Network October 2009

NETWORK October/November 2009

© Greenpeace / Kristian Buus

Newsletter for Greenpeace activists

www.greenpeace.org.uk/active

All Brazilian states should follow the lead of Mato Grosso by identifying ranches that destroy forests.

Deforestation in the Amazon Sarah Shoraka, forests campaign

© Christian Aid

© Ricardo Funari / Lineair

INTERNATIONAL

Front cover and above: Active supporters across the country are testing Ed’s commitments to tackling climate change, and encouraging more people to promise to take action if he consents new dirty coal in the UK.

Big IF pledgees confront Miliband Leila Deen, climate campaign

JBS, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of processed beef, has agreed to not buy from cattle ranches that destroy the rainforest. JBS joins the two other giant companies – Marfrig and Bertin – that dominate the Brazilian beef and leather export market, in calling for an end to the destruction.

Ed Miliband was confronted with his responsibilities twice in as many days in September when activists handed him Big IF pledges to take nonviolent direct action to stop a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth. Thousands of activists have pledged to take action if new coal is given the go-ahead in the UK. The consultation period on new coal closed on 9 September, and we are now waiting for the government’s decision.

Forests and their peatlands are critical carbon stores, and their destruction accounts for nearly 20% of global CO2 emissions, so forest protection is essential to tackling climate change. Cattle ranching in the Amazon is the single largest cause of deforestation worldwide. 80% of the deforested land in the Amazon is now occupied by cattle. The destruction of the Amazon is largely responsible for making Brazil the fourth largest climate change polluter globally.

In Doncaster, activists from our Yorkshire networks showed up to Ed Miliband’s constituency surgery in Bentley. They built a giant IF out of cardboard boxes right outside the door, and told Ed that this sort of action was a sign of things to come. They handed the minister some of Greenpeace’s 6,000 pledges. Over 1,000 people are promising to take nonviolent direct action to stop Kingsnorth going ahead.

The move by JBS is significant, as before the announcement the company was expanding into the Amazon, buying up slaughterhouses at the frontiers of the forest in areas with very high rates of deforestation. In only three months we have shifted all the big export and processing companies, bringing us much closer to our goal of achieving a moratorium on new deforestation for cattle, as we did for soya in 2006. The next challenge for us is to get political support for a moratorium to speed up the process of registering and mapping ranches. The Governor of the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso, Blairo Maggi, has already agreed to make high resolution satellite data of the forest cover available so that companies can identify ranches engaged in ongoing deforestation and not source cattle from them. We need to make sure that this happens in other Amazon states too.

Then, just two days later more Big IF supporters including Greenpeace met Ed outside his Department of Energy and Climate Change in London. The RSPB, Oxfam, Christian Aid, WWF and the World Development Movement joined in the anti-coal vigil. The ‘Disciples for Justice’ choir from Christian Aid kept the crowd singing in harmony to encourage Miliband to come and talk to them. Ed still thinks we need new coal power in the UK in order to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) for the sake of the wider world. Several activists explained these tests could be done on existing coal plants, should be tested in the countries that will need CCS, and that there was no need to build new power stations in the UK. Whilst he respectfully resisted our points, it was clear that the ongoing pressure we have placed on Ed is having an effect. With the climate change summit happening in Copenhagen in December, we have to ensure that the UK government cannot avoid links between domestic policy and global policy, and proves to the world its commitment to stopping climate change by making a strong decision against building new coal in the UK. To that end, we have to keep the pressure up on Miliband until he goes to Copenhagen.

GET ACTIVE! Make your Big IF pledge – say no to new dirty coal Ask your friends to join over 6,000 others and tell Ed what you’ll do if he says yes to new dirty coal www.greenpeace.org.uk/bigif For inspiration watch www.greenpeace.org.uk/saying-no-dirty-coal

© Andy Bodycombe / Greenpeace / and below

© D8 / Greenpeace

SPOTLIGHT

The costs of the F35b combat aircraft have risen $50m per aircraft since 2001. Despite these price hikes, the UK is still blindly quoting 2002 estimates, and has not revised running costs either.

Waveney Greenpeace also organise an annual winter fair and this summer took a phenomenal tea tent fundraising operation to Latitude festival.

In the firing line: military spending

Waveney Greenpeace’s 20th summer fair

Louise Edge, peace campaign

The government is facing a massive national debt and a £35bn hole in the MOD’s defence equipment budget, yet plans to build Britain’s largest ever aircraft supercarriers and replace the Trident nuclear weapons system are still happening. In September, amid heated governmental cost-cutting debates, Greenpeace published In the Firing Line, an investigative report detailing the spiraling costs of the two biggest military equipment spends on the horizon. Crunching the figures and examining new information revealed that the real cost of building and operating a replacement for Trident would be close to £100bn – over £17bn more than the government’s figures. Investigating the supercarriers revealed that not only have they already gone £2bn over their £31bn lifetime budget because of rising construction costs, but a 70% increase in the costs of the US-built F35b planes that they are supposed to carry will put them even further into the red. The report lands as a growing number of ex-military and ex-foreign and defence ministers are advocating that these Cold War weapons should be abandoned, on strategic and cost grounds. And with Obama leading the charge for a world free of nuclear weapons on the international stage, the opportunities for real action on disarmament are looking brighter than they have since the end of the Cold War. Greenpeace is calling on the government to seize this opportunity and agree to: • Suspend any further funding of the Trident replacement and aircraft supercarrier programmes. • Conduct a full foreign policy and strategic defence review that re-examines the rationale for both the supercarrier project and Trident replacement and thoroughly examines the implications of climate change for global security issues.

GET ACTIVE! Promote peace and stop the MOD’s spending splurge Tell your MP you oppose £billions being wasted on Cold War weapons www.greenpeace.org.uk/say-no-to-trident Read: www.greenpeace.org.uk/itfl Watch: www.greenpeace.org.uk/itfl-video

Richard Martin, active supporters unit In Suffolk, Waveney Greenpeace’s fair was free for thousands this year as the 20th anniversary marked a shift towards even more sustainability. Organisers charged cars an entry fee, but not people. A specially registered bus service was quickly augmented with an extra bus to meet the heavy demands of the GP1 bus route to the fair. Car sharing was promoted for those who could not arrive any other way. But mostly, cycling was ‘It was a as a beautiful sight encouraged sustainable transport to see more vision for the future of bikes than cars the fair and the planet. This year’s fair focused on the roads on Airplot and stopping around the Fair.’ aviation expansion. A team of 15 volunteers from London supported the Waveney Greenpeace network and together signed over 500 new beneficial owners to Airplot, enlisted a substantial amount of new financial supporters and engaged countless people in conversation about Greenpeace’s work. Meanwhile, under the glorious early September weather, the tea tent did a roaring trade, the main marquee showcased local bands and the beer tent did both, featuring a wide range of local beers and musical acts. The 40+ traders at the fair had a great day too, selling everything from candles to cakes. A huge thank you to everyone involved. Waveney Greenpeace has become an institution both locally, following in the footsteps of the Albion fairs, but also nationally as part of the Greenpeace calendar. Here’s to the next 20 years!

© Vicki Couchman

© Greenpeace / Paul Hlton

TALK TALK

Activists dig in a sapling at the Airplot – Richard Cox created the Cox dessert apple around 1825 while cross-pollinating trees in his garden just a mile away from Heathrow airport.

Crew from Greenpeace ship Esperanza take action in the Pacific – home to vulnerable tuna stocks.

Bumper harvest for Airplot support

SCOTTISH SKILLSHARE Open to all – contact Jo 7 November, Subud Centre, Perth

Activities since Spring have been geared towards leaving all parties in no doubt as to the extent of opposition to a third runway at Heathrow– both from voters and politicians.

STREET CAMPAIGNING TRAINING If you’re new to local activism and want to campaign effectively on the streets these workshops are just for you 10 October, Nottingham – contact Jo 18 October, London – contact Richard

Vicky Wyatt, transport campaign

Spring: Last April, local councils, residents, Greenpeace and other green groups lodged papers in the High Court arguing that the government’s decision to expand Heathrow is inconsistent with its commitment to tackling climate change. Last month, the High Court announced that a judge would hear the case in more detail in the coming months. Ultimately, it could lead to the government withdrawing support for the third runway. Summer: The Greenpeace field at Glastonbury festival was given over to demonstrating the impacts of climate chance and airport expansion. Sipson, the village that would be destroyed if the third runway at Heathrow goes ahead, was replicated in real life scale and hundreds of festival-goers signed up to become beneficial owners of the Airplot. This, and the stalwart efforts of active supporters nationwide has brought the total number of beneficial owners to over 55,000. Autumn: The birthplace of the Cox apple is next door to the Airplot and Sipson, so on 21 November we are planting an orchard on the Airplot. Each tree will be adopted by part of the diverse coalition against the third runway – politicians, businesses, scientists and residents. Local networks will be inviting their MP to plant an apple tree in their town. Each tree will be twinned with a sapling in Sipson – a symbol of growing resistance. By putting down roots we are showing BAA and the government that the massive opposition against Heathrow expansion is here to stay. Winter: You have been meeting MPs and parliamentary candidates to ask them to become beneficial owners of Airplot. So far over 70 MPs and candidates have signed up, but with the general election looming in 2010, we need to keep up the same

SCREENING: A TIME COMES Nick Broomfield’s film about the Kingsnorth Six, with talks from activists – contact Jo 6 October, Duke’s Theatre, Lancaster 15 October, Carriageworks, Leeds

We are reviewing Network as a publication, so please email your views to [email protected] ACTIVE SUPPORTER NETWORK OVERVIEW Greenpeace’s active supporter network is made up of network coordinators, local networks and individual active supporters. Today we have 96 network coordinators, 86 networks and 23,374 active supporters.

CONTACT DETAILS [email protected] Rachael King 020 7865 8174 [email protected] Jo Melzack (Scotland, North England & Northern Ireland) 0161 448 1929 [email protected]

GET ACTIVE! Ask your MP to become a beneficial owner of Airplot Visit www.greenpeace.org.uk/airplotmp then tell your local network coordinator when you get a response.

Organise a tree planting event and invite your local MP Ask your local paper to cover the tree planting and opposition to the third runway.

Malcolm Carroll (West) 020 7865 8172 [email protected] Richard Martin (South England) 020 7865 8178 [email protected]

Canonbury Villas London N1 2PN t 020 7865 8100 f 020 7865 8200 www.greenpeace.org.uk