Critical Coca-Cola ad by Greenpeace banned from TV

A TV ad which attacks Coca-Cola for trying to stop a recycling scheme in Australia has been stopped from airing on TV. In recent weeks Greenpeace has been campaigning in support of the implementation of nationwide 10-cents-a-bottle recycling scheme in Australia. The environmental organization has called the scheme “a no brainer” and they’ve been critical of Coca-Cola’s efforts to undermine and stop the recycling legislation.

Last week Greenpeace raised $ 20,000 in donations in just one day to get the TV ad, which attacks Coca-Cola for lobbying against the recycling scheme, shown during Channel Nine’s Friday Night Football broadcast in Australia. But the ad was pulled just minutes before it was supposed to air after being deemed “too offensive” by the channel. Greenpeace quickly blamed Coca-Cola and other beverage makers for putting pressure on Channel Nine to stop the ad from airing.

“They took the money and now they’ve bottled it,” Greenpeace’s Reece Turner said. “Coke has been accused of bullying politicians into blocking cash for containers. It’s a reasonable assumption their influence is behind Channel Nine’s last-minute choking.”

Seabirds and other animals often mistake plastics with food. These plastic objects slowly fills their stomachs over time until they are unable to ingest any real food. A slow death by starvation then follows for these poor seabirds. In Australia, this plastic rubbish is estimated to affect up to 65% of the seabird population. And Coca-Cola is currently trying to fight legislation that is key to fixing this problem. This short ad by Greenpeace exposes how Coca-Cola, even though being a longtime supporter of WWF, is willing to let plastic pollution trash our oceans and kill our marine life.

Despite being banned from TV, Greenpeace’s campaign is still making waves. The actual ad has been seen over 700,000 times and is the most shared video in Australia. And now shareholders has started to question Coca-Cola’s efforts to stop a national Cash for Containers scheme. During an annual meeting in Sydney, Coca-Cola Chairman David Gonski called the scheme “old fashioned”, inefficient and warned that it would increase the price of soft drinks. But his comments were challenged by shareholders as well as protesters outside the meeting.

“What’s wrong with old fashioned?” one shareholder asked. “We have container deposit legislation in South Australia and only 4% of containers are found in litter. That’s a stark contrast to the 40% of containers in the eastern states.”

By blocking the ad from airing on TV, Channel Nine have successfully given Greenpeace’s campaign more media attention. And in the end Coca-Cola is the one who will suffer the most from the public backlash that follows.

Green Blog

Greenpeace activists board coal ship near the Great Barrier Reef

Despite commitments from Australia to limit global warming to below 2 degrees the country’s coal export are planned to expand by more than double current levels in the coming years. For that reason six Greenpeace activists boarded a ship from Australia carrying coal for the Asian market earlier this morning. The dramatic stunt is part of a ramped up campaign from Greenpeace against Australia’s ever increasing coal exports.

“We’ve taken the action today because Australia is on track to almost double coal exports in the next decade. Both major political parties have no solutions on the table. It is time to slow down the coal boom,” Greenpeace Activist Emma Giles told the Guardian from on board the ship.

Our leaders are failing us so it’s up to us to take civil disobedience and to slow down and stop these coal ships. We are set to stay here as long as it takes,” Giles said.

Along with this action, Greenpeace are calling on people to join their campaign by signing a statement in support of today’s action. Once they reach 10 000 names, the statement will be published in the Australian Financial Review.

The video below shows how Greenpeace activists boarded the coal ship.

Green Blog

Greenpeace Action Exposes Shockingly Weak Security at Swedish Nuclear Plants

On Tuesday this week more than 70 Greenpeace activists took action in what they said was “a peaceful stress test” of two Swedish nuclear power plants. The stress test took place shortly a week after a safety report was released by Greenpeace highlighting severe security problems, shortcomings and weaknesses at the aging nuclear reactors in Sweden. The action lasted for two days and revealed the unacceptable lax security at Swedish nuclear plants.

 

At 7:30 on Tuesday morning around 20 Greenpeace activists wearing lab coats managed to enter the Ringhals nuclear power plant on bicycles. At the same time about 50 other activists used ladders to climb into the Forsmark nuclear power plant.

“Today Greenpeace activists stress test the Swedish nuclear power plants to alert the public, the nuclear industry and minister Lena Ek on the serious safety deficiencies”, said Annika Jacobson, programme manager of Greenpeace in Sweden. “The stress tests are conducted in a peaceful and responsible manner and show that nuclear expose people to unacceptable risks.”

This is not the first time that Greenpeace activists managed to enter a nuclear power plant in Sweden. Two years ago several activists managed to enter Forsmark. That action caused a great deal of uproar and new security measures were implemented. But apparently those measurements were far from enough.

“We hope that the issue of security in the Swedish nuclear power plants from now on will be taken very seriously. Environment minister Lena Ek must ensure that the dangerous reactors are immediately removed from service, so that people and the environment are not exposed to the risks that the Swedish nuclear power present,” said Jacobson in a statement.

It took police 40 minutes to get to Ringhals and 15 minutes to get to Forsmark, mostly thanks to the fact that they had a training session not far from the Forsmark plant. The police and security staff initially arrested around 40 activists at Forsmark and around 15 at Ringhals thinking they had found all the intruders at the nuclear plants. In light of this, Vattenfall, one of the owners of the two nuclear plants, proudly said in a press statement that the security had worked “exactly as intended.” But only hours later police found a couple of more activists hiding inside the nuclear plant area.

“As police searched the area two or three more activists were found hiding in a container in the area where the nuclear reactors are located,” said Claes Inge Andersson, spokesperson at the Forsmark plant. “The hiding activists were found when the police searched the area, so security has worked as intended as far as we can judge, but we will of course conduct a thorough review of today’s events,” Andersson said.

But the next morning Greenpeace announced that they still had activists hiding inside one of the two nuclear power plants.

“They evaded security all night, and were only discovered when Greenpeace Sweden phoned the media early this morning to reveal their presence at the plants. This is despite the fact the operator Vattenfall said yesterday that “security had worked exactly as intended”.”

One of the activists tweeted this from inside the Ringhals nuclear plant:

I’m inside Ringhals have been here for 27h + no guards seems to be looking. Security at Swedish NPPs terrible # green #nuclear

— Isadora Wronski (@Isadora_Wronski) October 10, 2012

 

But wait, the humiliation continues. Shortly after the police had arrested the remaining activists at Ringhals, Greenpeace again announced that they still had activists located at the Forsmark nuclear plant. All in all, four activists at Ringhals and two at Forsmark had managed to hide from both the police and the plant’s security personnel for more than 28 hours.

The police and security personnel was unable to find the remaining two activists who were hiding somewhere inside the Forsmark nuclear plant. So after 38 hours the two last activists decided that they’ve had enough and announced themselves to the security staff. They had been hiding inside one of the electrical substations at the plant, where electricity from Forsmark goes in and out.

Greenpeace sure knows what they’re doing. First, they tell us about the security problems at Swedish nuclear plants. Then they prove it by completely humiliating the nuclear industry and responsible ministers.

Green Blog

Greenpeace Activists Scale Arctic Oil Rig

The famed environmental activist group took on the first oil rig in the Arctic yesterday—and got hosed down in the freezing climes.
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