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Greenpeace Activist News, Vol. 2, No. 2

3 April 2002

 

In this issue, the crucial Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) meeting in The

Hague, Netherlands, a joint action alert with Amnesty International, nukes in

Europe, the Japanese fisheries agency targets endangered whales, help stop seed

contamination, world leaders prepare for the World Summit on Sustainable

Development, and the Greenpeace Cybercentre has been retuned.

 

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SAVE OR DELETE?

 

Every two seconds an area of ancient forest the size of a soccer pitch is

destroyed. These forests are home to tigers, forest elephants, gorillas, bears

and jaguars. They are a source of livelihood for traditional communities and

indigenous cultures. Yet these ancient forests are being destroyed to make

furniture, plywood and toilet paper.

 

Next week, governments from around the world will meet at a United Nations

meeting in The Hague to decide the fate of these forests. This is a last chance

for forests and a last chance for world governments to make the right choice and

SAVE the world's remaining ancient forests.

 

Take action today and tell your head of government to save ancient forests and

the creatures and people that depend on them:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=cbd1 & s=fst

 

You can also send e-cards to your friends. Show them what forest animals really

think of ancient forest destruction:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/ecs/s2?i=376 & sk=std & la=en

 

To read more about the Greenpeace forest campaign, including ship diaries,

please visit:

 

http://www.greenpeace.org/saveordelete

 

Coming next week to the saveordelete site - a new forest flash E-card, find out

what bureaucrats really do at international political meetings, send a personal

message to your delegation and continuing coverage of Greenpeace's efforts to

keep ancient forest destruction out of Europe and activities in the ancient

forests.

 

FREE GRIGORY PASKO

 

Grigory Pasko is a Russian environmental journalist who exposed the dumping of

radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan. For his courageous actions to protect the

environment he has been sentenced to four years in a high security prison.

Greenpeace and Amnesty International have launched a joint cyberaction in his

support. Please write to President Putin asking him to free Grigory Pasko from

the action alert we have set up at:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=pasko & s=blue2s

 

DIRTY ENERGY COMMISSIONER

 

Loyola de Palacio is the European Commission's Energy Commissioner and Vice

President and she has a major problem. She cannot decide whether to serve the

interests of the European public or to serve the interests of big dirty energy

companies - especially the nuclear industry.

 

Greenpeace has prepared two letters and asked De Palacio to sign one. In the

first, De Palacio would drop her support for dirty energy and support clean,

renewable energy sources such as wind and solar instead. In the second letter,

De Palacio would resign her position in favour of a candidate that supports the

clean energy preferences of the European public.

 

If you are a European resident, please send a message to De Palacio asking her

to sign one of these letters.

 

You can find the action alert and links to the two letters here:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=eu_energy & s=blue2

 

FISHERIES AGENCY TARGETS ENDANGERED WHALES

 

The Fisheries Agency of Japan intends to further escalate its whaling activities

by targeting a new species - sei whales - in the North Pacific. Sei whales in

the North Pacific were heavily exploited in the last century and are now

classified as an endangered species by the International Union for the

Conservation of Nature. The Fisheries Agency is also planning to take a further

50 minke whales as part of this so-called 'scientific' programme.

 

Please write to Hiroyuki Kinoshita, the Director-General of the Fisheries Agency

of Japan, and ask him to halt this so-called " scientific " whaling program from:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=faj & s=whl

 

Please visit

 

http://whales.greenpeace.org/act.html

 

to find more things you can do to oppose the pro-whaling campaign of the

Fisheries Agency of Japan, including sending whale e-cards to your friends and

colleagues.

 

STOP SEED CONTAMINATION

 

Genetic contamination poses an unacceptable risk to the environment. Yet

proposed new European legislation would legalise genetic contamination, instead

of preventing it. The new directive would allow 0.3 to 0.7 percent genetically

modified contamination of conventional seeds. Please write the EU commissioners

and tell them there must be " zero tolerance " for genetically modified

contamination. You can send your letter from:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=eu_seeds & s=blue2

 

JOHANNESBURG EARTH SUMMIT

 

A global war is raging against the planet, where nature and people are the

victims. At this year's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa (26 August -

4 September), Greenpeace will make sure that world governments don't get away

with ignoring their commitments to the environment. In the lead up to the

summit, Greenpeace is taking action globally to highlight what governments need

to do, click here to find out more.

 

http://www.greenpeace.org/earthsummit/index.html

 

CYBERCENTRE UPGRADE

 

At the end of December, we put the sign-up form for cyberactivists on the front

page of http://greenpeace.org.

 

As a result, we are now signing up 400 new cyberactivists a day. This is

wonderful, but it put a tremendous burden on our Cybercentre and it often became

unbearably slow.

 

We have recently made a number of changes to make the Cybercentre much faster.

The most recent was to install a new database server so that the Cybercentre now

runs across three different computers.

 

Please take a few moments to visit the newly improved Cybercentre and take part

in the discussions.

 

Any new software may introduce new bugs, so if you have noticed any problems,

you can report tham at:

 

http://act.greenpeace.org/1017250066

 

VISIT THE CYBERCENTRE

 

Please don't forget to visit the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community at:

http://act.greenpeace.org