HSBC and whale victory

Two victories! Campaigns can work.

After receiving nearly 10,000 emails, HSBC has sold its shares in Sinar Mas, one of the worst companies responsible for ripping up the Indonesian rainforest to grow plantations of palm oil and paper crops - see my previous blog here. Of course sadly this hasn't stopped Sinar Mas yet - but Greenpeace will now be asking other Sinar Mas investors, such as UBS and Credit Suisse, to follow HSBC's lead and divest their interests in the company.

Photo: Andy Hazel art piece that I enjoyed entitles "Voles Think God is Dead"

Meanwhile we had good news from the International Whaling Commission in Morocco - see my blog here about how new proposals re whaling were shot down in flames - now I hear from Jean Lambert, the Green MEP for London, who has welcomed a resolution adopted by European Parliament today that calls for Iceland to stop all whaling and drop its reservation lodged with the International Whaling Committee as a prerequisite for joining the European Union.

The call was made as part of an amendment to a resolution on Iceland's application to join the European Union tabled by the Green/EFA group. As Jean said: "This is a big victory for all those who have campaigned long and hard against the premeditated, deliberate and unnecessary practice of whaling. The resolution sends a strong signal to Iceland that if they are serious about membership of the European Union, it must respect international standards. I hope that Iceland will now join the rest of the EU in seeking to put an end to this inhumane practice in the rest of the world."