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 . 

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: 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.