The slaughter of the giants of the ocean.

Whaling had a great development during the XVI century in the Atlantic ocean and from the XIX century in the Pacific ocean. The Basques were the first commercial whalers, while the most numerous were the Americans. 
The whale is caught with an harpoon, thrown from the whaling ship. In the XIX century the main whale product was the blubber, but the whole animal was used. In modern times, the main product is it meat. 
At the end of the XIX century whaling underwent a profound crisis because of the birth of the oil industry and because of the American civil war. 
Today, whaling is forbidden in most of the world, but in many countries whale hunters keep hunting these cetaceans. 

In 1946 the IWC (International Whaling Commission) was created to promote a coordinated development of the whaling industry and regulate it. At the beginning it encouraged the hunt and so, during the first 30 years of the IWC, 2 million whales were killed. In more recent times, it has started promoting the protection for the cetaceans, even though 39 member countries are still conducive to hunting. 
In 1986 came into force the ban of whaling, but since then Japan, Norway, Iceland, Russia, Korea and local whale hunters from other countries went on with their activity, killing 21.760 whales. 
In 1994, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was created. Notwithstanding this, Japan keeps killing minke whales there. 

Norway and Japan are brazenly defying world opinion by going on with the hunt and even increasing it. 
Japan is taking advantage of a loophole of the IWC, which allows the hunt in any number of specimens for the purpose of scientific research. So, Japan named its activity "scientific research". Obviously, no new knowledge has been gained. 
Blue whale and fin whale are considered "endangered species" by WWF. 

Whaling must be stopped. There is no justification for such a barbarity. 
You can help things change by spreading the word and helping the organizations that deal with the protection of these wonderful creatures, like Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, WWF and IWPO. 
Please, don't let it remain an unheeded cry. 

What do you think about it? Send me an email to thenorternlightsdiary@gmail.com. 

Bees do so much for us...let's do something for them.

Bees play a vital role in our world: they are pollinators and this means that the survival of many plant species depends on them (and, in the lower part, on bumblebees). 
In Einstein's opinion, if bees were to become extinct, man would only have four years left to live. 

Here are plant species that depend on the work of the bees: apricot tree, chestnut tree, cherry tree, almond tree, apple tree, pear tree, peach tree, plum tree, persimmon tree, kiwi tree, raspberry, cabbage, blueberry, garlic, asparagus, chard, carrot, broccoli, cucumber, melon, leek, onion, celery, pumpkin, zucchini, eggplant, pepper, radish. 

We are endangering bees by using chemicals contained in pesticides, the neonicotinoids, which kill them. Each year in the world 3.8 billion kilos of pesticides are used. 
It is imperative for us to safeguard them and to do it we have to ban neonicotinoids from agriculture. 
Please, sign the petition of Greenpeace to save the bees : http://sos-bees.org/#petition/?GPI_action. 

Help things change...BEE the solution!

One-third of the food we eat depends on bees, bumblebees and other pollinators. Today, they are in serious danger. 
Yes, as always it is our fault. The agrochemical multinationals are flowing into the system of industrial agriculture increasing amounts of chemicals which threaten bees and our safety. 

Greenpeace is at the forefront in this battle for the safeguarding of bees. 
Pollen collected by bees was tested and the result is unambiguous : over two-thirds were contaminated by pesticides (up to 17 different substances for each sample). 
Lots of flowers and plants sold in garden centers, supermarkets and DIY stores contain pestcides that are lethal for bees (also neonicotinoids, which are partially forbidden in Europe). 

We can change all this. 
The solution has a name, and it is ecological agriculture, able to produce healthy food for everyone without damaging the planet and the bees. Lots of farmers in Europe are already doing it. 

People from all around the world are organizing activities to inform and mobilize others on the importance of bees,
Join the movement by signing the petition of Greenpeace to save the bees : http://sos-bees.org/#petition/?GPI_action . 

Arctic: we are all involved.

Gazprom and Shell have recently started to drill in the Arctic waters. 

The greenhouse effect reduces more and more the ice layer. 

We're destroying the sunshade which stands right over the heads of everyone in the world. 

The "Arctic problem" concerns us all. It is about us all. 

The Arctic is an extremely fragile ecosystem which is today threatened: we have to stop its deterioration. 

It is home to beautiful animal species like the polar bear, the walrus, the Arctic fox, the seals, the whales and the narwhal. 

Polar bears are strongly affected by the ice melting: it often happens that they swim for miles and miles before they find some stable ice...and too often they die trying. 

Please, sign the petition of Greenpeace to help things change! http://www.savethearctic.org/. 

Greenpeace also launched an initiative to make our voices heard on the Arctic problem: it consists in reaching a high point (a hill, a mountain, a skyscraper, a panoramic point...it doesn't matter what, it only has to be high), taking a photo and then sending it to Greenpeace or publishing it on Facebook or other social networks with the hashtag #ontop to #savethearctic. https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1844&ea.campaign.id=30943. 

So...what are you waiting for?? Go take a photo! And send it to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com, I'll publish it on the blog. 

If you want to, send me an email with your opinions on the Arctic situation or with your suggestions for the topics of the posts. 

Alone we can't do much...but together we are strong! 

FISH AT RISK. Be part of the change.

There are some fish in such deep trouble that need special attention: Greenpeace has listed the most serious ones in a Red List. They are on this list because of several reasons: they reproduce in a way that makes the very vulnerable to overfishing and is little or no data available to show that the stocks are healthy or that they are being fished at a sustainable rate; they are often sources from overfished and depleted stocks, or are being fished at such a high rate that stocks are being depleted rapidly; the fishing methods used to catch the fish are often highly destructive to other oceans creatures and/or habitats. 

Some species which are at particular risk are the anglerfish (or monkfish or goosefish), the Patagonian toothfish (or Chilean seabass), the sharks, the skates and rays. There are lots of other species in danger and you can find them by clicking on this link http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/seafood/red-list-of-species/. 

We all can do something to help the situation change, for example by buying fish from retailers and restaurants that have made a clear public commitment to sourcing and selling better fish. 
We all can be part of the change. 

Greenpeace victories: Antarctica.

The Antarctic is the only continent which remains relatively untouched by humans. 
Certainly, today it wouldn't be like this if things had ended in a different way almost 23 years ago... 

In the 1980s the Antarctic was threatened by commercial exploitation: it seems that under rocks and ice there is oil and mineral deposits and companies wanted to start prospecting. 
In reaction to that, the MV Greenpeace in 1987 moored in the Antarctic and stayed there until 1991. They monitored pollution from near bases run by the US and New Zealand and shed light on construction work that involved dynamiting the habitats of nesting penguins. 

In the seven years of this campaign, Greenpeace has gone from being considered as an outsider to a respected player in negotiations for the future of the continent. It earned the support of global personalities such as Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, Jacques Cousteau and Ted Turner. 
International negotiations were routinely accompanied by Greenpeace demonstrations. 

So, Antarctica became a symbol for international cooperation and for the responsible treatment of the planet, underlining an old Greenpeace belief: nothing is impossible. 

More than honey.

"More than honey" is a Swiss documentary film which talks about honeybees in California, Switzerland, China and Australia. 
I watched it last week and it was vey instructive: it opened my mind on a world that I didn't know so well and I strongly recommend you to watch it. 
It shows how important the bees are for the survival of a lot of plant species and also of the mankind. 
In the documentary different points of view are shown, from the traditional beekeeper living in the mountains to the American entrepreneur whose bees mean profit to him. 
Today, the bees are disappearing because of some pesticides used in agriculture which contain substances that kill the them. 
The activity carried out by the bees is of fundamental importance and we can't let them go extinct. If you want to do something to help them, sign the petition of Greenpeace that you can find by clicking on this link http://sos-bees.org/#petition/?GPI_action . 

"If bees were to disappear from the globe, mankind would only have four years left to live"
Albert Einstein 

Just crew! Rainbow Warrior III.

As you can see in my post of the 26th of June, the last weekend took place in Genova an open boat on the Rainbow Warrior III, the flagship of Greenpeace. 
I went there as a volunteer and I worked both Saturday and Sunday all day long. It was very tiring but also an incredible experience! 

The volunteers took the lots of people who came for a guided tour around the ship; they showed them the helideck, the conference room, the dashboard, the wooden statue of a dolphin called Dave on the bow, the bell and talked them about the story of the ship and about Greenpeace campaigns.
The visitors also had the unique chance to know the crew of the ship and its captain, Joel Steward. 
The crew is composed of people coming from differents parts of the world: there are Spanish, Panamanians, Finnish, Dutch, Italians, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Ukrainians, Russians and others. 

The ship is now navigating towards Palermo, where it's being docked the next weekend. This tour takes place in locations endangered by the extraction of fossil fuels to raise awareness among the population of those zones and to make their voices heard by the people who could change the situation. 
Please, help Greenpeace Italy by signing the petition against the use of fossil fuels! You can find it by clicking on this link http://www.greenpeace.org/italy/non-fossilizziamoci/. 

(This is me during the open boat)

Here are some successes obtained by Greenpeace during its 43 years of life: 

- the restoration of Antarctica to the status of best wild continent after an eight-years campaign which consumed half of Greenpeace funds

- the establishment of a whales sanctuary in the Southern Pacific Ocean, protecting the great whales from commercial interests

- the interruption of seal pups killing for commercial gain

- having persuaded the European Community to reduce pollution in the North Sea

- having campaigned to ban the use of CFCs, which destroyed the ozone and having obtained an agreement to remove them from Europe. 

RAINBOW WARRIOR III, Italian Tour.

This post is written both in English and in Italian to well promote the Italian Tour of the Rainbow Warrior III. 

In occasione della campagna "Non è un Paese per fossili" l'ammiraglia di Greenpeace, la Rainbow Warrior III, farà un tour attraccando in diversi porti italiani. In particolare, il 28 e 29 giugno sarà ormeggiata al Molo vecchio crociere di Genova. La nave sarà aperta ai visitatori sabato dalle 11 alle 20 e domenica dalle 10 alle 18. 

Avrete la fantastica possibilità di conoscere l'equipaggio e i volontari, che vi faranno fare un giro della nave, raccontandovi la sua storia e parlandovi delle campagne di Greenpeace, in particolare la campagna "Non fossilizziamoci". 

Eccovi dei brevi cenni sulla storia della nave dei Guerrieri dell'Arcobaleno. 

La prima Rainbow fu varata nel 1977 (acquistata da Greenpeace con l'aiuto del WWF), ma il 10 luglio 1985 questa venne affondata dai servizi segreti francesi in Nuova Zelanda. Il fotografo Fernando Pereira vi rimase ucciso e ciò provocò una grande indignazione in tutto il mondo. 

Il 10 luglio 1989, ad Amburgo, venne varata la seconda Rainbow. Nel corso degli anni ha ospitato numerosi personaggi di spicco (tra i quali il Dalai Lama). Essa ha aiutato le popolazioni colpite dallo tsunami del 2004, oltre ad aver combattuto contro numerosi crimini ambientali in svariate parti del globo. Dopo 22 anni la nave è stata donata a una ONG del Bangladesh, Friendship, la quale la utilizza come come nave ospedale. 

Per quanto riguarda la terza Rainbow, è stata varata il 14 ottobre 2011 ed è la prima nave costruita appositamente da Greenpeace per portare avanti le sue campagne. La nave è dotata di un sistema di alberatura che sorregge 1260 mq di vele, tutto ciò per ridurre al minimo i consumi di carburante e farne un mezzo di trasporto verde e sostenibile. 

Per saperne di più...venite numerosi sabato 28 e domenica 29 giugno a Genova!!!! 

On the occasion of Greenpeace campaign  "Non è un paese per fossili" ("This is not a country for fossils"), the flagship Rainbow Warrior III is taking a tour in some Italian ports. In particular, on June 28 and 29 the ship is being moored at the old pier cruises in Genova. The ship is being open to visitors on Saturday from 11 to 20 and on Sunday from 10 to 18. 

You'll have the wonderful possibility to know the crew and the volunteers, who are making you take a tour on the ship and are talking you about its story and about Greenpeace campaigns, especially "Non fossilizziamoci" ("Let's not get fossilized"). 

Here are some brief notes on the story of the Rainbow Warrior. 

The first Rainbow was launched in 1977 (bought by Greenpeace with the help of WWF), but on July 10, 1985 it was sunk by French intelligence in New Zealand. The photographer Fernando Pereira was killed during the attack and this provoked a great outrage all over the world. 

On July 10, 1989, in Hamburg the second Rainbow was launched. During the years it hosted lots of prominent personalities (also the Dalai Lama). It helped the populations who had been affected by the tsunami in 2004, as well as having fought against several environmental crimes in various parts of the globe. After 22 years the ship was donated to a Bangladeshi NGO, Friendship, which uses it as a hospital ship. 

With regard to the third Rainbow, it was launched on October 14, 2011 and it is the first ship built by Greenpeace specifically to carry out its campaigns. The ship is equipped with a system of masting which supports 1260 square meters of sails, everything to minimize fuel consumption and make it a green and sustainable mean of transport. 

To find out more about it...come numerous to Genova on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 of June! 

17th ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL - CINEMAMBIENTE

From the 31st of May to today, the 5th of June takes place, in Turin, the 17th Environmental Film Festival. 
Its aim is to show the best international environmental films and contribute with other activities throughout the year to promote the environmental cinema and culture. 
It is the first festival "zero emission": CO2 emissions produced during the Festival are offset and its products are made with recycled and Ecolabel and FSC certified materials. 

Yesterday, the 4th of June in the evening I went to the Festival with other Greenpeace volunteers from the Turin local group (yes, now I am a volunteer!). We set up a banquet to promote Greenpeace campaigns, so we explained people who stopped there why the bees are in serious danger, why oil drilling in the Arctic must be stopped and so on. 

We were also invited to watch the Italian documentary film "Green Generation" by its director, Sergio Malatesta. It was very interesting and impressive from certain points of view. 
Here you can find the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGWh9u6tXVI .

To keep faith with my passion for bags and clothes, I bought the Festival eco-friendly bag! I find it very nice and practical to use. 

Greenpeace: let's Detox!

In 2011 Greenpeace launched a campaign called "Detox" whose aim was exposing the direct links between global clothing brands, their suppliers and toxic water pollution around the world. 
Since July 2011, this campaign has mobilised hundreds of thousands people to challenge major clothing brands to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals from their supply chains and products. 

19 international fashion companies have been involved: Nike, Adidas, Puma, H&M, M&S, C&A, Li-Ning, Zara, Mango, Esprit, Levi's, Uniqlo, Benetton, Victoria's Secret, G-Star Raw, Valentino, Coop, Canepa, Burberry and Primark. They have been asked to create concrete elimination plans for the most hazardous substances and to provide greater transparency around the chemicals that their suppliers currently release into our shared waterways. 

In October 2013 the Detox Catwalk, organized by Greenpeace, took place. It revealed that while leading names such as H&M, Mango and Uniqlo were matching their words with concrete actions, Nike, Adidas and Li-Ning had failed to walk the talk and follow through on their promises. 
Interational brands can eliminate the negative environmental impacts on their production by the choice of the suppliers to collaborate with, the design of their products and the control they can exert over the chemicals used throughout the production processes. 

What Greenpeace asks of clothing companies is: 
- Zero discharge of all hazardous chemicals 
- Prevention and Precaution 
- Transparency 
- Adopt clear and ambitious deadlines 
- Require their suppliers to disclose the quantities of hazardous chemicals released 
- Publicly demonstrate to others how they are making the transition to non-hazardous chemical use 

What Greenpeace asks of governments: 
Adopt a political commitment to zero discharge of all hazardous chemicals within one generation by...
- Intermidiating short term targets to ban the production and use of well-known hazardous chemicals 
- A dynamic list of priority hazardous substances requiring immediate action 
- A publicly available register of data on discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous substances

What WE can do (#PeoplePower): 
- Choose to buy more second-hand clothes, where possible
- Influence brands to act responsibly on behalf of the planet and its people
- Demand that governments act to restrict the sales and import of products containing hazardous chemicals 
- Click on this link to discover more about the help you can give http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/water/what-you-can-do/

Greenpeace: greener electronics.

Each year hundreds of thousands of old computers and mobile phones are dumped in landfills or incinerators. Thousands of electronic waste produced in the Europe, US, Japan and other industrialised countries are also exported, often illegally, to Asia and Africa, where (even very young) workers touch with bare hands waste, exposing themselves to a cocktail of toxic compounds and poisons. 

If the producers don't engage in an appropriate manner, the current rate of growth of technological waste will create a crisis of major proportions. It is possible to make products which are durable, which can be improved, free from dangerous substances and that can be recycled or dumped in fairness, so as to grant a life-ending to the products without endangering anyone, even the poorest people. 

From years, Greenpeace has been pressing hi-tech companies to make their production more sustainable thanks to a periodic publication of the Eco-guide to the "green" electronic products. 
In 2009, Greenpeace launched a new campaign to force hi-tech companies to look for technological solutions to fight against climate changes. They have been asked to reduce their ecological footprint and to politically commit to climate action. 
Greenpeace asks them to develop a business model which helps the world to get to real emissions reduction. A victory for this sector, which will become the pioneer of a global changing towards a clean energy economy. 

On November 2012, the guide to Greener Electronics is headed by Wipro, an Indian electronics company (7,1/10), followed by HP (5,7/10), Nokia (5,4/10), Acer (5,1/10), Dell (4,6/10), Apple (4,5/10), Samsung (4,2/10), Sony (4,1/10), Lenovo (3,9/10), Philips (3,8/10) and Panasonic (3,6/10). The absolutely worst ones are LGE (3,5/10), HCL Infosystems (3,1/10), Sharp (3,1/10), Toshiba (2,3/10) and RIM (2,0/10). 

This is Greenpeace.

Yesterday night I went to a meeting with some Greenpeace volunteers from Turin. I'm not a volunteer yet, but I would like to, even though in this period I don't have plenty of time because of the exams. 
Anyway, it was interesting: the volunteers explained us how Greenpeace works, their methods, their campaigns, their core values. 
As I said in a previous post, I am an environmentalist, so I'm going to write more than one post on evnvironmental matters. 
Today, I'm going to tell you about Greenpeace in general (oh, I forgot to say that, even if I'm not a volunteer yet, I am a supporter of Greenpeace, which means that each month I donate a sum of money for their causes). 
Greenpeace was born in 1971 in the USA and its first aim was to stop nuclear experiments in an island that, today, is a protect area.
Since that year, Greenpeace has been fighting against the indiscriminate exploitation of our planet with a lot of different campaigns, that I'm going to talk about in the next posts.
I absolutely suggest you to watch the videos that you can find by clicking on these links: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVu9eawb1QY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RhRIeJVw0
They summarize very well all the things that Greenpeace does to safeguard as much as possible the health of our planet. 

Direct and non-violent action, scientificity and independence. These are the core values of Greenpeace.