Filed under: Greenpeace, Philippines, Project Clean Water, Stop climate change, Volunteers | Tags: climate, Water, GEI, angat dam, water crisis, angat
From Solar Generation – Pilipinas
Where does water come from? A question that has been asked of me unexpectedly in one of the meetings I’ve attended for a cause. I was taken aback for it was actually the first time that I heard someone asked that kind of question. I then began formulated uncertain answers such as “from the faucet?” or “from the purified water station near our apartment?” or rather “from the sea?” Could be, right? And from that moment on, I keep on asking myself, “where does water really come from?” This is the question that all of us ought to know the answer.
Filed under: Stop climate change | Tags: Oil, Energy [R]evolution, United States of America, Arctic, BP, deepwater horizon
Originally posted by Greenpeace US.
The news today out of Washington has been somewhat promising, but these are small steps in a very long march towards a clean energy economy — an economy with none of the potential for massive ecological destruction such as we’ve seen in the Gulf.
Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Elizabeth Birnbaum submitted her resignation letter this morning. Also today the Obama Administration renewed a moratorium in the pristine Beaufort and Chukchi seas in Alaska for the next 6 months, canceled the pending lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Virginia, and suspended action on 33 wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenpeace welcomes any and all investigations of the root causes of the BP Deepwater Disaster. Furthermore, Greenpeace welcomes the President’s call to develop clean, renewable sources of energy. These are all positive steps.
Paul Horsman is a Greenpeace campaigner, currently in Louisiana to assess the destruction from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Read his previous Deepwater Horizon blog here.
In a clear attempt to downplay the impacts of BP’s latest oil spill, chief executive, Tony Hayward, recently said “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” His comment shows a cynical disregard for the reality of what is happening here to the environment, wildlife and communities who live and work here on the southern coast of the US.
I’m not sure whether Hayward and the folk at BP are just being arrogant or ignorant – or maybe both. On Monday I stood in gloopey thick oil accumulating on the beaches at the end of the Mississippi River – at the low water mark and below, the oil was 20-25 centimetres (9-10 inches) thick. Maybe Mr Hayward would care to join me and watch as BP’s oil oozes from the high tidemark to form thick brown streaks down the short beach; or perhaps he could come to the breakwater rocks and see the splattered mess. Continue reading
Filed under: Direct Dialogue, Venues | Tags: Direct Dialogue, fundrasing, maps, venues
May 1 to 31- Walkway 1 Makati
May 1 to 16- Citywalk 2 Eastwood
May 4 to 10- ABS CBN (Dolphy Plaza)
May 21 to 23- The Supersale Bazaar at The Grove by Rockwell (along C5 near Ortigas Avenue (across Tiendesitas) from 11am-10pm)
May 9 to 22- Robinsons Place Manila
Filed under: Greenpeace, Volunteers | Tags: Activism, John Key Lucy Lawless, Mining, New Zealand, protest march
Biggest protest march in living memory - March Against Mining
We expected 20,000. We HOPED for 30,000. We got nearly double that. In the biggest protest march in living memory in New Zealand, 50,000 turned out in Auckland to march against Government plans to mine coal and other minerals in national reserves.
When the New Zealand Government announced its intention to open coal mines in the country’s prime conservation land, including some of its matchless National Parks, Greenpeace New Zealand set about mobilizing supporters, celebrities, and opposing politicians to say “no.”
Lucy Lawless, best known for her role as Xena the Warrior Princess, teamed up with Robyn Malcolm, a popular television and theatre actress, to call the decision “19th century thinking in a carbon-constrained world” and created a video of tourist reactions to the proposal in one of New Zealand’s parks.
Filed under: Stop climate change, Eliminate toxic chemicals | Tags: BP, Oil Spill, British Petroleum, Gulf Oil Spill
The Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster unfolding before our eyes. Eleven lives were lost in the initial explosion, and that incalculable loss is compounded daily as oil continues to flow.
Filed under: Greenpeace, Stop climate change, Project Clean Water, Life at work, Philippines | Tags: Greenpeace, Philippines, Climate Change, Global Warming, Water, tubig, water crisis, water scarcity, saan galing ang tubig mo, san galing tubig mo, tagtuyot, summer, el nino
As I walked in the 5 hectares of land in Brgy. Mangumbali, Candaba Pampanga, I can feel the land crumbling under my feet. The land is so dried that Mr. Numeriano Alabado was not able to harvest any rice crop that he planted in his area. His fields are now full of bigcracks that if you’re not cautious, the soil might collapse.
Their water source is from UPRIS-Upper Pampanga River Irrigation System.Pantabangan Dam is the main source of their irrigation system, because the dam has stopped supplying water due to drought; their rice lands have been destroyed. Almost all the farmers in this town have lost their income due to extreme drought. All of them we’re saying that this was the first time that they’ve experienced this kind of phenomenon.
The local government provided them aid by giving them STW or Shallow Tube Well but its already late to be use for this season because of lack of water. For them, only rain could restore their devastated lands.
A.C. Dimatatac
Filed under: Greenpeace, Stop climate change, Project Clean Water, Philippines | Tags: Philippines, Climate Change, Global Warming, Water, tubig, water crisis, water scarcity, san galing tubig mo, tagtuyot, summer, el nino
We’re on our last day of our travel in the drought affected lands of Central and North Luzon. We went to Brgy. San Isidro in Naguilan, La Union wherein we met some farmers who are members of Pakisama, an organization which is into sustainable agriculture and supports capacity building of farmers in the North.
Mr. Ronaldo B. Calica, a farmer whose crop
s are mainly corn, said that this is the worst drought ever. The sources of water in their area are the small creeks nearby and they are mostly dependent to rain. According to him, the last rainfall they had was when typhoon Pepeng hit the country last October 2009. After that, they didn’t experience any rainfall at all. He normally earns around 10 to 15 thousand pesos from his 1 hectare of corn but now it’s zero balance. He spent too much for the gasoline of his water pump and fertilizers but it was all for nothing because his land got dried up due to insufficient supply of water. He showed us his corn crops that are so small he can no longer use it. Continue reading
Filed under: Greenpeace, Stop climate change, End the nuclear age | Tags: Nukes, Chernobyl, chernoy
From the Nuclear Reaction blog
Twenty four years ago today, the Number 4 reactor exploded at Chernobyl. It was the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen.
Two people were killed in the explosion. Thirty-seven died of acute radiation sickness soon afterwards. According to engineers who were there, dozens were killed while building the reactor’s concrete sarcophagus. More than 2,000 villages around Chernobyl were contaminated by radioactivity. More than 330,000 people were evacuated and relocated. Statistics predict approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancer cases will be caused by Chernobyl. At least three million children required medical treatment. The effect on the health of the survivors and their children has been devastating: accelerated ageing, cardiovascular and blood illnesses, psychological illnesses, chromosomal aberrations and an increase in foetal deformations.
Filed under: Deep Green, Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work, Philippines | Tags: birthday, Direct Action, Earth Day 2010, greenpeacebuzz, love
Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.
22 April 2010: Earth Day
It is almost midnight.
Earth Day is only minutes away from being over. Another day, has passed and like in so many things that are subject to time, this day now becomes part of my memories and are now recorded as a chapter in my life.
I am more than glad that this remembrance of Earth Day was done with the celebration of the life of a dear person with whom I count myself fortunate to have as a friend .
Perhaps it is safe to say that in as far as speaking about Earth Day and the need to uphold the urgent struggle of safeguarding the environment, the celebration of Earth Day and the work for those in the environmental movement must always be reflected in the context of love for life –and I am not talking here about token sentimentally about Mother Nature, nor am I simply being a bleeding heart for the cute and cuddly animals, nor am I romanticizing my love for the outdoors –far from it!
While it is true that the aforementioned things are part of the things that bear weight in my decision to commit myself to my work with Greenpeace, a larger part of me recognizes the resolute urgency of taking action for the environment lies in the love that can be found in life that is shared in relationships –relationships that can be found in that of parents, grandparents, children, siblings, relatives friends, comrades, kindred spirits and lovers.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia 