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Happy World Antarctica Day
Antarctica holds 90% of the freshwater on the planet, is the biggest desert in the world, and is the only continent with no native human population. The encircling Antarctic Ocean not only provides life and living space for amazing, unique and iconic wildlife, but it also influences other oceans and wildlife thousands and thousands of…
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We have one year to create the largest ever protected area on Earth
In the words of David Attenborough, “Our planet is a blue planet”. With over 70% of our world covered by water, our oceans can be seen from across the solar system. It wasn’t long ago that the oceans were still believed to be too vast for human activity to be able to cause them significant,…
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Why Pacific Islanders will lead the fight against climate change
Most of us know the story of coal miners and their caged canaries. When my seven-year-old daughter heard it, she was sad that the canaries had to give up their lives to warn the miners to get out. She asked me if miners still use canaries today and I reassured her: ‘No, we have come…
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The rise of Pacific power: From small island states to large ocean states
The Pacific region consists of 24 island states scattered across a quarter of the earth’s surface – a vast area of some 30 million square kilometres. By description alone, the vast area should command the respect and attention of the international community. The countries make up almost 10 percent of United Nations votes and are…
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The massive marine breakthrough we’ve been waiting for
| It is time for Ocean Lovers worldwide to celebrate! After years of political foot-dragging, and four hectic days of negotiations at the United Nations, a breakthrough came in the wee hours of Saturday morning, 24 January: governments around the world agreed to develop a legally-binding treaty to protect marine life beyond national territorial waters.…
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Arctic at the Crossroads
As a small team of youth ambassadors for Greenpeace’s Arctic campaign begin their trek to the North Pole, I’m reminded of the campaign to save the Antarctic (below), which I led on behalf of Greenpeace in the 1980s. Blogpost by Kelly Rigg – April 8, 2013 While politics between the two poles are literally polar…
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Our leaders can and should save the Pacific tuna next week
Ocean stewardship in the Pacific has come a long way. Ask a Pacific islander fifty years ago about managing fish and you would have been greeted with a look of bemusement. After all, fish back in the day were thought of as unlimited. Ask a pacific islander today about managing fish and the response will…
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New Antarctic Ocean Alliance to blaze trail for marine reserves
According to some people, 2012 is supposed to be a year of transformative events. Well I don’t know about astronomical alignments, the Mayan calendar and all that, but for us oceans campaigners, 2012 is definitely significant – for 2012 is the year by which the world’s governments should have committed to a global network of…







