured her: ‘No, we have come…
-
Panama Papers: the plot thickens
Back in April, the Panama Papers rocked the world, exposing just how the global elite use offshore trusts in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Panama and the Bahamas to hide their wealth and dodgy deals. Thanks to an anonymous whistleblower who leaked a huge amount of data from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, we…