Breaking News - Russian Duma to Free the Arctic 30

On December 18, exactly three months after their arrest, the Russian Duma voted to release 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists known as the Arctic 30. After their boat the Arctic Sunrise was stormed by Russian special forces the Arctic 30 spent months in jail for a peaceful protest against a Gazprom oil rig. It is not know what will happen to the Arctic Sunrise, currently impounded in Murmansk. The amnesty applies to thousands of prisoners and it does not amount to an admission of guilt but it does signal an end to legal proceedings.

Upon hearing news of their release, Peter Willcox the Captain of the Arctic Sunrise said, “There is no amnesty for the Arctic.”

Video - Russian Special Forces Assault on The Arctic Sunrise and Arrest of the Crew

Here is some previously unseen footage shows which records the moment the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was boarded and seized by Russian security agents in international waters on September 19. The footage shows Greenpeace International activists and crew responding peacefully with arms raised and how the ship was subsequently towed to the port of Murmansk. The crew is now facing charges of Hooliganism.

Greenpeace Campaign is Asking Facebook to Unfriend Coal and Befriend Renewable Energy

Greenpeace has been peacefully defending the planet since 1971, now they are asking Facebook to unfriend coal by Earth Day on April 22, 2011.

Greenpeace has played a pivotal role in huge environment victories including:

- Commercial whaling moratorium
- Ban on toxic waste exports to less developed countries
- Bans on dumping radioactive and industrial waste at sea
- 50-year moratorium on mineral exploitation in Antarctica
- An end to large-scale high-sea driftnet fishing
- Establishment of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
- Ban on all nuclear weapons testing

Today, the fight to save the planet has grown more serious than ever. The threat of global warming, destruction of ancient forests, deterioration of our oceans, and the threat of a nuclear disaster loom large. Greenpeace is actively working to address these and other threats.

Greenpeace's newest campaign is encouraging Facebook to drop coal and commit to 100 percent renewable energy, cutting its carbon footprint and helping in the struggle to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Facebook announced in February 2010 that it is building a massive data centre in Oregon, using the latest energy efficient computers. But the Facebook data center will run on electricity made by burning coal which is the dirtiest source of energy and largest single source of global warming pollution in the world.

Greenpeace wants Facebook to run their massive data-centres on renewable energy, and ‘Unfriend’ dirty coal and dangerous nuclear. Greenpeace also wants to see Facebook be a climate leader and push for strong clean energy and climate policies in the US and around the world.

According to Greenpeace, Facebook uses about 55 percent coal power while Google uses 34 percent and Yahoo uses just 12.7 percent.

Join others in demanding that Facebook commit to stop using coal and choose renewable power for all its servers as soon as possible.

To support this campaign, join Greenpeace's Facebook group and help Greenpeace to get the social networking website to go green. You can also share this post on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Greenpeace is also trying set a Guinness World Record by getting more than 50,000 comments for Renewable Energy in 24hrs on April 13, 2011. Add your comment by simply following the steps below:

1. To comment on this post you must first ‘Like’ Greenpeace's Unfriend Coal Facebook page.

2. Click here to leave comments for Facebook staff, in support of renewable energy.

3. Repeat! You can comment more than once - it is still counted in the record attempt!

4. Share this note on your profile to spread the word among your friends!

Greenpeace is displaying your comments today directly outside FB headquarters in California. The best 50 commenters worldwide will get a ‘Facebook Unfriend Coal t-shirts. For more information on this campaign click here.

UPDATE

Greenpeace International has succeeded in setting a world record for getting the highest number of comments on one of its Facebook pages in a single day. According to an email blast to subscribers/members, the world record consists of no less than 80,000 comments in at least 11 different languages on the Facebook Unfriend Coal page. The initial target of 50, 000 comments was met just 11 hours after the call for posting comments on the page was sent out to members.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Earth Day 2010: The Business of Green

The first Earth Day was in 1970, it was a grass roots movement by people seeking to protect our environment. Now many leading environmental advocacy organizations accept sponsorships from corporations and these partnerships are helping to change social behavior.

On Earth Day, businesses large and small play varying roles supporting the transition to more sustainable commerce.

Many companies are using Earth Day day as a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services. Businesses are using Earth day as an opportunity to inform their customers about their environmentally friendly initiatives but the business community is also increasingly leading the way in environmental innovation.

The Earth Day Network and Proctor & Gamble are collaborating on social networks. With the launch of the Billion Acts of GreenTM Facebook and iPhone applications, friends, family and followers are being asked to issue pledges of at least one "act of green" and share it with their Facebook network.

Greenpeace is working with technology giants like Cisco and Google to disseminate information on technologies like videoconferencing and "cloud" computing that can reduce a company's carbon footprint.

With the help of PepsiCo. NYC is reducing its impact on the environment in partnership with Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit organization, that is introducing "dream machines," recycling kiosks. These machines are meant to increase the recycling rates for beverage containers, which is estimated at only about 36 percent nationwide.

Other smaller enterprises are also taking part. Fore example, across the US gardening businesses went into schools to encourage children to grow vegetables or plants as part of the Earth Day celebrations.

Most businesses are keeping an eye on the demand for environmental offerings. Smart businesses are responding to those seeking greener poducts and practices.

Although we still have a far way to go, increasingly consumers and business are being drawn together by the kind of free market capitalism that will build a more sustainable world.
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Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes

The Koch companies have a notorious environmental record. According to Greenpeace, in the last 15 years they have amassed an impressive rap sheet that includes everything from environmental violations to negligence causing death.

In 2009, the US Justice Department and the EPA announced that Koch Industries' Invista subsidiary would pay a $1.7 million penalty and spend $500 million to fix environmental violations at facilities in seven states.

In May 2001, Koch Industries paid $25 million to settle with the US Government for the company’s long-standing practice of illegally removing oil from federal and Indian lands.

In late 2000, the company was charged with covering up the illegal release of 91 tons of the known carcinogen benzene from its refinery in Corpus Christi. Koch eventually cut a deal with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to drop all major charges in exchange for a guilty plea for falsifying documents, and a $20 million settlement.

In 2000, the EPA fined Koch Industries $30 million for its role in 300 oil spills that resulted in more than three million gallons of crude oil leaking into ponds, lakes, streams and coastal waters.
In 1999, a Koch subsidiary pleaded guilty to charges that it had negligently allowed aviation fuel to leak into waters near the Mississippi River from its refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, and that it had illegally dumped a million gallons of high-ammonia wastewater onto the ground and into the Mississippi.

In 1996, two people where burned alive in their vehicle due to a poorly maintained Koch pipeline that had leaked flammable butane into a residential Texas neighborhood.

Koch's crimes are not limited to spills of oil, ammonia, aviation fuel, benzene, and butane. A recently released Greenpeace expose uncovered Koch industries' connections with climate denial front groups.
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Next: Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial

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