Grim Planet

Australia, Japan and the real arguments behind whaling

// December 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Animals, Environment, Food, Politics

With the Tokyo Two trial being at its core about ending whaling, and the Japanese fleet definatly hunting in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary yet again, I’ve been working on whaling issues a lot over the last year.

While there is some hope that 2010 could be the fleet’s last voyage, the Japanese government has recently re-affirmed its commitment to the farcical “research” whaling programme, and the same old tired arguments are being dragged out by pro-whaling people and by those who simply have no understanding of the issues behind the headlines.

I experienced this directly back in August when I participated in Beat Takashi’s “World Summit”, a Japanese TV programme that asked the question “Why do Australian people go against whaling so much?”

Whaling discussions, particularly in Japan, seems to always deteriorate into statements that anti-whaling organisations such as Greenpeace and countries like Australia are racist hypocrites who do not understand Japanese culture and want to dictate morality.

Asinine and often ill-advised argument points put forward by both sides of the debate, and Takashi’s programme was no exception in this regard. Continue Reading

Release the red carpet four

// December 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, Politics

Christmas has come and the fiasco that was Brokenhagen has gone, but as our leaders utter conempt for the global enviroment and their inability to proactively work for a reasonable future for for our children lingers, four of my colleagues are currently stuck in a Danish prison for encouraging those same leaders to do the right thing.

As Kumi Naidoo, the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International wrote in the Huffington Post today, Juan Lopez de Uralde, Nora Christiansen, Christian Schmutz and Joris Theijssen are currently in jail in Denmark, sitting in isolation without trial over Christmas and New Year, all because they sent, as Kumi writes, “a friendly reminder to Heads of State that there was precious little time left to secure a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal for the climate.”

After slipping past security in much the same fashion as the Chaser guys famously did during the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia in 2007;

Juan, dressed in a tuxedo, and Nora, decked out in a red silk floor-length gown, walked up the red carpet as “Head of State of the Natural Kingdom, and his wife”. Christian entered behind them playing their official help. The trio was followed by Hillary Clinton. Once inside the great hall they unfurled two yellow banners reading “Politicians Talk, Leaders Act”. Guards were so taken aback that it took them a few seconds to gather their wits and arrest my Greenpeace colleagues. Police later arrested Joris Thijssen, a Greenpeace climate campaigner, while he was eating in a restaurant the following day for alleged involvement in the activity.

If the leaders that have consistently failed and ignored their duty of care to the world were subject to the same treatment those that remind them of this duty, Copenhagen would have been a turning point towards a much different future than the one we are now facing.

It’s up to all of us to fight for the future we want.

End of the road for Japan’s whaling in sight

// December 25th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Animals, Environment, Politics

Japan’s “scientific” whaling fleet is in the Southern Ocean again, and as it ramps up its hunt in the icy waters of the international whale sanctuary the whaling debate is again heating up.

This year though, things are a little different.

Sure there confrontations with activists are intensifying, but the situation in Japan itself is also becoming more intense. For starters, a new, more progressive Japanese government has just been elected in a major landslide. This is the first time in over 50 years that there has been a real power shift, and as usual many promises have been made. The thing is, the new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has been elected not because the people are enamoured with it, but rather because they were so fed up with the old, corrupt government. This means that the DPJ will have to work hard to hold on to public support, and live up to the promises it made. Continue Reading

Swine Flu

// August 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Humour, News, Politics

While there has been paranoia leading to increased face mask usage and airport heat scanners for months now, as of Friday August 21 Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases has labelled H1N1 or “swine” flu an epidemic with 110,000 domestic infections.

Not to be blasé, but relative to other flu deaths H1N1 is still a lightweight – albeit one that has the potential to be more serious.

This hasn’t stopped the doom from flying, so I thought I would share a bit of strange text I ran into recently.
Continue Reading

Moving house…

// June 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I’m switching hosts and domains, so excuse a bit of erratic blog behaviour…

Threads of Change – A Greenpeace T-shirt Exhibition

// June 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment

Coming Soon: GM Rice

// May 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, Food

An important Public Service Announcement from your Government and The Biotech Industry (represented here by chemical giant Bayer) pronouncing the benefits of genetically modified rice strain -- LL62. Barely tried and tested this GM Rice is coming to your dinner plate nevertheless.

http://www.greenpeace.org/rice

Tokyo Two trial strengthens, not weakens, whales campaign

// May 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, News

The Sydney Morning Herald is running a piece on the trial of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, two Greenpeace activists who are currently on trial for exposing an embezzlement ring within the Japanese Government sponsored whaling programme.

Last year the two were arrested and Greenpeace Japan’s offices raided by upwards of 70 police officers and done so under the intense glare of a frenzied domestic media who had been tipped off well in advance (the two saw reports of their impending arrest on television the night before). This had the intention of tarring and feathering Junichi, Toru, and Greenpeace in a very public way while ensuring that social judgments about guilt were made long before any trial.
Continue Reading

Make Your Own PSP Wallpapers

// May 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Gaming, Technology

While I don’t really play games all that much these days, I do tend to whip out the PSP when I’m sitting on a plane or laying awake in a train sleeper cabin.

I also like to switch the background image every now and then, but I really couldn’t be bothered sifting through hoards of shoddy designs, or mountains of performance car shots to get the occasional bit of jewelled eye candy typical PSP wallpaper sites offer.

Usually I prefer using my own photos or something interesting i’ve saved from random surfing, and I reckon there are plenty of you that would rather use your Flickr images, or some titillating ex-girlfriend snaps currently squirreled away on a storage drive.

Sure it’s easy enough to Photoshop something up (probably a preferable course for that last example before), however, if you like using transparent underlays for the PSP’s icons then this can be fiddley.

So, with this and the popularity of my last few PSP wallpaper posts in mind, I convinced my brother to code up a wallpaper-creation tool that enables one to create snappy backgrounds in a few clicks.

Sure, there’s a million and one PSP wallpaper sites out there, but all their content is created by a small number of users. With PSP Wallpaperer, anyone can upload or grab an image off the web, crop it, add underlay bars for the icons (or don’t if you like clean images) and save it for posterity.

It takes like, 60 seconds. Seriously. Click here to give it a try. Just bear in mind that only JPGs are supported at the point.

UPDATE – October 21 2008: So there’s been a few changes here and there now. The overlays and design have now been updated a bit, and everything seems to be running well.

UPDATE – May 19, 2009: We’ve relaunched the site, added a bunch of new features and moved it to its own domain, check it out and let us know what you think.

If you run into any errors or quirks, let us know by posting here.

France’s Nuclear Success

// April 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, Humour

This just in. Encouraging, considering France is the poster child for nucelar energy.

At least, encouraging for renewables.

In other news, France has been caught out spying on Greenpeace again. Do people never learn?

Greenpeace Reaction: EDF spies on Greenpeace: nuclear energy prompts
espionage

Paris, 31 March 2008 — Today, the French media revealed that the largely state owned French electricity company EDF has been spying on Greenpeace France. Two senior EDF officials have been indicted in French court. Greenpeace France is disgusted by the revelation and is seeking legal advice to further challenge EDF’s underhand tactics.

This is yet another example of nuclear industry’s inability to participate in an open democratic debate. Instead it applies cold war tactics against Greenpeace, an environmental organisation.

Greenpeace strongly condemns as scandalous EDF’s espionage and invasion of privacy. “EDF’s spying practices are a symptom of the secrecy inherent to nuclear energy. As has been demonstrated over and over again, democracy and the nuclear industry do not mix” says Dr. Rianne Teule, Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner.

With the support of President Sarkozy, EDF, the company that operates all nuclear reactors in France, is aggressively marketing nuclear technology worldwide. However, a spread in nuclear power means decreasing transparency in the energy debate.

“Greenpeace is a non-violent environmental organization,” said Pascal Husting, director of Greenpeace France. “The fact that we are being treated like terrorists because we dare to question nuclear energy shows just how frightened the nuclear industry is of transparency and a democratic debate.”

“Forged in the furnace of the cold war, nuclear power is inextricably part of the military nuclear industry, the two are inseparable. Governments and electricity companies around the world should reject EDF and Sarkozy’s pro-nuclear overtures and offers of this dangerous and anti-democratic technology. Instead, they should embrace an energy revolution based on renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Technologies that will genuinely enhance our energy security and help to avert catastrophic climate change,” concluded Husting.