At 9am on a Friday morning in the Greenpeace Sydney office, our giant LEGO friend, Katy, received a phone call from a supporter informing her that Shell is using it's partnership with the well-loved LEGO brand to increase fuel sales and divert attention from its Arctic oil drilling.
The news of LEGO's cosy relationship with Shell has led to tiny protests erupting around the country - nay, the world. Famous national and international landmarks have been festooned with banners as the streets resounded the stamp of little plastic feet.
Today we celebrate a new milestone - 100,000 Facebook fans. While some of you may be thinking “oh, so what!” I wanted to explain why this is actually a significant achievement for digital activism.
International Volunteers Day is celebrated each year on the 5th of December, a great opportunity to reflect on a huge year and all the fantastic work and the continued commitment of our amazing volunteer base across Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
5 December is International Volunteers Day! We think every day should be volunteers’ day but we’d like to take this opportunity to give a special thanks to all the volunteers who, day in and day out, make our work at Greenpeace possible.
The staff at Greenpeace feel incredibly lucky to receive letters from people expressing their support of the work we do. Sometimes we receive drawings and poems, sometimes a note of congratulations, sometimes a suggestion. All letters are special – even the ones that tell us where they disagree with our activities. But some of the extra special ones come from little, green people.
Usually you volunteer because you are a firm believer in the cause, but in my case, I volunteered for Greenpeace out of curiosity. I had no idea what Greenpeace does, but when I got involved, it became an insatiable want to contribute and to help. The Greenpeace mission has become mine, and their vision, my dream.
There is a meme building around the idea that post 2007, the environment movement in Australia has started to come apart like a wet cigar – sure there’s a price on carbon pollution but so what, Tony Abbott will see that off as soon as he gets his feet under the PM’s desk. The Kevin 07election was the high tide mark and it’s all been in retreat since then.
It’s a cold winter morning, everyone is bundled up - coat, jackets, sweaters, gloves, scarves and caps. While I scramble to catch some sunshine, I see some braving the cold on their bikes.
