Full MNN article here.

Green Air Filter:

Who can resist the temptation of doing something that only takes a minute?  Further, what if it actually did something REALLY good?

As in the case of Shea Gunther’s proposed “Earth Minute,”  we’re all asked to set our stopwatches on May 20 at 4:17 p.m. and billions of people around the world will hold their collective breath for a full sixty seconds, preventing tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere.

Shea admits he’s being a bit cheeky about the idea but something about it suggests an easy way for lazy people to take one minute out of one day to do something en global masse.  In the spirit of the Green Air Minute, our hats are off to Shea and anyone holding their breath for global climate change.

Photo by rastafabi.

We are tremendously fortunate to have the chance to speak with a true environmental hero, selflessly active in the defense of international marine life, Captain Paul Watson.  He is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and co-founding director of the Greenpeace Foundation.  He’s just returned from his most recent Antarctic anti-whaling campaign and joins us now from dry land.  Captain Watson, thank you so much for joining us.

Q: Generally,how much planning and resources go into an anti-whaling campaign of your design?

A: Our campaign to Antartica which starts in early December and goes through to almost March or sometimes into March, well, we start planning as soon as we get back which is like right now but for the next season.

Q: Does that also include campaigns in support of seals and sharks and dolphins, etc.?

A: No, we have a full time campaign in the Galapagos and a full time director down there working on that because down there we’re managing a patrol boat, we have our own canine unit to sniff out shark fins at the airports.  They have a whole network of informants and we’re working in partnership with the national police and the rangers to stop poachers

Q: What were some of the most notable achievements during the most recent Operation Musashi?

A: We were able to chase the Japanese fleet for three weeks in December and January then we returned for fuel and came back and chased them again so altogether we stopped their whaling operations for about five and a half weeks which is gonna have a considerable impact on their quota and certainly their profits.  This year they tested our resolve, really, because we can’t catch the harpoon vessels but what we can do is block the processing vessel, the Nisshan Maru, we settle ourselves right in the stern so they can’t load any whales.  This year, for the first time, they killed five whales while we were there and tried to load them and we blocked them and that resulted in three different collisions with the harpoon vessels.  So certainly they tested us and when we didn’t back down, they didn’t try that again.

Q: Were the collisions with the Steve Irwin or with smaller vessels you had?

A: The collisions were with the Steve Irwin and two or three of the harpoon vessels.  The harpoon vessels are the same size as the Steve Irwin so it’s really collisions between thousand ton ships.

Q: Any sustaining damage to the Steve Irwin itself?

A: We had some tearing and denting of the hull which will be about $25,000 in welding repairs I think and there was damage to the other vessels too but nothing that was life threatening.  We have to be very very cautious in these campaigns and the problem this year was that the Japanese whalers are just out of control.  I had to get out of there because they were gonna kill somebody or get one of themselves killed and they’re just really demonstrating just how frustrated they were with the fact that we were able to prevent them from doing that.  They were hitting us with high-powered water cannons, throwing nuts and bolts and pieces of lead and strangely, golf balls.  And also, they were hitting us with this acoustic weapon called an alradder, a long range acoustical device and that was extremely disorienting and it was really irresponsible of them to actually aim it at our helicopter pilot on three occasions which could bring down an aircraft.  So they were acting very dangerously but the thing is, they can do anything, they could injure us, they could kill us and their government’s gonna justify and defend everything they do.  We can’t even defend our own lives without being criticized by our governments for being too, so-called, extremist.

Q: Well you’ve got the Australian and Japanese governments breathing down your neck about your actions, do you expect their military forces ever to become involved in one of your campaigns?

A: Well, that’s always possible that they can send their military down, it would be a violation of the Antarctic treaty, but the one great thing is that we have the support of the people, the overwhelming support of the people in Australia and New Zealand and the government can only hassle us so much.  I mean, they certainly wouldn’t dare arrest us or put us on trial for doing what they promised to do before they were elected.  This new Australian government, their new election process was put out by Peter Garrett who was the former singer for Midnight Oil who’s now the Environment Minister and he said that his government would take Japan to court, would take an aggressive stand against Japan, (to see that they) would stop whaling, and ever since he’s been elected, they’ve reneged on that promise and did actually nothing; they’ve done less than the government they’re criticizing.

Q: Doesn’t surprise me.  Now, the ship was raided by Australian police upon your return and I understand the video tapes from Animal Planet’s crew were among the most precious items confiscated.  What is to be the fate of this record?

A: Well, of course the people of Australia are outraged that the Australian police raided us and they met us when we arrived and they had a warrant to seize property.  They took our log book, 157 video tapes, plus hard drives on the computers and they said there were acting on the Japanese complaint and I said, well you know I put in a compliant about Japan assaulting our crew and I don’t see you acting on our complaint.  And they said, well we have an obligation under international law to uphold that which we are signatory to and I said, well then how come you’re not upholding the Antarctic Treaty, the regulations if the International Whaling Commission, and the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species, why do you pick this one?  Of course, they didn’t have any answer for that.  But we don’t anticipate anything will actually develop about it.  There’s just no way they’re gonna arrest us in Australia for doing what everybody in Australia wants to see done but there’s a lot of pressure from Japan because Japan’s a big trading partner with Australia and with everybody else really, it’s a big economic bully and usually Japan gets what Japan wants and we’re simply not going to back down to them.

Q: You recently spoke at the University of Tasmania and alluded to the connections between the Japanese whaling industry and the Australian logging industry. Can you elaborate a little bit on how those two industries intertwine?

A: Twenty percent of all the paper that’s manufactured in Japan comes from Tasmanian forests and there’s a big environmental movement in Tasmania to stop the clear cutting of the old growth forests there and because 20% comes from Tasmania, that gives them a lot of economic leverage and so they’re able to put pressure on Australia to support their whaling by saying, well, we’re not gonna buy your wood chips if you’re not gonna take action against Sea Shepherd.  So it’s really put the Australians between a rock and a hard place, they’re trying to satisfy the will of their own people when at the same time, appease the Japanese economic interest so they don’t know which way to turn there.

Q: That’s a pickle. In regard to the earth’s ecosystems, you’re quoted as stating, “It’s a train that carries all the earth’s species as unwilling passengers with humans as the manically insane engineers unwilling to use the brake pedal.”  In what ways can your views on birth suppression and the “Holocenic hominid collective suicide event” be practically applied?

A: You know, if I had an answer to that, I’d get the Nobel Prize I’m sure but the fact is I’m just saying there’s a problem here and that problem is that we’re violating the laws of ecology, the law of diversity, the law of interdependence, the law of finite natural resources.  There’s simply not enough resources on the planet to support an ever-expanding human population and as a result of that, we’re stealing carrying capacity from other species and they’re going extinct and that means we’re living right now in the sixth major extinction event in the history of the planet and we’re responsible for that.  It’s even got a name, it’s called the Holocene, and we’ll lose more species of plants and animals between 1980 and 2045 in a 65 year period of time than we’ve lost in the last 65 million years and we’ve gotta stop that otherwise we’re gonna be on that list.  And so we’re gonna have to find some answers: we’re gonna have to reduce the amount of resources that we’re taking and the only way we’re going to do that is to reduce population.  Now every time I talk about that, the right wingers get on me that I wanna exterminate 5 or 6 billion people and that’s not the case.  I think that we have to take a responsible approach to this and cut down on our birth rates over the next two generations or else, nature will do it for us and nature won’t be very kind.

Photo by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

I’ve always wondered when the glory days of publishing prosperity were going to come crashing down into some CEO’s pocket.

Here’s a little preview of things to come.

Click here for more.

How is Twitter helping to provide clean water to developing countries?

Still fuzzy on what Twitter is? If you can express it in 140 characters, you’re ready to “tweet” yourself into the micro-blogging community some 750 thousand strong.

One thing you may find difficult to express in 140 characters, however, is the dire need for clean water in countries outside our own.  Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation cause 80% of all the sickness and disease worldwide.  So how does a seemingly trivial web gadget help this planetary plight?

On February 12th, over 100 cities will be hosting Twestivals, bringing together Twitter communities to raise money and awareness for the non-profit organization called charity:water.  All donations will directly fund costly yet vital clean water bearing systems.

Because of the power Twitter has to connect, mobilize, and inform people, these Twestivals have turned a quirky phenomenon into a force for global change.

Join the Twestival in your city by clicking on the following links:

Anaheim Asheville Atlanta Augusta Austin Baltimore Baton Rouge Boca Raton Boston Calgary Charlotte Charlottesville Chicago Cleveland College Station TX Columbia MO Columbus OH Dallas Denver Des Moines Detroit Durham Edmonton Fargo Galveston Halifax Hampton Roads VA Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Ithaca Iowa City Kansas City Kelowna Lafayette Lakewood Las Vegas Los Angeles Madison Memphis Mexico City Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Moncton Montclair Monterrey Montreal Nashville New Orleans New York Ottawa Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland Raleigh Richmond VA     Rochester San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Barbara Savannah Seattle Somers CT South Padre Springfield Tampa Toronto Traverse City Vancouver Washington Wichita Wilmington International Cities and South America