mal food and sea dives

Today was super awesome. At work we went over a whole lot of database stuff and how Greenpeace does all that. The Activist Network is super cool. They take all of the people who are interested in Greenpeace, who have signed up for an email or newsletter before and contact them about issues - like we are doing with Nevada. Then on top of that they contact everyone who was interested in volunteering and ask if they would like to be a Lead Activist, of which there are currently over 500 around the United States. Then to those Lead Activists they send toolkits every 4-6 weeks with different campaigns and easy ways they can take park themselves or organize something in their community. So later in the summer I'll be calling to recruit Lead Activists and also to coach current Lead Activists on how to take part in campaigns and follow up on them and get them to report back. Super exciting stuff. It's really giving power to the people.

So on top of learning all about how the databases and what not at GP work we also had a staff lunch hour and the Executive Director of Greenpeace came and spoke to us about what's going on with the organization on a more administrative level. Following this, Ahmed Moosa a senior member of the new democratic government in the Maldives, spoke to us about his president's (Mohamed Nasheed - definitely an inspiring guy to read up on if you have some time) victory in establishing a democracy there after 20 years of struggle and now how he is embracing climate change. The Maldives only contribute 0.001 percent of global GHG emissions but they are planning on going completely carbon neutral themselves within the next 10 years and totally converting over to renewables just to make that statement. Of course they, being only 1.5 metres out of the water, and their inhabitants, of which there are just under 400,000 are at extreme threat to rising sea levels due to climate change. However, Ahmed was very optimistic and just said that we really need United States support and for people to stand up and march and protest and make demands like people are doing in the Maldives. He also talked about Copenhagen and how from his president's perspective China was really the main country holding everyone there back. He was so intense and powerful to hear speak.

One of the Greenpeace Oceans guys also gave a talk on the ongoing work on our sustainable seafood campaign. He sort of has one of my dream jobs, or something like it. I honestly can't share a lot about what is going on there because it's pretty much all under wraps but it was so great to be included and was really fascinating.

More calls to Nevada later in the day - but that was about it. One guy was definitely difficult to deal with, really drilling me on the issue and asking a lot of tough questions, he seemed pretty pissed off. But Ben said I handled it really well and just told him I'd send him all of the information by email and stayed calm. I figure it can't get much worse than that so everything from here will be just fine :)

Shiv's is looking a lot better, yay! This weekend is going to be super busy as well with different things going on. Happy hour (or soda hour for me) with Greenpeace people at a local place after work tomorrow, then a BBQ on Saturday, and another art festival on Sunday! I've added some more photos on facebook of my adventures last weekend so check them out :) and if you don't have facebook there are a couple new photos posted in the blogs below