Greenpeace Aotearoa is completely independent – so it’s only thanks to people like you that we can campaign for a green and peaceful future. Check out this issue of Kākāriki, here you can read the highlights of what you’ve made possible over the last few months.
You’re fighting New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter
This year, the impacts of the climate crisis have arrived at our front door. From the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle in the North Island, to severe drought in the south, climate change has hit our communities hard.
We need to see a dramatic reduction in emissions this decade to avert the worst case scenarios of climate collapse. For communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, action is absolutely critical.
In March 2023, after the devastating climate storms across the North Island, your support took us to the HQ of industrial dairy giant, Fonterra. Fonterra is New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter, producing almost a fifth of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions last year. Its actions – driving profit and intensification of the dairy industry at the expense of the environment – are worsening the climate crisis, and putting all that we know and love at risk.
We took abandoned flood-damaged debris, some from our lead climate campaigner Christine Rose’s own community in rural West Auckland, back to Fonterra, to remind the Government of the cost of inaction. These storms, driven by climate change, saw firefighters killed, and houses down hillsides. We experienced three devastating floods in three weeks – floods that are being driven by polluters like Fonterra operating free of Government regulation.
If you haven’t already, join our call for climate action here!
You’re protecting ocean life
Your generosity is giving the ocean a voice – and has led to a historic victory!
In March 2023, after years of international negotiations and persistent campaigning by Greenpeace and allies, countries agreed on a treaty that can secure a pathway for 30% ocean protection by 2030 with a UN Global Ocean Treaty. This is a truly incredible, historic victory for conservation! Over the years, this work – all supported by generous people like you – shifted the New Zealand Government’s position to actively support a strong treaty. This was crucial in ensuring the kind of agreement that can make a real difference for the ocean and everything that calls it home.
Of course, there’s always more to do. Our campaign to restrict bottom trawling – the most destructive fishing method there is – is in full swing., with the particular focus on protecting the Hauraki Gulf. In April 2023, your support helped us host a “Show your heart for the Hauraki” event with Forest and Bird at Mission Bay in Auckland. Hundreds of people and a flotilla of crafts surrounded a massive ‘ban bottom trawling’ banner in a show of mass opposition to bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf marine park.
Together, we can care for the ocean – and the future of our planet – by fighting for strong protection. You can sign the petition to ban bottom trawling in the Hauraki gulf here.
You’re taking action against deep sea mining
The emerging deep sea mining industry is doing its best to start mining the precious sea floor – and with your help, we’ve been there to bear witness and show them we won’t let them plunder these pristine ocean depths.
In November 2022, Deep Sea Mining Campaigner James Hita (Ngati Whātua o Oruawharo/Te Uri o Hau) joined an action against the deep sea mining ship, The Hidden Gem, in México. Greenpeace México activists met the ship in kayaks holding ‘Stop Deep Sea Mining’ banners while James delivered a message to the captain via radio explaining why deep sea mining should not go ahead. James also told the deep sea mining industry they would meet our opposition at every step – something you’re helping us follow through on!
Then, on March 23, 2023, while critical negotiations at the controversial International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting in Jamaica were taking place, activists confronted a deep sea mining vessel named after one of the most notorious colonisers of the Pacific: The RRS (Royal Research Ship) James Cook! The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise intercepted the vessel as it was returning from a 7-week expedition in areas of the Pacific Ocean targeted for deep sea mining. Data and findings from this expedition are not going to be released publicly – instead, they are being used to push the industry agenda.
Together, we’ll continue to confront this reckless, destructive new threat. The ocean – and all the wonderful life it contains – deserves our protection. You can sign our petition for a global ban on deep sea mining here.
You’re a part of a plastic-free future
It’s time to turn off the plastic tap and bring unnecessary single-use plastics to an end. Your support is helping to create a world where reusable and refillable systems are the norm, where truckloads of plastic waste aren’t finding their way into the ocean every minute, where communities aren’t harmed by the toxic plastic waste trade.
While big plastic polluters like Coca Cola try to greenwash their practices and fool consumers into thinking they are “sustainable” – they continue to pump out billions of single-use plastic bottles per year. Luckily, with you on the team, we’re there to call them out!
That’s what we did in December last year, mobilising supporters to get out and about “brand jamming” the Coke shelves at supermarkets. The idea was that when people went to buy their Coke, they’d read a slip about Coca Cola being the world’s number one plastic polluter – and be inspired to join us in demanding better from such a large corporation.
In addition to this, we’ve mobilised supporters to demand the Government brings back its Container Return Scheme that it recently canned. People have begun mailing single-use plastic bottles to the Beehive to demand the Government deals with the issue.
Greenpeace Aotearoa Plastics Campaigner Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi te Rangi, Tupapa, Ngatangiia) was also on the Greenpeace delegation to the first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Uruguay last November, and the delegation for INC2 at UNESCO in Paris in June, to discuss a Global Plastic Treaty that will end runaway plastic production and use.
With you on board – we can make this happen! If you haven’t yet signed the petition for a strong Global Plastic Treaty, you can do so here.
