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Logging in Canada’s Boreal forest is exacerbating global warming by releasing greenhouse gases and reducing carbon storage, according to a Greenpeace investigation released today. Increased logging also makes the Boreal forest, which stores 205 billion tons of carbon (equivalent to 27 times the world’s annual fossil fuel emissions), more susceptible to global warming impacts such as forest fires, which in turn release more greenhouse gases. If this vicious circle is left unchecked, it could culminate in a massive and sudden release of greenhouse gases referred to as a “carbon bomb,” the report warns. A widespread outbreak of forest or peat fires could release much of this carbon, causing a disastrous spike in global emissions.

On the eve of the release of shocking new data on Amazon deforestation rates, Greenpeace today called on the Government of Brazil to reduce deforestation to zero by the year 2010.

Today Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Bush administration for missing its legal deadline for issuing a final decision on whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming.

On board the Greenpeace ship The Arctic Sunrise, a Brazilian Indian tribe will join Greenpeace and other groups tomorrow to announce the beginning of an expedition to protect their native tribal lands from industrial exploitation in the Amazon rainforest. This is one of the first times that an Indian group has, without government assistance, demarcated their lands in the Amazon.

Greenpeace activists protested this morning in Santarem Harbour-a major exit point for Amazon timber to the European and U.S. markets-demanding an end to illegal and destructive logging in the region. The protest comes the day after an announcement that the organization's Amazon Campaign Coordinator, Paulo Adario, received a death threat. Greenpeace vowed to continue its campaign to protect the Amazon rainforest.

Greenpeace documented three helicopters, two planes, five trucks, and 16 Brazilian environmental police raiding an illegal mahogany sawmill today in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The sawmill is owned by Osmar Ferreira, who owns a number of lumber mills that supply mahogany to the U.S. market, including companies such as Ethan Allen, J. Zeluck, L. & J.G. Stickley, and Georgia Pacific via U.S. based importers including DLH Nordisk and Inter-Continental Hardwoods. Over the last five days, officials have seized over 250,000 cubic feet worth almost $7 million on the international market.

Following a high speed chase through hundreds of miles of fog and increasingly rough seas near Antarctica, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza this morning drove the Japanese whaling fleet out of the Southern Ocean hunting grounds.

Since 08:30 this morning, Greenpeace staged a protest in Montreal where delegates from environment ministries and scientific experts from over 110 countries are meeting to discuss the future of the world's remaining ancient forests. Seven inflatable animals representing the threatened wildlife of the world's remaining forests greeted delegates as they entered the meeting.

ForestEthics, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Sierra Club of British Columbia are cautiously optimistic about Sustainable Resource Management Minister Stan Hagen's announcement endorsing the Central Coast Land Use Planning Table Phase 1 decision and completing land-use planning for the central and north coasts. The BC coastal region, known as the Great Bear Rainforest, includes dozens of pristine valleys and lush ancient temperate rainforests, and is home to some of the most biologically unique and rich mix of plants and animals on the planet, including grizzlies, salmon, Kermode "spirit" bears, wolves and giant trees.

Greenpeace today applauded the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) for committing to a moratorium on forest and peatland clearance. The commitment came in advance of the governments of Indonesia and Norway signing a $1 billion deal in Oslo to develop capacity to implement strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).