People power beat Big Oil again this week when Shell announced that it was cancelling its Carmon Creek tar sands project. Shell said the decision to cancel the project (and thus take a US$2 billion hit to its bottom line) “reflects current uncertainties, including the lack of infrastructure to move Canadian crude oil to global commodity markets.”

In other words: the massive public opposition to tar sands pipelines means Shell doesn’t think it would be able to get the oil to market.

Canadians have grown accustomed to seeing pipeline protests on the evening news, but a new report from Oil Change International takes a data-driven approach to show how people power is successfully stepping in where governments are falling short.

In the case of the Alberta tar sands, people power has created circumstances where no new growth will be profitable in the sector—unless oil companies can overcome a growing movement that starts on the front lines with First Nations and impacted communities, and extends across the country, the continent and the world. 

Faced with low oil prices and limited pipeline space due to public opposition, the oil industry has cut its growth forecast for the tar sands in half.

Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

But even that lower growth projection will require new pipelines to get more oil out of the western sedimentary basin, which is home to the tar sands and the Bakken oil fields. That won’t be easy. The Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines are politically dead, and the Transmountain (Kinder Morgan) and Energy East pipelines are facing massive opposition.

Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The yellow and orange bands are pipelines that don’t yet exist.

In Canada, the new Liberal government has committed to strengthening the pipeline review process, including the introduction of a climate test that will account for upstream greenhouse gas emissions. This is good news because building new pipelines would enable a massive expansion of tar sands production that is incompatible with a safe global climate.

Any government serious about climate change must confront the scientific reality that there is no room for major new fossil fuel infrastructure that locks in high levels of carbon pollution for decades to come.

Stephen Harper was an unabashed bully on behalf of the oil companies, but now that we have a new government we have an opportunity to turn this around. The oil industry is, however, still very powerful and no matter how well-meaning the new Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is, oil companies won’t seize the opportunity to turn away from an oil-driven economy and embrace a renewable energy future without relentless pressure from below.

So let’s get back to work.

Keith Stewart is the head of the Greenpeace Canada energy campaign.

This blog was originally posted by Greenpeace Canada.

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Current work being done on the arena includes installation of rebar for elevated concrete deck pours at Main Entrance. Installation of raker beams in the lower bowl to support lower bowl concrete stadia. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection rough-in. Installation of the upper bowl HVAC ductwork. Interior metal stud wall framing. Interior drywall installation at mechanical and
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The home of the last few Japanese dugongs is about to be landfilled to make way for two airstrips - part of the expansion of a US military base on the island of Okinawa. But a movement nearly 18 years old is standing up to say NO. That’s why our ship the Rainbow Warrior is en route to join them...

The first thing that drew me to Greenpeace as a young New Zealander was actually the “peace” side of things. Nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific had drawn strong opposition from local people and from Greenpeace. Ultimately, that opposition cost Greenpeace its ship, the Rainbow Warrior – bombed and sunk by the French government in an act of state sponsored terrorism – and the life of photographer Fernando Pereira. But it also helped win a nuclear free New Zealand.

I was at school, and we were studying the horrors of nuclear war, something that felt like a very real threat at the time. The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior made the issue a whole lot more real.

Many years later, after environmental studies and the start of a career in marine conservation, I found myself in 2005 setting sail with the second Rainbow Warrior to help protect Okinawa’s small population of dugongs, which were under threat from plans to construct a US military airstrip right across a coral reef.

It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful sea creature than the dugong, a hefty vegetarian sea animal that grazes on sea grasses, meanders around coastal waters and was allegedly the basis of mermaid folklore.

The campaign brought together everything that had drawn me to Greenpeace. Protecting endangered ocean creatures – not just dugongs, but the myriad of other coral reef creatures of Henoko Bay, including a huge diversity of clown fish (Nemo, and his various  colourful cousins) and other inhabitants of coral reef and seagrass ecosystems.

The struggle to protect Okinawa’s dugongs is a struggle for existence itself.

There are extremely few dugongs left, and Japan risks losing its only population. It’s also a struggle for peace for the people of Okinawa. For many decades, military bases have dominated the island, and have raised many concerns from local communities. Building a new military airstrip – on the habitat of the last few dugongs – is symbolic of military power bulldozing over local and natural values. Local values that include both “green” – protecting native wildlife and the surrounding oceans - and “peace”, building a society where non-violence finally prevails over warfare and conflict. 

For me, it's both happy and sad to return to Okinawa ten years later. It’s sad because in a decade those voices, despite their strength and defiance, have not been listened to. The plans to drill coral, pave over reefs with concrete and construct a monstrosity from which to launch military aircraft have not been abandoned, as they should have been in 2005.

But it also makes me happy. Happy to see local leaders standing up for peace and for the environment. Happy to arrive on board the new Rainbow Warrior – the third Greenpeace ship bearing this name – to Okinawa.

Once again, we have sailed here in support of the local people that want to save the dugongs, protect the ocean and spread peace.

Take action to save the dugong and Henoko Bay.

Karli Thomas is an Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace New Zealand

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A brief spell of rainfall in Indonesia has minimised the number of fire hotspots that have been broadcasting toxic smoke across the country...for now. Here are four ways to solve the #StoptheHaze…once and for all.

13-yr old sister holds her 7-mth old brother who is suffering a respiratory tract infection

It’s been labelled a “crime against humanity”. The “biggest environmental crime of the 21st century”, and most certainly the “worst climate crisis in the world right now.”

Since August, forests have been set alight to make way for plantations – a practice that has been happening for decades. But this year’s El Nino means that conditions are extra dry, leaving toxic smoke to lay and linger. To make matters worse, about half of these fires are taking place on peatlands, which are a major global carbon storehouse. In recent days, the rate of carbon emissions from Indonesia’s fires has outstripped the entire US economy.

Brief rainfall this week in Sumatra and Kalimantan has provided modest relief, but the crisis is far from over. The fires and smoke will return so long as companies are destroying forests and draining peatlands and the government is lax on enforcing its policies. Here’s how we can stop this devastating disaster…once and for all.

Military help extinguish the fire of burning peatland

1. Stop forest clearance…NOW!

FACT: stopping forest destruction is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to prevent catastrophic climate change. It’s estimated that this year’s haze will cost Indonesia’s economy US $14 billion.

By enforcing all agricultural commodity suppliers to immediately stop forest clearance and any further development on peatland, as well as actively monitoring them means holding them accountable to any potential dangerous and illegal activities.

A couple guard their rubber tree plantation to make sure it doesn’t catch fire

2. Re-flood, repair, regenerate

Last year, President Jokowi vowed to protect peatlands and showed his solidarity by damming a canal to stop the drainage of a peat forest in Sumatra. Since then, the area has hardly been affected by this season’s fires.

Last week he repeated the same vow, calling for a moratorium on licensing for peatland concessions after at least 10 people died due to respiratory illnesses caused by the smoke. It’s time for President Jokowi to stick to his promise.

Re-flooding and implementing other water management measures in critical peatland areas can sharply reduce fire risks - a solution Greenpeace has proposed for years.

Firefighters extinguishes the fire of burning peatland 

3. We know what you did last summer…and we have the maps to prove it

Greenpeace researchers looked at 112,000 fire hotspots recorded from August 1 to October 26, 2015, which showed nearly 40 percent of fires had occurred inside mapped concessions: land granted by the Indonesian government to companies for logging or plantation development.

There are many, many concession where fire hotspots are indicated in mapping analysis, but our research also indicates that the company associated with the most is Asia Pulp & Paper.

This is not surprising. Firstly, they are the largest concession holder in Indonesia and have a legacy of deforestation. Secondly, they are the only company that has released accurate maps showing where their own, as well as their suppliers concessions are.

However, the government has recently refused Greenpeace’s request to make public the latest concession maps for analysis. Other companies have released very little information about their land holdings and the concessions that supply them, which makes you wonder – what do they have to hide?

A hornbill is seen from a tree where the air is engulfed with thick haze

4. Fight fire…by working together

Creating an industry-wide ban on forest clearance and peatland development in Indonesia means coming up with realistic solutions and ways to move forward. If corporations have the ability to destroy the world's forests, they also have the power to help save them.

Bustar Maitar is Head of the Indonesia Forest Campaign at Greenpeace Southeast Asia

Want to help #StoptheHaze once and for all? Take action and sign up here

 

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This year's El Niño can already lay claim to spawning Mexico's record-breaking Hurricane Patricia or contributing to one of the worst ever outbreaks of peatland and forest fires in Indonesia, but it might only be just getting started.

Hurricane Patricia Bears Down on Mexico's Pacific Coast [October 2015]

After playing hide and seek with climate scientists for a year, the current El Niño is shaping up as the strongest since 1998 – when millions of people suffered hunger across Africa, Asia and central America – and might even eclipse it. 

Climate experts predicted a monster El Niño in 2014, but the phenomenon did not set in as expected, even though that year was recorded as the hottest on record and sea surface temperatures remained unusually warm in the Central Pacific.

Conditions stayed ripe, however, for the build-up of El Niño in 2015 and in March the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) declared “the long-anticipated El Niño has finally arrived”. 

Not only has El Niño arrived, it is here with heightened intensity, raising questions about its link to global warming and catastrophic weather such as Hurricane Patricia.

Aid agency Oxfam is warning that at least 10 million people are threatened with hunger globally because of failing crops attributed to El Niño.

The El Niño, like climate change, will test our national coping mechanisms and Greenpeace's response – to not only bear witness but also be part of the solution. 

This El Niño is among the strongest on record approaching what should be the 2015-16 peak (late northern hemisphere autumn/early winter), with an approximate 95% chance of it extending into 2016 before gradually weakening in spring.

El Niño has exacerbated Indonesia's dry season and the peatland and forest fires choking much of Southeast Asia in smoke. In response, Greenpeace is demanding an end to deforestation and calling for forest friendly palm oil.

Mexico faced a different threat when Hurricane Patricia rapidly intensified to become the most intense hurricane ever recorded in either the eastern Pacific or entire North Atlantic basin. It exploded into life due to the unusually warm ocean waters that are driving the El Niño.

Across the ocean, Typhoon Koppu dumped more than a metre of rain on the Philippines to swamp the country's prime rice growing region, complicating El Niño disaster planning for the feared drought-induced harvest shortfalls.

A farmer and his family stand in an arid field in their village in the Philippines

Greenpeace Southeast Asia is co-ordinating a delivery of organic vegetable seeds and fertiliser to help farmers replant damaged crops, similar to our Typhoon Hagupit response.

In Australia, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is monitoring the Great Barrier Reef for potential massive coral bleaching from warmer ocean waters. Bleaching is one of the greatest long-term risks posed to the reef and why the proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland must be abandoned to stop us cooking the climate.

The El Niño is a window into the future impacts of climate change and the potential human and natural disasters we can expect from it. We must improve the resilience of our global food and agriculture system and end the fossil fuel age.

The warnings are clear. 

One recent study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the current rate of carbon emissions could mean twice as many extreme El Niños over the next 100 years.

El Niño is now occurring on top of, and interacting with, background conditions that have already been altered by long-term climate change. 

While natural variability continues to play a key role in our weather systems, climate change has shifted the odds and changed the natural limits, increasing the probability that extreme weather will become more frequent and more intense.

This year's El Niño is a reminder of what we don't want and the need for strong emissions commitments at the UN climate talks in Paris. Now is the time to respond with everything we've got.

Aaron Gray-Block is a Crisis Response Campaigner with Greenpeace International.

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This week—from San Diego to Bangkok—activists sent a clear message to tuna industry giant Thai Union Group: it is time for just and sustainable tuna.

Thai Union Group is the largest canned tuna company in the world—owning Chicken of the Sea in the US, Sealect in Thailand, John West in the UK and Mareblu in Italy, among others. And it is devastating our oceans: using fishing methods that harm marine life and deplete tuna populations. What's more, the company has been connected to abusive labour practices.

But in recent months, the movement to rein in the out-of-control tuna industry—starting with Thai Union Group—has grown in strength. More than 250,000 people have sent messages to Thai Union Group’s brands all around the world. And thousands of phone calls have tied up Thai Union Group brands’ phone lines.

Still, Thai Union Group hasn’t changed its policies. The message hasn’t sunk in. So this week, activists decided to arrive at Thai Union Group’s doorstep. From a giant tuna can outside its brand John West's headquarters in the UK, to a real life mermaid protest outside the Chicken of the Sea’s headquarters in the US—Thai Union Group couldn’t avoid seeing the demands of ocean lovers everywhere.

Check out how activists from the UK, Italy, the US and Thailand got their message across to Thai Union Group, and join in to tell Thai Union Group to change its ways!

---

In the UK...

thousands came by to see the two-story sculpture and statues of dead marine life erected outside of John West's headquarters in Liverpool. The tuna tin was ripped open to reveal a screen showing short films and messages from the people of Liverpool and celebrities. Hundreds more made calls to John West's headquarters to demand an end to destructive fishing practices.

 

In Italy...

sharks were on parade in front of Mareblu's headquarters in Milan. Only 0,2% of this Thai Union Group brand's tuna is sourced from sustainable practices, while the company promised 100% sustainably-caught tuna by 2016. Mareblu has continued to use destructive fishing methods that also kill sharks and turtles.

In the US...

a special guest joined the call for the Thai Union brand Chicken of the Sea to take immediate steps to address labour abuse and destructive fishing methods in its supply chain. Hannah Fraser, acclaimed mermaid performance artist and ocean activist, joined Greenpeace at Chicken of the Sea’s headquarters to demand that the company stop greenwashing its record on ocean sustainability.

In Thailand...

activists placed a large mock-up of a Sealect tuna can in front of the Thai Union Group's Bangkok headquarters—complete with life-sized stuffed tuna. The protest challenged the company to change its fishing and labour practices.

---

Activists all over the world spoke to Thai Union Group in one voice this week, but we need to keep pushing. Only together can we make powerful change for the largest ecosystem on the planet.

Add your voice to join the movement today. 

Maïa Booker is a Multimedia Editor for the Americas at Greenpeace.

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About two weeks ago two tower cranes climbed into the sky at Fifth & J Streets. It appears the next stage of construction is drilling Bored Piles. The 16 story, 250 foot tower will cost $250 million to build and is expected to be completed in approximately 18 months. Downtown Sacramento  Plaza Tower construction Downtown Sacramento  Plaza Tower construction Downtown Sacramento  Plaza
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We asked you which outdoor clothes and kit to test for dangerous chemicals (PFCs). Votes poured in for cherished brands such as Columbia, Patagonia, Jack Wolfskin, Mamut and Haglöfs, with The North Face topping the charts.

In just two weeks, more than 32,000 nature-lovers from across the globe registered their choices on our campaign website detox-outdoor.org.

Scientists will now examine the 40 most popular products. Gloves, jackets, backpacks and walking shoes will all go under the microscope. 

Find out now which outdoor gear is going to the lab.

What happens next? Greenpeace buys product samples from stores around the world. Samples are sent to an independent specialised laboratory in Germany where they are tested for PFCs (that's chemicals of the per- and poly-fluorinated kind). And in January we can reveal which bits of clothing and kit are leaving behind more than just footprints in the great outdoors!

In the meantime, your amazing ideas and creativity will help in brainstorming how to eliminate those nasty toxic PFCs from the nature we love.

The journey is just beginning. We couldn't have got this far without you. So… please stay tuned!

Mirjam Kopp is a Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace Switzerland.

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Sacramento Kings Owner and Chairman Vivek Ranadivé joins urban theorist Richard Florida and top national ag leader Glenda Humiston in speaker line-up

SACRAMENTO, CA —Valley Vision and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), the joint producers of a new collaborative conference, announced today that Sacramento Kings Owner and Chairman, and Silicon Valley legend Vivek Ranadivé will take the stage at the inaugural Region Rising conference scheduled for November 20^th at the Sacramento Convention Center. 

Ranadivé is an entrepreneur, global technology visionary, author and philanthropist recognized for his outside-the-box thinking. He is credited with digitizing Wall Street in the 1980’s, and he made national headlines in 2013 when he purchased the Kings franchise, saving the team from a potential relocation. Today he stands as the central figure in shaping Sacramento’s future – and its skyline – as the world’s state-of-the art Golden 1 Center and Downtown Commons (DOCO) rise from the dirt in downtown Sacramento.

“Our region has set a grand vision. It is ambitious, real, and achievable,”  said Don Saylor, Yolo County Supervisor and SACOG board chairman. “After decades of planning and foundation-building through initiatives like the Sacramento Region Blueprint, Rural Urban Connections Strategy (RUCS) and the Next Economy jobs and investment strategy for growth, we find ourselves at a tipping-point moment in history. Ranadivé simply epitomizes this grand vision and our ability to realize it.”

Ranadivé joins Richard Florida and Dr. Glenda Humiston in the program’s speaker line up. Florida has earned a global reputation as possibly the top intellectual leader on urban theory. Humiston’s decades of leadership in agriculture, natural resources, and sustainability earned her the recent appointment as head of the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She is the former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Region Rising will also feature a Leadership Exchange panel comprised of private and public sector leaders from other American cities to share their most innovative partnership success stories.

Region Rising is a first-ever, interactive community-wide conference produced in partnership by Valley Vision and SACOG. “Valley Vision and SACOG have long envisioned and worked to create a healthy, prosperous and more sustainable future for the people and businesses that call the Sacramento region home,” said Bill Mueller, Valley Vision’s chief executive. “Region Rising creates a new forum dedicated to harnessing people, ideas and information in a way we’ve never done before, to imagine what’s possible and design what will be.”

Region Rising will offer an attendee experience like none ever produced locally. The conference will feature interactive audience polling via cell phone technology throughout the day, and the JPMorgan Chase Collision Spot complete with the Kaiser Permanente Recharge Pavilion, West Coast Design Makers Market, Comcast Technology Expo and interactive programming and activations throughout the exhibitors hall. The event’s daylong program is available at http://ift.tt/1kaQ70H.

Doors open at 7:30 a.m. Individual tickets can be purchased online for $125. Group and student rates are available. Ticket price includes an outdoor lunch on the Capitol Grounds prepared by some of the region’s most celebrated farm-to-fork restaurants. To learn more, visit www.regionrising.com.

###

SACOG is an association of local governments in the six-county Sacramento region that provides transportation planning and funding, and serves as a forum for the study and resolution of regional issues.

Valley Vision is an independent social impact organization headquartered in Sacramento. Our contributions improve the quality of life in the communities we serve and create the conditions for economic growth and community vitality.

The post Region Rising announces king-size speaker; unveils event schedule appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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On October 27, 2015, City Council approved an increase to the minimum wage in the City of Sacramento to $12.50 by 2020.

 

We appreciate the city’s leadership to address income inequality and the spirit of recommendations to close the gap. While it is intriguing to think that raising the minimum wage can have a large upside with little negative impact, the reality is raising the minimum wage threatens to undermine the vitality of our small business community. We maintain our concerns that a minimum wage above the state directed minimum risks Sacramento’s competitiveness, but also appreciate the inclusion of exemptions and credits to mitigate the consequences raising the minimum wage will have for our city’s job creators. Employers – especially small ones – need time to adapt.

 

 

Approved Minimum Wage Increase in the City of Sacramento will raise the wage to: 

2016: $10

2017: $10.50  2018: $11.00 ($10.50 for small employers)

2019: $11.75 ($11 for small employers)

2020: $12.50 ($11.75 for small employers)

2021: Indexed to Western States CPI ($12.50 for small employers)

2022+: indexed annually to CPI

 

>> Read more about City Council’s approved proposal at SacBee.com.

>> For more information, contact Policy & Advocacy Manager Emilie Cameron.

The post City Council Approves Minimum Wage Increase in Sacramento appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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22 year old Indonesian student, Rahmi Carolina has spent her entire life living with the haze. Each year, as the fires rage and grow more intense, so does she. So she’s using social media and doing something about it.

Elementary students under a heavy haze in Central Kalimantan province, Borneo Island

When I was young my friends and I would visit our local river, just a short walk from our small town in Pangkalan Kerinci, upstream of Riau’s peatland coast in Sumatra. On days when we needed to cool down from the heat, we would spend hours swimming and getting lost in the shade of the trees, chasing birds and sleeping.

My parents instilled in me the importance of the environment. Growing up, forests fascinated me – how trees nurture and protect us, the beauty of bark, the way in which roots weave like tangled hair knots. But deep down, I’ve always had a foreboding feeling about forest fires. For the past 18 years during the dry season, ever since the palm oil plantations began, the haze has always been lurking. 

Every day all I would hear were complaints – from the media, from my friends, from my family. Even though I’m just one individual I knew I had to do something. But when fires are burning through the forests you can’t chain yourself to a tree.

Rahmi Carolina holding up a sign that says “Fight!!”

Instead I’ve taken my voice to the streets, to social media, posted on my blog, and even appeared on TV. In August, myself and three other friends started a petition addressed to Mrs. Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the Minister of Environment and Forestry to demand the right for clean air from the government. At first, getting signatures was slow - initially it was just our friends who signed. But eventually the word spread via Twitter and the momentum started to build. At last count it stood at more than 22,000 supporters!

In late September I received a response from the Minister. She wrote that they are investigating 139 companies, with 26 under criminal investigation. But if this is the case then why has the government not yet named and shamed the companies involved, and why has it taken so long?

The haze, taken from Pekanbaru city in Riau

Recently, President Jokowi said that there would be “no new concessions on peatlands”. Decades of forest and peatland destruction from palm oil and pulp companies have caused today’s fires. Now, it is vital for the government to hold on to that promise and enforce the law.

Over the years, young people in Indonesia have become so accustomed to the haze that we don’t even wear masks. But this year, we’re turning our complaints into action. We’re using social media, we’re posting what we’re seeing and we’re telling the world!

People washing and bathing in the bank of Kapuas River under the haze from forest fires

In Indonesia there is a saying: “Bagai pungguk merindukan bulan.” Like an owl pining for the moon. It means: “to wish for something impossible.” I know that if we restore peatlands and forests and stop the fires, we can turn things around. If we had acted earlier and gotten serious about protecting forests and peatlands, maybe today Riau and other provinces wouldn’t be smothered in smoke. We need time to make things right, but this is not impossible. We will not be silenced. We will keep on fighting.

Rahmi Carolina is a 22 year old Indonesian university student, writer, activist and poet. She is currently studying English Education at the Universitas Islam Riau. She loves nature.

Take action. Stand with Rahmi and sign here

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22 year old Indonesian student, Rahmi Carolina has spent her entire life living with the haze. Each year, as the fires rage and grow more intense, so does she. So she’s using social media and doing something about it.

Elementary students under a heavy haze in Central Kalimantan province, Borneo Island

When I was young my friends and I would visit our local river, just a short walk from our small town in Pangkalan Kerinci, upstream of Riau’s peatland coast in Sumatra. On days when we needed to cool down from the heat, we would spend hours swimming and getting lost in the shade of the trees, chasing birds and sleeping.

My parents instilled in me the importance of the environment. Growing up, forests fascinated me – how trees nurture and protect us, the beauty of bark, the way in which roots weave like tangled hair knots. But deep down, I’ve always had a foreboding feeling about forest fires. For the past 18 years during the dry season, ever since the palm oil plantations began, the haze has always been lurking. 

Every day all I would hear were complaints – from the media, from my friends, from my family. Even though I’m just one individual I knew I had to do something. But when fires are burning through the forests you can’t chain yourself to a tree.

Rahmi Carolina holding up a sign that says “Fight!!”

Instead I’ve taken my voice to the streets, to social media, posted on my blog, and even appeared on TV. In August, myself and three other friends started a petition addressed to Mrs. Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the Minister of Environment and Forestry to demand the right for clean air from the government. At first, getting signatures was slow - initially it was just our friends who signed. But eventually the word spread via Twitter and the momentum started to build. At last count it stood at more than 22,000 supporters!

In late September I received a response from the Minister. She wrote that they are investigating 139 companies, with 26 under criminal investigation. But if this is the case then why has the government not yet named and shamed the companies involved, and why has it taken so long?

The haze, taken from Pekanbaru city in Riau

Recently, President Jokowi said that there would be “no new concessions on peatlands”. Decades of forest and peatland destruction from palm oil and pulp companies have caused today’s fires. Now, it is vital for the government to hold on to that promise and enforce the law.

Over the years, young people in Indonesia have become so accustomed to the haze that we don’t even wear masks. But this year, we’re turning our complaints into action. We’re using social media, we’re posting what we’re seeing and we’re telling the world!

People washing and bathing in the bank of Kapuas River under the haze from forest fires

In Indonesia there is a saying: “Bagai pungguk merindukan bulan.” Like an owl pining for the moon. It means: “to wish for something impossible.” I know that if we restore peatlands and forests and stop the fires, we can turn things around. If we had acted earlier and gotten serious about protecting forests and peatlands, maybe today Riau and other provinces wouldn’t be smothered in smoke. We need time to make things right, but this is not impossible. We will not be silenced. We will keep on fighting.

Rahmi Carolina is a 22 year old Indonesian university student, writer, activist and poet. She is currently studying English Education at the Universitas Islam Riau. She loves nature.

Take action. Stand with Rahmi and sign here

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In just two months, fire has consumed over 45 percent of the Amazon rainforest in the Arariboia Indigenous Land -- an area of protected forest that is home to thousands of people. And despite their efforts, the fire continues to rage out of control.

What’s worse, this no act of nature. The Indigenous Peoples of this area, the Guajajara, claim that the fires are caused by loggers in retaliation for the Guajajara’s work to combat their illegal logging activities. The Guajajara monitor and patrol their lands to ensure that illegal logging doesn’t take place, and have managed to reduce illegal logging in the Arariboia territory. But now they are facing serious reprisals.

Map with hot spots until 08/19/2015 10/19/2015 detected by the NPP-VIIRS satellite sensor (Source: http://ift.tt/1R206jD)

The scale of the flames

The forest fire are shaping up to be one of the largest in the history of Brazil. It has already consumed about 190,000 of the 413,000 hectares that make up Arariboia; that’s larger than the entire area of Rio de Janeiro.

Last week the fire grew to gigantic proportions, registering an average of 560 new hot spots every day. The line of fire is over 100 km long.

And this fire could lead to more fire in the future. Because fires like this deeply damage the rainforest and lower the humidity of the area, they actually increase the chance for future naturally-caused fires later.

What’s (not) being done

This fire is gigantic, but up until a couple weeks ago, the Guajajara were fighting it with hardly any resources from the Brazilian government. A team of thirty Indigenous firefighters were working day and night without the backup they needed.

Indigenous leaders of the Guajajara people sought to change this. Earlier this month, they protested outside government offices, denouncing the government’s apparent indifference to the fire and drawing attention to the issue. It wasn’t until government inspectors who worked in fire fighting were attacked by an armed group within Arariboia Indigenous Land the government began taking Guajajara requests for help more seriously.

The government’s slow reaction has come with heavy costs. When the Guajajara protest took place, 25 percent of Arariboia had been impacted by fires. Today, just over two weeks later, the impact area already accounts for 45 percent of the territory.

Indigenous concentrated at the entrance of the Ministry of the Environment (© Alan Azevedo / Greenpeace)

Not an isolated incident

Illegal logging in Indigenous lands is happening all over Brazil. And as Indigenous Peoples take measures to stop it, retaliation -- like violence or starting fires in the forest -- grows.

In early September, Greenpeace Brazil was working with the Ka'apor people to support the independent monitoring of their territory using the latest technology as well as traditional methods. During that time, local reports indicated that loggers set fire to the edges of Indigenous lands and that some villages were already surrounded by flames.

What can be done

There’s no doubt that the government of Brazil must do more to protect Indigenous Lands and the people living there from illegal loggers. They must also provide more support for fighting fires to Indigenous Peoples.

But the global community must also pay attention. Illegal timber from Indigenous Lands like Arariboia makes it to the international timber market all the time -- fueling the violence and retaliation that led to these forest fires. It is the responsibility of the international buyers of Amazon wood to ensure their supply chains aren’t connected to illegal logging. Only when illegal timber is too risky or no longer lucrative will it finally be extinguished.

 

Luana Lila is an Amazon communications officer at Greenpeace Brazil.

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Let me share some good news! So far 2015 has been a promising year for our campaign for healthy food in Mexico. This doesn't mean that everything related to food and agriculture is now perfect in Mexico… far from it! However, I am now even more convinced that we can change attitudes, mobilize people and convince decision-makers to make the right decisions for a better and healthier food system that respects all of us as consumers of food but also that empowers farmers and peasants to practice agriculture in a more ecological and fair way.

This year, Greenpeace Mexico organized a ship tour in two parts that achieved many of its objectives.

First of all, the Esperanza ship helped 15 independent scientists from the Thematic Network of Harmful Algae Bloom, from the Union of Scientists Committed with Society (UCCS), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and from the Campeche University to sample rivers and coastal lagoons of the State of Sinaloa in the Gulf of California and the Mexican Caribbean. The scientists who have limited access to resources for this kind of research were delighted to search for evidence of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Preliminary results from the Gulf of California sampling will be published by the end of November and the Caribbean results will be ready at the beginning of the 2016.

Claudia Ponce and Omar Arellano-Aguilar, scientists from the UNAM, collected sample in rivers of Sinaloa to identify pesticides and fertilizers used in industrial agriculture processes. © Enrique Rashide / Greenpeace.

Thematic Network of Harmful Algal Blooms conducted an investigation on board of the ship Esperanza in the Gulf of California to document and expose the agrotoxic impacts, the results will be presented by the end of November. In the image (left) Ernesto Garcia, investigation leader; (right) assistant of scientist work. © Alonso Crespo / Greenpeace.

Esperanza ship also helped to document the sargasso in Quintana Roo, where continued the sampling to identify pesticides and fertilizers in the water. © Alonso Crespo / Greenpeace.

While we gave scientists the possibility to gather data and evidence, we also contacted large food companies (Bimbo, Herdez, La Costeña, Maseca and Bachoco) who source some of their products from the State of Sinaloa. Together with over 50,000 mobilized consumers (in Spanish) we demanded better transparency from these companies about the agrochemical use on the food they sell to us.

The second leg of ship tour took place in October in the Yucatan Peninsula (Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo) on the Atlantic side where we are working together with local governments, Mayan communities and NGOs.

Meeting between Greenpeace and representatives of PNUD and others NGOs with the governor of Yucatan, Rolando Zapata Bello, on board the Esperanza, where he made a commitment to implement a state strategy by 2018 in order to protect and develop ecological farming building on the existing 'milpa' system. © Pablo Ramos / Greenpeace.

During his visit on board the Esperanza on World Food Day (October 16), Rolando Zapata Bello, the Yucatan governor made a commitment to implement a state strategy by 2018 to protect and develop ecological farming, building upon the existing 'milpa' system. He instructed government ministers to implement governmental support for a transition process to the 'milpa' system this year. The 'milpa' farming system is based on the cultivation of a diversity of crops – corn, beans, squash and other plants – growing synergistically. (See blog in Spanish for more info). This diversity-based approach is the essence of ecological farming practice.

Mayan communities visited the Esperanza to share their experience about the milpa and traditional agriculture as a way to produce healthy food for people and the planet. © Pablo Ramos / Greenpeace.

For me, it demonstrates that scientists, farmers, consumers, companies and civil society organizations can work together and we can make progress toward an ecological farming system. The road will be long but there is no other path to our future for more nutritious food and healthy rural communities. We all need to learn to work better with Mother Nature since she feeds us.

With the message 'Yucatan tiene Esperanza' (Yucatan has hope), the children also joined to campaign Food For Life in Mexico for a better future, ecological farming trough. © Pablo Ramos / Greenpeace.

Aleira Lara is a Project Leader for the Food and Agriculture campaign at Greenpeace Mexico.

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