Image..Less than a year old, and the Rainbow Warrior is causing trouble already. But being a Greenpeace ship that’s just what nature intended.

Five days into a major direct action here in the Amazon and the new ship is holding up well. We’ve been painting banners below deck, taking urgent media calls from the campaign office and eating Walter’s fantastic food in the shiny new mess. Occupying an anchor chain for nearly 140 hours has required all the tools at our disposal, and we’ve been hoisting inflatable boats on and off the ship like clockwork. The Bosun’s workshop has seen sawing, chopping, gluing and creative improvisation (we’re cooking up a pretty dramatic little number right now – watch this space). The conference room has been turned into a makeshift recreational area, allowing the crew somewhere to listen to music and chill out in between shifts for the action.

There’s a real sense of excitement about this situation because this is what Greenpeace ships are made for. Our community engagement work is an important part of campaigning with the ship. We’ve used the ship to host community meetings, open boat events and spread the world about the Zero Deforestation Law, but now is the Rainbow Warrior’s time for action. Now we can finally use some of the special features that we have onboard. We’re incredibly lucky to have things like lithium iron batteries in the boats, state-of-the-art communication equipment and comfortable cabins to rest our weary heads. And that’s thanks to every single one of your 100,000 individual donations that helped bring the Rainbow Warrior into the world. No corporate money, no investors demanding a return – just the good will of our supporters like you from every corner of the globe.

Last night one of the crew told me he expects this ship to be with Greenpeace for the next 35 years at least. That’s quite a thought. To be here at the very start of this epic story is an honor, considering that I will hopefully have retired before the ship does. What will the environmental challenges of 2048 look like? Flying cars pumping out helium pollution into our vertical cities? E-Waste from domestic robots clogging up our countryside? (OK, fairly standard predictions. Add your own guesses in the comments).

But here’s another important thought: will Greenpeace even exist in the middle of the 21^st century? Perhaps humanity will have moved beyond its current blind spot, and we’ll recognize that our oceans and forests are things to be protected and respected rather than exploited for short term profit. Lots of people think that this is impossible, that we’re destined to use up the planet’s resources with our heads buried in the sand. I don’t, and I hoped you don’t either. That mindset is nothing more than an escape hatch for people who don’t have the stomach for the (nonviolent) fight that lies ahead.

We’d all like to retire this ship before her time, safe in the knowledge that the job is done and the Rainbow Warrior has served her purpose for the world. They say that you can’t sink a rainbow, but perhaps she can sail off into the sunset for a relaxing final few years in Tahiti. But somehow I suspect this won’t be the case. My guess is that we’ll still be sawing, chopping and improvising in the Bosun’s workshop for quite a few decades to come.

Image: © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace

This week, after hundreds of thousands of Apple customers and Greenpeace supporters asked the company to use clean energy instead of dirty coal, it announced a significant investment in local renewable energy to power its data centre in North Carolina, US.

The announcement is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal and comes on the heels of a Greenpeace demonstration at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino where activists delivered messages from customers and supporters around the world.

However, there’s still so much more to be done, and we think that Apple can go all the way.  Apple’s doubling of its solar capacity and investment in local renewable energy are key steps to creating a cleaner iCloud, but Greenpeace supporters and Apple’s customers still look forward to hearing details about how Apple plans to fulfil its commitment to renewable energy for its North Carolina and Oregon data centres in the US. Apple is still one of US energy giant Duke Energy's largest customers, and will have to demand Duke provide the clean energy it needs to legitimately claim the iCloud is 100% powered by renewable energy.

Greenpeace will continue its campaign to push Apple and other IT giants like Microsoft and Amazon, to clean the cloud until Apple has policies to ensure that as Apple’s North Carolina data centre and others continue to grow, they will grow using exclusively clean energy. To guarantee that, Apple must adopt a firm siting policy to prioritise renewable energy when it chooses locations for new data centres. Only then will customers have confidence that the iCloud will continue to get cleaner as it grows.

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

This week, the Fukushima Accident Independent Investigation Commission, a parliamentary panel assigned with determining the causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, met with numerous government and TEPCO officials. Those interviewed included TEPCO Chairman Tsuneshisa Katsumata and former METI Minister Banri Kaieda. Katsumata freely distributed blame for the crisis to former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), and then-TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, but stopped short of accepting blame himself, even as he admitted that he ranked higher than Shimizu at TEPCO.

Regarding Kan’s involvement in the crisis, Tsunehisa said the Prime Minister’s micro-management distracted from the unfolding disaster: “The highest commander [at the plant (Masao Yoshida)] had to take command of the power station at the height of confusion, but he had his time taken away with interrogatory conversations [with Kan and Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono].” When pressed about his own involvement, Tsunehisa insisted that TEPCO’s President and Vice-Presidents, not he, were responsible for making decisions. During a news conference following the testimony, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the Commission Chairman, said, “I believe [today’s session] shed light on TEPCO’s lack of a sense of crisis as an organization handling nuclear power…Katsumata kept avoiding giving clear remarks on specific matters.”

The panel is continuing to explore whether or not TEPCO tried to evacuate its entire staff during the worst hours of the Fukushima crisis, a move that would have exponentially worsened conditions and led to an even greater nuclear catastrophe. TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata insists that the utility never had plans to abandon the Daiichi plant. But reports from other government officials, including then-head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Banri Kaieda, and Yukio Edano, former Chief Cabinet Secretary who is currently head of METI, conflict with Katsumata’s testimony. The government failed to keep minutes of the meetings that transpired as the disaster unfolded, making it difficult to determine the real story.

In his own testimony, former METI Minister Banri Kaieda said that information sharing between TEPCO and various ministries was extremely difficult during the crisis. He felt that TEPCO tried to downplay the events as they were unfolding, and was reluctant to use seawater to cool the reactors, knowing it would destroy them for further use, even as the threat of nuclear meltdown increased.

The Japan Atomic Power Co (JAPC), operator of the Tsuruga power plant in Fukui Prefecture, has finally agreed to conduct studies on fault lines that lay directly below the plant’s reactors, placing it at risk of a nuclear catastrophe if a major earthquake were to occur. The move comes more than four years after experts first pointed out in 2008 that the faults might move in unison, resulting in a devastating earthquake. Both JAPC and NISA ignored those warnings, even though they were issued repeatedly by Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a seismic specialist at Tokyo University. Watanabe asks, “Why did they fail to conduct the survey for such a long time on something that can so easily be understood by visiting the spot? It’s not academic research, but an argument for safety. The plant should be decommissioned right away,” he warned. The Director of Safety at NISA’s Seismic Safety Office, Masaru Kobayashi, has now admitted, “I should’ve ordered a survey much earlier.”

NISA has admitted that in 2006, when the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) revised its earthquake guidelines for nuclear plants, the agency insisted that the NSC guarantee that the new recommendations would have no effect on nuclear plants. Officials say they were concerned that public opposition to nuclear plants would increase, possibly resulting in lawsuits.

A commission working within the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) that has been studying the nation’s growing supply of spent nuclear fuel has presented three options for its disposal. The group said that the most cost-effective means of disposal is to bury the fuel; in addition, that option reduces the chance that terrorists could steal plutonium and construct a nuclear bomb from it. However, some proponents of the Japanese nuclear fuel cycle want to reprocess plutonium from the spent fuel, in order to produce so-called mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX, which combines plutonium and uranium. Members also said that postponing the decision—while simultaneously stopping fuel reprocessing at the Rokkasho plant in Aomori Prefecture—is also a possibility.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has requested that China and South Korea relax restrictions on food imports from Japan, which were imposed after last year’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. However, neither Chinese President Hu Jintao nor South Korean President Lee Myung Bak would commit to a change in their policies.

Meanwhile, Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato met with South Korean First Vice Foreign Affairs and Trace Minister Ahn Ho Young, where he requested that South Korea lift travel restrictions to Fukushima.

Japanese supermarket Aeon announced that it will open 90% of its 14,000 stores at 7 am during the summer months, two hours earlier than usual, in an effort to save power as the entire country tries to conserve energy. Officials at Aeon said that air conditioning usage peaks in the afternoon, when stores are most crowded, and hopes this initiative will reduce cooling needs.

New data released by Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute shows that aftershocks from last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake may go on for decades near the borders of Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures. In 2011, Japan experienced 9,723 earthquakes measuring magnitude 1.0 or larger, up to eight times more than in the previous decade. More than 600 of those measured magnitude 5.0 or greater.

TEPCO

NISA officials and TEPCO are now admitting that they knew that power loss leading to a total blackout as a result of flooding from a tsunami was possible at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as early as 2006, but did nothing to prevent the flood of water which eventually damaged the equipment there. Loss of power led to three nuclear meltdowns in reactors at the Daiichi plant after last year’s earthquake and tsunami. The information was revealed at a government meeting following the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia, which was attended by officials from NISA and power companies. In August 2006, a study paper on the issue stated, “There is a possibility that power equipment could lose functions if a 14-meter high tsunami hits the Fukushima plant, with seawater flowing inside the reactors’ turbine buildings.” Two years later, additional research showed that a 10-meter high tsunami could strike the plant, but TEPCO ignored that as well.

A special government committee, under the auspices of METI, has convened to review TEPCO’s recent request for an average 10.28% rate hike. The utility is trying to raise money to absorb massive costs associated with compensating victims of the Fukushima disaster, decommissioning reactors there, and covering increased costs of thermal fuel. However, the move has been met with staunch opposition from consumers, who believe the rate increases have been poorly explained, and that TEPCO can still trim personnel and operating costs.

Efforts to Restart Oi Reactors

Seishu Makino, a Senior Vice-Minister at METI, met with Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa this week in continued efforts to gain local consent to restart nuclear reactors at the Oi Power Plant there. However, Nishikawa urged him to clarify Japan’s nuclear policy. “We want the government to clearly show its stance and [nuclear policy] system to citizens,” he said. In addition, he said that the government needs to establish new safety mechanisms, particularly since proposed legislation to establish a new nuclear regulatory agency is stalled in the Diet and has yet to be enacted.

Meanwhile, the governors of Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, as well as the powerful mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, are continuing to protest the possibility of restarting the reactors, citing safety concerns. Hashimoto noted, “While we respect the wishes of Oi, [whose local assembly recently approved the restarts, based on concerns about local economy] given what happened at Fukushima, you can't just decide to restart the reactors based on the decision of the local community.”

In addition, the municipal leaders have criticized the government’s recent announcement that rolling blackouts might occur, a decision that was made without consulting outside experts. Many have questioned KEPCO’s assertion that the area will experience a significant power crunch. Hashimoto’s popularity continues to grow in recent polls, raising the possibility that he may pose problems for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in upcoming elections this Fall.

In spite of that widespread opposition by municipal leaders and residents of nearby towns and prefectures, Prime Minister Noda will reportedly make a decision soon on whether to restart the reactors. “I think the timing of the decision is near,” he said this week.

Although METI Minister Yukio Edano’s warning that there might be blackouts, residents of Fukui Prefecture received the news calmly; a recent poll shows that up to two-thirds of the population continues to express concerns about restarting the Oi reactors and opposes their restart.

The government is urging both residents and large-lot users to conserve energy in the Kansai region this summer, but will reportedly not issue mandatory curbs on electricity usage.

Contamination

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) quietly stopped gathering hourly radiation measurements at nine different sites beyond a 20 km radius from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant this week, but almost immediately retracted that decision after MEXT Minister Hirofuni Hirano said he had not been informed of the plan to end the monitoring.

New samples of sludge collected from the mouths of the Arakawa and Edogawa Rivers, which empty into Tokyo Bay, show large increases of radioactive cesium. In some areas, silt samples measured in April were 13 times higher than they had been last August. Hideo Yamazaki, a professor at Kinki University who is conducting the research, said that although there is not an immediate risk to humans, small fish could be contaminated and be eaten by large fish, ultimately threatening the food chain. Researchers believe that the contamination enters the rivers upstream and becomes more concentrated as it flows downstream, eventually accumulating and depositing itself in mud and sludge in the Bay. Yamazaki encouraged further long-term studies.

Local officials in Fukushima Prefecture and other areas are struggling to deal with over 32,000 tons of radioactive sludge from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which is sitting in storage sites but has not yet been processed. Some facilities may run out of storage space within the next month. Although the sludge is legally supposed to be processed by municipal waste treatment centers, local residents are opposed because of concerns about radiation.

The city of Date has awarded decontamination contracts to four companies, for work slated to begin in June and conclude in March 2013. Workers will reduce high levels of radiation in an effort to make the city more habitable. The total price tag of the project is almost 15 billion yen.

Other Nuclear News

Local emergency officials in the United States are expressing concern after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considerably reduced safety planning and exercises to prepare for potential nuclear accidents. Under the new plan, responders no longer always practice how to handle radiation leaks, will evacuate fewer people, and conduct fewer drills overall. For instance, instead of practicing for a nuclear crisis every six years, the new recommendations suggest every eight years. Many emergency officials say that’s simply not enough.

The new guidelines were drawn up after soliciting heavy input from the nuclear industry and its powerful lobbying association, the Nuclear Energy Institute. Industry officials are praising the new changes, but Cheryl L. Chubb, an emergency planner at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said, “If it were me, I would evacuate” even without official go-ahead or if she fell within the new, reduced evacuation zone. Those who live further than two miles from a plant will be urged to “shelter in place” and not flee the area—even if there are large radiation releases. Jim Riccio, nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace US, sharply criticized the revisions. “You need to be practicing for a worst-case, rather than a non-event,” pointing out that in the case of a nuclear disaster, radiation will most likely leak into the atmosphere and place residents at risk. Approximately 40% of all Americans, or 120 million people, live within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor.

Residents, environmentalists, and now members of Congress continue to express concerns about safety conditions at Southern California Edison’s (SCE) San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), where excessive wear of steam generator tubes has stopped the operation of two reactors. Senator Barbara Boxer sent a letter to NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, noting, “Concerns have been raised that design changes in the steam generators contributed to accelerated wear in tubes containing radioactive water. Many have charged that SCE’s modifications to original plans caused the problems, which resulted in radioactivity being released into the environment.

Image.. Leaning back in the evening breeze, listening to the waves churning, I almost feel like I'm lying on the beach at home instead of hanging from an anchor chain near the 10 meter water mark of a cargo ship near Sao Louis in Brazil. But here I am. The Clipper Hope was due to arrive in the port days ago to pick up a load of pig iron, but for 3 days so far we've been preventing the ship from heaving up anchor by hanging on their chain.

Along with some other people, the captain of the ship didn't understand at first why we were protesting at his vessel. What's wrong with pig iron? It's used to make steel. The answer is it is a cheap and highly destructive way to make steel, and there are better ways to do it. Pig iron is made with charcoal, which is made with huge quantities of wood, and the cheapest way to get this wood is to secretly and illegally log massive areas of remote Amazonian forest and even sometimes use slave labour to burn it up.

There is more life, and more different types of life, in this forest than anywhere else, and seeing it transformed into wasteland is one of the saddest images of what is happening to our planet. The rate of deforestation of the Amazon is once again increasing because of recent government decisions.

So I hope the captain and friendly crew of the Clipper Hope will google Greenpeace and pig iron to find our new report, and learn about the consequences of the manufacture of their cargo. I hope U.S. car manufacturers like Ford and GM will learn about where their steel comes from. I hope we can all learn about the real costs of maintaining our cheap, convenient lifestyles and choose a better way. We don't have to destroy the Amazon, and we don't have to destroy our future.

Emma Briggs is a climber and the Bosun onboard the Rainbow Warrior, she is from Byron Bay, Australia.

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Recently members of the Mayan people living on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico joined Greenpeace activists and said no to genetically engineered crops. Using their own bodies to form the message ‘MA OGM’ or ‘No to GE’, 2000 activists gathered at eight different Mayan archaeological sites to draw attention to the risks of contamination of honey production by Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) soy.

It is important to remember that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has already ruled that honey contaminated with pollen from GE maize, also produced by Monsanto cannot be sold on the EU market. 40% of the Mexican honey is produced on the Yucatan and it exports 90% of its production to Europe. Monsanto’s GE soy is therefore threatening the livelihood of the forty thousand beekeepers and their families who rely on honey production.

Monsanto has requested authorization to plant commercial GE soy in Mexico despite a previous court order that invalidated a permit to plant 30 000 hectares with ‘pilot sowing’ of GE soy in the States of Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. Out of the 253 000 hectares that have been applied for, 60 000 are planned in Yucatan and if approved it could be only a matter of time before the Mexican honey is contaminated by Monsanto’s GE soybean pollen.

The Governor of Yucatan, Ivonne Ortega Pacheco has already said she is in favour of declaring Yucatan GE-free and she made a request to this effect to the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture. The action also aimed to encourage municipalities and other States to declare themselves GE-free and to get the Mexican federal government to ratify these decisions and give them legal standing. Earlier this year, Greenpeace protested to the Mexican authorities as they ignored the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food – Olivier de Schutter to restore the moratorium on GE maize in the country.

The bee population in general is suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon where worker bees abruptly disappear and cause a collapse of the bee colony, due to multiple factors linked to agrochemicals. The economic effect is significant as over 90% of the world’s food crops need bees.

Aleira Lara

GE Campaigner, Mexico

Last week, the inevitable finally happened. The company responsible for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has been nationalised. Japan’s trade and industry minister Yukio Edano announced a de facto state take-over of the company with a further injection of $12.5bn, bringing the total of state capital in TEPCO to $33.2bn. Edano has said that: “Without the state funds, (TEPCO) cannot provide a stable supply of electricity and pay for compensation and decommissioning costs”.

The total direct costs of the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe for TEPCO, including compensation and clean up, are estimated at over $100bn. Many Japanese, however, experience in their daily lives that the damages are considerably higher because most of their claims and losses go uncompensated and most of their suffering goes unrecognised.

Image.. The nationalisation of TEPCO, together with a legal practice called “channelling of liability” in which all liability related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster has to be channelled to TEPCO, means Japanese taxpayers and ratepayers will foot most of the bill.

An infuriating aspect of this story is that in a recent presentation by General Electric (GE) about its “success” over the past 50 years, there was not a word about the Fukushima disaster and nothing approaching an apology. Yet the Fukushima disaster was affected by well-known problems related to GE’s Mark 1 design, which was used at all four troubled reactors. Furthermore, GE was involved in maintenance throughout the four decades of the plant’s operation and had 44 on site at the time of the accident.

GE, together with its corporate mates from Hitachi, which is responsible for the construction of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, and Toshiba, which delivered Reactor No. 3, as well as Ebasco, Kajima, Areva and many others, have mostly kept mum about their involvement.

The Prime Minister orders venting

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had to order venting the day after the disaster. Without venting the containment might have given way to the rising pressure, which is a problem identified 30 years ago by several GE whistleblowers. It was not easy to give the order. Workers would risk potentially lethal doses of radiation and the evacuation around Fukushima had not even started. Venting would expose thousands of people to radiation, but the alternative of an exploding reactor would create even more havoc. TEPCO, GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba knew that this could happen. Not one of them ever demanded the closure of the reactors. Closing their eyes to their obviously faulty product, they spread the impression that people were safe.

Socialising risks, privatising profits

TEPCO is different than Chernobyl where the state owned and operated the reactor. A private enterprise developed the Fukushima Daiichi’s Mark 1 reactors and GE, Hitachi, Toshiba and other companies made huge profits building and servicing the power station. If this were a car, these companies would recall all their nuclear reactors and compensate customers for the costs and losses incurred.

But this is not a car. This is the nuclear industry and these companies continue as if nothing has happened to them. They are saved by TEPCO’s bankruptcy and nationalisation, and they are saved by the unique liability regime surrounding the nuclear industry where profits are privatised but accident liabilities are socialised.

It is clear why we don't see GE, Hitachi and Toshiba rush to put hundreds of millions of dollars into the Fukushima compensation fund. If they did, they would be admitting some kind of guilt and could open up an avenue for making compensation claims against them. Their share prices would plummet and it would force them to rethink their involvement in the nuclear sector. And who wants that?

Well, I want it.

I think that what we see now is an utter shame and outrage. Elsewhere, Hitachi and GE are trying to convince the Lithuanian government to pump almost $9bn into a new nuclear reactor, and accept a liability regime that is capped at $160m. Toshiba, with its sub-group Westinghouse, is wooing Czech CEZ to buy two reactors with the cap on liability in the Czech Republic at $450m. Hitachi is also actively lobbying Turkey with a cap of $24m, and Vietnam with a $230m cap to buy one of its reactors.

At the same time, I hear of people struggling to make ends meet after they fled the Fukushima region, of suicides because the hardships are too much to bear, of families split apart because they do not dare let their children grow up in the contaminated areas even though the father's work is still there, and of companies gone bankrupt because their resources are suddenly taken off the market due to contamination.

First, all victims need to get the compensation they deserve. The nationalisation of TEPCO is a step that could improve the situation. But this should not mean that those who profited from the risk that Fukushima Daiichi clearly posed and those that are profiting from all the other uncovered risks from nuclear power in the rest of the world should escape their responsibility. Facing this responsibility in terms of cold hard cash could help prevent a disaster like this happening again.

Jan Haverkamp is a Greenpeace nuclear energy expert on energy issues in Central Europe

What do you need most on an anchor chain in the middle of the Atlantic, when you’ve been there for over 24 hours, and it’s pouring with rain? Muffins.

Freshly baked by our chef, Walter, and put into waterproof tins ready for loading into speedboats. Speedmuffins. Pronto pastries. Two young Brazilians - Leonor and Elissama - are waiting across the water having been up most of the night and little things like this make all the difference. Fruit is great, but nothing beats that fresh-from-the-oven comfort of spongey goodness.

Occupying an anchor chain for over a day is a pretty challenging operation. Just getting off the Rainbow Warrior onto the inflatables is difficult, as the waves make stepping off the ship onto the moving boat like playing Super Mario Brothers for real. Then it’s a ten minute boat ride across the water with salty spray drenching everything in sight – camera gear, sunglasses and baked goods.

Once Leonor arrives on scene she receives the signal from the boat driver and gets onto a tiny stepladder (Supermario again) before scrambling up towards the platform. Well, I say platform – it’s more of a small plank with Greenpeace written underneath it. It’s all done safely and carefully, but that doesn’t stop the heart racing when you see how high up she is.

And then... well, not much really. Hours of sitting there, making sure she is safe, and waiting. No crowds of supporters cheering her on, just a safety boat with a driver giving her the thumbs up once in a while. It’s a bit like David Blane without the ego. When I was out there with I tried to give her my best winning smile and to think positive thoughts, but I’m not sure that was helping very much.

What really keep these girls going are the messages of support we’re receiving not just here in Brazil but around the world. This isn’t a ‘grey area’ environmental protest, where there are two valid points of view – we’re exposing things like slave labor and the illegal destruction of forest that is home to uncontacted tribes like the Awa. These are things that Brazilians – as well as people all over the world – have decided are unacceptable in our society.

It’s pretty hard to explain the link with ships like this one in words, but I’ll try. If Elissama and Leonor hadn’t stopped it, the Clipper Hope would be loading pig iron and taking that to the USA. Pig iron is used to make steel for cars, but here in Brazil it is leading to huge deforestation and is sometimes produced using slave labor. The Brazilian President and companies like Ford, GM and BMW - have a big role to play in stopping this from happening, but at the moment they’re turning a blind eye to the problem.

See? Much easier to close your eyes, think of the young Brazilians and imagine the smell of freshly baked muffins.

Update: in this post, I referred to Elissama and Leonor as "girls". I appreciate that this could appear patronizing, and that they are of course both young women, and well respected activists. I didn't mean to cause offence and I apologize if this did.

Raw HTML.. 

Photo copyright Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace

Image Gallery.. 

Hi,

Image..My name is Brandy and I’m here in our “iPod” to send Apple your messages. We’re right in front of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, in an eight-foot tall, ten-foot wide pod broadcasting audio messages from people like you to Apple’s employees and executives asking the company to power its iCloud with clean energy instead of coal. You can follow us on our livestream now.

In the past month, 215,000 of you have written to Apple to tell them that we want their iCloud to be powered by clean energy, not coal.

This is an incredibly important issue for me personally. I use Apple products every day, just like millions of people around the world. I use my iPad every day in school, just like the one I’m using right now in this pod. It helps me in everything from taking notes, helping me to study for my tests (or even distracting me from class every once in a while.) My iPhone helps me connect with my friends.

I don’t want to stop using those great tools. I want Apple to use their influence to power the iCloud I use every day with clean energy, not dirty coal that’s bringing our planet to the brink of disaster. 

It’s been really inspiring to see how many of you agree in your messages! Here are a few of my favorites:

We’re going to stay here and read Apple your messages as long as we can. If you haven’t sent them one yet, join the fun by going to facebook.com/cleanourcloud and we’ll try to read your message too!

From our iPod,

Brandy Palm 

Raw HTML.. 

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

The Noda Administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will reportedly change their stance and compromise with opposition groups New Komeito and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in order to speed approval for legislation to create a new nuclear regulatory agency. The DPJ hopes that Diet discussions on the issue can begin as early as May 18. Government legislation proposed placing the new agency under the auspices of the Environment Ministry, including control of its budget and personnel, but opposition parties are pushing for an entity with far more independence. Under their proposal, the safety agency would be an independent regulatory commission guaranteed autonomy under Article 3 of Japan’s National Government Organization Act.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced this week that he may ultimately order the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture, even if no regulatory agency has been established to monitor safety there. Currently, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) oversees nuclear power regulation, a decision widely criticized both domestically and internationally since NISA is under the purview of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, which promotes nuclear power. Experts consider that arrangement to have directly contributed to numerous problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Noda was cavalier and seemingly dismissive of the safety concerns of local residents, saying, “I could make the decision without waiting for the agency,” whose legislation is stalled in the Diet.

A group of 66 municipal leaders in Japan has formally petitioned METI to permanently abandon nuclear energy and decommission all of the nation’s reactors. The leaders say that ongoing concerns about the dangers of nuclear power motivated their request.

In yet another reminder of the hidden costs of nuclear power, Tokyo’s efforts to secure the 2020 Olympic Games have been seriously hindered by ongoing European concerns about radiation levels within and outside of Japan’s capital. In addition, many are criticizing the Japanese government’s slogan of “national rebuilding” as an effort to capitalize on tragedy, saying that the 7.5 billion yen price tag would be better spent on reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. A decision will be made in 2013 at a gathering of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Argentina.

The vast majority of governors overseeing prefectures near the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which is operated by Chubu Electric, oppose its restart, according to a survey conducted by the Mainichi Daily News. Seven of eight governors queried, who govern areas within 150 km of the plant, expressed concerns about the plant’s safety. The Hamaoka plant lies on a major fault zone and is at high risk for a catastrophic earthquake, as well as a potentially large tsunami. Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kurosawa said, “Unless there is a guarantee of sufficient safety, consent [for restarting the plant] will not be given.” In addition to Kanagawa, the survey included Tokyo, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Nagano, Aichi, Gifu, and Mie Prefectures.

In the meantime, a group in Shizuoka Prefecture is gathering signatures to force a public referendum on whether the Hamaoka plant should be allowed to operate again in light of ongoing safety concerns. The group needs to gather at least 62,000 valid signatures by July 11 to push the referendum forward.

Numerous publishers have submitted requests for updates to high school textbooks to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), in order to add information about last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster and the “myth of safety” pertaining to nuclear power. Previously in Japan, the government legally required that textbooks paint positive views of nuclear power.

A citizens’ group attempting to force a referendum on the use of nuclear power in TEPCO’s service area, including Tokyo, has submitted 323,076 signatures to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, reflecting widespread concern about the safety of nuclear power and its long-term future. The Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, is expected to oppose the referendum when the metropolitan assembly convenes in June, citing the expense of a vote and concerns about lack of alternatives to nuclear power. The issue is expected to play a large role in 2013 assembly elections.

Similarly, another organization plans to organize a call for a referendum against restarting TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture this summer.

TEPCO

TEPCO is reporting an almost $10 billion net loss (781.1 billion yen) for fiscal year 2011, which ended in March.

President of TEPCO, Toshio Nishizawa, submitted a formal request to the government last week for an average 10.28% rate increase for residential users. The proposal included a so-called “peak shift plan.” Depending on how much each household uses, power rates would go up by 4%, 10%, and 20%, with those using the least electricity paying the lowest rates. However, basic rates and other fees would also increase for all users, and peak afternoon rates could increase by as much as 30%.The utility is struggling to pay astronomical costs associated with compensating victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and decommissioning four crippled reactors there, as well as increased expenses for thermal fuel generation, and is attempting to pass those costs on to its customers. The government will reportedly review the request while assessing TEPCO’s fuel and personnel costs. News of the potential rate hike has been met with bitter opposition from consumers.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, the current TEPCO Chairman who is being pushed out and will soon be replaced by Kazuhiku Shimokobe, complained this week that former Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s interference the day after the nuclear crisis began last March, including insistence that he deal directly with Plant Chief Masao Yoshida, adversely affected the utility’s ability to deal with the growing disaster. Katsumata was being questioned by a Diet panel investigating the nuclear crisis.

TEPCO announced that it will not grant its employees summer bonuses this year, for the first time in the company’s history. However, officials still have not made a decision on whether or not they will receive winter bonuses, in spite of the fact that the company posted a $9.8 billion loss this week and just accepted $12 billion more in government bailout funds as well as $13 billion in loans. Those figures bring the total amount to $45 billion in aid so far. Experts at the Japan Center for Economic Research currently estimate that decommissioning and compensation costs of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster could ultimately top $250 billion. Analysts predict that investors may begin to pull out if the company’s outlook does not improve significantly.

TEPCO has named Fumio Sudo, the Chairman of the Board of Governors at Japan’s public television corporation, NHK, as a new outside director of the Board of the ailing utility. Under normal circumstances, Japanese Broadcast Law prevents NHK governors from accepting other posts, which might present a conflict of interest. However, a loophole provides an exception for Sudo, because he is only a part-time governor. Although the NHK Board of Governors does not directly oversee news coverage, its members do the station’s Managing Director, who manages news and editorial content. Many are concerned that NHK will lose its objectivity in reporting about TEPCO and its ongoing problems, including safety concerns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

TEPCO has also named Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, Presidents of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, to the Board of Directors. Both appointments are expected to be confirmed at TEPCO’s general shareholders’ meeting in June.

Efforts to Restart Oi Reactors

The Oi Municipal Assembly in Fukui Prefecture has voted to restart reactors #3 and #4 at Kansai Electric’s Oi Power Plant, in spite of widespread local opposition to the plan and significant concerns about reactor safety. Some members cited worries about the local economy. In March 2010 alone, the town received over $31 million (2.5 billion yen) in subsidies in connection to its agreement to host reactors at the Kansai plant. The decision now moves to Oi Mayor Shinobu Tokioka, who is expected to grant approval this week. A final decision will be made by Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa. Nishikawa has urged the government to gain the consent of the governors of nearby Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, although those leaders have expressed grave concerns about granting their approval before a final report has been issued on the causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and a new, more independent nuclear regulatory agency has been established in Japan.

In the meantime, eight of 11 nearby municipalities within 30 km of the Oi reactors say they oppose restarting the idled reactors, out of concerns for residents’ safety and worries about contamination of nearby land and drinking water, according to a survey conducted last week by Asahi. Many of those cities and towns receive no funding or other financial benefits from the nuclear industry for hosting the plants, but would be in significant danger in case of a nuclear accident.Distrust of the central government’s safety assurances continues to grow. Toyoji Terao, the Mayor of Kyotamba, noted, “It cannot be said that the government has conducted sufficient verification of the supply and demand situation for electricity, which will serve as the basis for the people to judge. The [government’s] supply of information is also insufficient.”

Japan’s government plans to institute a voluntary 15% power saving measures this summer, which it says will avoid blackouts in the Kansai region. The plan assumes that the Oi reactors remain idle, and four nearby power operators provide Kansai with surplus electricity. Discussions are still taking place regarding whether or not to make those cuts mandatory for large-lot users.

Contamination

Researchers from Fukushima University plan to attach special collars containing dosimeters and GPS devices to monkeys in the forests of Fukushima Prefecture, in order to determine radiation levels there. Scientists will issue a signal designed to release the collars approximately two weeks later, and then collect them. They hope to map radiation levels in the area, as well as determine the effects of contamination on wildlife.

Scientists from the Forestry and Forest Products Institute (FFPRI) have discovered high levels of radioactive cesium in rats in Fukushima Prefecture, and say that those levels reflect the atmospheric radiation levels of the areas where they were captured. Because rats and humans react to radiation in similar ways, researchers say that the research is significant and should be studied further.

A group of 26 farmers in Kawauchi, located just 20 km from the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, have begun to plant rice as part of a study to determine whether or not radioactive cesium will continue to contaminate crops there. The local government voluntarily asked most farmers not to plant rice this year, but they hope to do so again at some point in the future. Rice gathered in the study will be tested and then discarded.

For the first time since the Fukushima nuclear disaster last March, schools in Fukushima Prefecture held seasonal sporting festivals outdoors. Previous festivals were cancelled or held inside because high radiation levels prevented children from being allowed to play outdoors. However, many school officials made adjustments to schedules in order to prevent the children from engaging in activities where they would touch the ground, for example, during tug-of-war. More than a year later, some areas are still radioactive and considered unsafe.

Evacuation and Repopulation Efforts

A new survey conducted by The Daily Yomiuri shows that the population of former evacuation zones within 20 km of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been reduced by almost half, leaving many concerned about whether those municipalities will ever recover. Although the zone was reopened to residents seven months ago, only 2,200 residents have returned; approximately 30,000 evacuated last Spring. Former residents blame concerns about high radiation levels, fear of unemployment, and lack of desire to once again uproot their children as reasons for their failure to return. 

In another example of far-reaching effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has released new employment figures for Fukushima Prefecture, revealing that 20% of victims of the nuclear crisis and earthquake are either not employed or are no longer looking for work, even though their unemployment benefits have expired. Many say they are uncertain if or when they will return to their homes, and are hesitant to take jobs in areas if they will not remain there permanently. One ministry official conceded, “In Fukushima Prefecture, it still remains unclear how areas designated for evacuation orders will be reorganized and how quickly decontamination work will proceed. This has apparently made it difficult for many disaster victims to plan their futures.”

Other Nuclear News

The US Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) will subject Dominion Power’s North Anna Nuclear Power Station in Virginia to additional oversight, after a gasket failure was discovered following last August’s magnitude 5.8 earthquake. Although the gasket, whose failure was unrelated to the earthquake, was replaced, the NRC determined that the utility had failed to institute sufficient procedures. Dominion Power officials said that they will not protest the ruling.

Southern Company, operator of two reactors scheduled to be built at the Vogtle power station near Augusta, GA, has announced that construction plans are already $900 million over budget, just three months after its contract was approved by the NRC. The overall cost of the reactors, which are being heavily subsidized by taxpayer money and government-guaranteed loans, is estimated at $14 billion.

A visit to an ‘artisanal’ logging operation.

We are at the gate of an artisanal logging operation where military guards are in charge of the security. “Stop! Where do you come from and who are you?” The armed military    asks. With a smile, a member of the Greenpeace delegation replies, “We came to see you.” ”Me?” asks the military? “No, the head of the company,” responds the Greenpeace member." After some hesitation, access is granted.

 The territory of Bolobo, located in the District of Plateau, in the Bandundu Province, covers an area of ​​3.500km². It is an area rich in biodiversity and home to bonobo, elephant and buffalo species, among many others. The people depend mainly on agriculture, fishing, and hunting. Social infrastructure is degraded – the roads are in a terrible state and access is possible only via privately maintained routes.
Forests are invaded by "so-called artisanal loggers," who log trees on an industrial scale.

Artisanal logging, reserved only for Congolese businessmen, has become the activity of expatriates from all sides - Chinese, Lebanese, Bulgarian – all operate with impunity and with the blessing of the Congolese authorities.

It’s worrying how these foreigners behave like they have conquered the land. Worse still, they receive military protection; they are among the highly protected "untouchables". Because of the military presence, their operations are not easily accessible, and therefore uncontrollable, even by government agents committed to this task.

How can we get information on artisanal logging, with this intimidating military presence?

A team member whispers tremulously”I have never experienced anything like this... “. A few seconds of silence and another team member continues, “my father always told me you have to take risks to get somewhere." This phrase comforts the whole team.

While the Congolese forest is systematically looted and destroyed, the local population continues to live in misery. Not being sufficiently informed about their rights, they do not have the ability to negotiate with the ‘artisanal’ logging companies, who only donate some small gifts to the traditional chief. The forest of my country is sold off the price of a bicycle.

We are calling on the government to cancel all ‘artisanal ‘ permits, used for industrial logging operations, because this illegal practice is bypassing the moratorium on the allocation of new industrial logging concessions. Only by doing this, can we preserve the forests for our people, our biodiversity and our climate.