The Indonesia rainforest is threatened by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a paper company that is cutting and burning natural rainforest to build paper plantations. APP’s pulp products are found in every day paper tissue products like Livi and Paseo toilet paper. APP’s forest destruction is also endangering the home of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger, of which there are no more than 400 individuals remaining in the wild.

With the help of tiger suits, students are creatively spreading the message on campuses. Greenpeace Campus Coordinators Jessica “Loko” Seaman (a recent Greenpeace Semester graduate) at Louisiana State University and Justin Lozano at the University of Pittsburgh held “clear cut haircut “ events. Students were given free buzz cuts while being educated about APP’s deforestation practices. Participants and onlookers were asked to sign petitions requesting their Universities move towards 100% post consumer recycled paper tissue products on campus.

As the “clear cut haircut” events ended, Justin and Loko shipped the tiger suits off to the next campuses. Campus Coordinator Josh Chamberland’s Operation Tiger campaign has already collected over 900 petitions, the campaign was featured on the front page of  “The BG News”! After front page fame, the suits then made their way to Campus Coordinator’s Caroline Hansley at North Carolina State University and Erica Kris at Arizona State University, students there used photo petitions to raise awareness and call on their campuses to shift towards sustainable forest procurement policies.

Students across the country are seeking to pile more pressure onto APP with the Operation Tiger campaign. Most recently, Danone and Xerox decide to cut ties with APP, and now you can help the students out by urging Barnes and Noble to also cut ties with APP.

A dozen students from George Mason University’s Environmental Action Group (EAG) toured the new Rainbow Warrior, Tuesday night to learn more about Greenpeace’s newest flagship and get inspired for their campus campaigns.

After receiving a private tour of the ship’s deck, helipad, and conference room, I met with the students to talk about their visit.

They were thrilled to learn more about Greenpeace’s history. How we got our start on the seas in 1971, protesting nuclear weapons testing off the coast of Alaska.

EAG’s Campaign Coordinator Jason Von Kundra told me he loved the innovation onboard the new ship. He was impressed that Greenpeace found a way to design a helipad on a sailboat, despite initial doubts from engineers. Jason said this was symbolic of how Greenpeace is on a larger scale. Greenpeace uses “innovate ways [with its campaigns] and it works!”

We talked about how Greenpeace uses non-violent direct action to create lasting change for our planet. Six students, including Jason, and a professor from George Mason recently risked arrest at the Tar Sands Action sit-in last August to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The George Mason crew told me students and young people must get involved in the youth climate movement today, and to not be afraid to disobey the law using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience. Students must “use [their] civil rights, or there’s no point in having them. When we’re complacent they [our opposition] win.”
I couldn’t agree more.

If you’re at George Mason, get involved with EAG today.

My mother told me not to talk to strangers.  I haven’t always followed that advice, but it’s still an ingrained cultural norm.  What I mean by that is that it’s strange and awkward to approach a stranger and engage them in conversation.  To ask that stranger you’ve just met to sign their John Hancock on a piece of paper they know very little about can seem like a stretch.  It requires you to quickly gain their trust and approval.

That’s what petitioning is.  It’s the act of appealing to an unknown individual on the streets of a bustling town in an attempt to get them to endorse a cause they may or may not already know anything about. Which, for me, is an intimidating prospect.

I was sure the art of petitioning would be one of the skills taught to me during the semester.  I was correct in this assumption  – and terrified by it. In our classroom setting, we learned how to petition and the importance of this personal interaction when talking to people about an important issue; we practiced by role playing.   One of the tips that I valued the most was to smile and have a good time.

Too soon our role playing time was up. It was the hour to hit the streets.  So we suited up in Greenpeace gear and headed outside of the headquarters in Washington, DC.  My comrades set their goals high and high-fived.  I chose to set a comfortable goal of just talking to one person.   I’d been spending all day cultivating a positive personal attitude towards the prospect of speaking to strangers.  I felt like I was maybe going to be just fine petitioning.  My “turf” ended up being in front of the District of Columbia Public Library.  The foot traffic was slow, but steady.

Within moments of being in the spot one of my Greenpeace Semester coordinators casually suggested an interested pedestrian sign my clipboard. Goal accomplished.  I now had time to revise my goal, and settled on ten signatures . The day progressed and I steadily collected signatures.

To those that shook their head no, I genuinely wished them a great day and smiled.  On one occasion a man did an about face at the sound of my well wishing and returned to sign my clipboard.  It was a heart-warming experience. As our hour of street petitioning drew to a close my end result was thirteen signatures. I was very content to have smashed both of my goals.  Talking to strangers isn’t a scary thing to me anymore, as long as I have the right attitude.

Jessica Loko Seaman is a student activist currently in the Greenpeace Semester.

On the second day of my internship, I helped paint a 20 by 40 foot banner at Greenpeace’s San Francisco warehouse.

Within the first month, I had the honor to sit in on a video conference with Kumi Naidoo, the inspiring EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of Greenpeace International!

I recently attended a two day Nonviolent Direct Action training, in which our trainers were majorly experienced Greenpeace activists who’ve hung banners everywhere from Mount Rushmore to exploratory oil rigs in the freakin’ Arctic, so cool!

I get to work with total environmental pros who are constantly fighting to save our planet. The Activist Network team includes top-notch organizers who juggle countless difficult tasks at once while being totally chill and having a great time. They are seriously awesome.

Not to mention the hundreds of remarkable activists from all over the country who I get to chat with on a daily basis. They are overwhelmingly passionate about getting involved and they just blow me away in general. Like the stay at home moms who tell me they refuse to leave a dirty, messed up planet behind for their kids to deal with. Like the woman who lived in Germany as a child and couldn’t play outside when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster unfolded. Like the college and high school students in the midst of exams who still manage to organize their student groups to demand a clean energy future. Our environmental victories are not possible without them.

Last but certainly not least, I sat in on a video conference today with environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, who bid a total of almost 2 billion dollars (which he didn’t actually have) on 22,500 acres of land in Utah to prevent big oil from getting their dirty hands on it, and he’s never looked back. It’s amazing to see the great strides that a single human can make for the environmental movement.

If there’s one thing to take away from my time at Greenpeace, it’s that everything we do really matters. Take this awesome opportunity to apply right now and discover the coolest thing you’ll do as a Greenpeace Intern!!

Posted on behalf of Bessie Rose, GOT Spring 10 Alum:

I’ve just returned from the most life changing experience I’ve had yet in my 19 years on this beautiful Earth.  The experience I speak of is the Greenpeace Organizing Term. This semester, also called the GOT, provides students that have a passion for environmental activism, organizing, or are just curious about environmental issues in general an outlet to turn their concern into action.

When I signed up for the GOT, I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Once I had completed the interview, and then been accepted, I realized my vision – to act on something I cared deeply about – would become a reality.

The semester was filled with action (quite literally) on all ends.

Some major highlights for me were the campaign simulation, the trainings, and the expedition trip. The campaign simulation gave each student two days to prepare, plan and implement a hypothetical environmental campaign on their campus or in their community using the tools we had gained while on the GOT.

It was hard but rewarding work, and after completion of the simulation, my confidence in my ability to run an environmental campaign increased ten-fold.

Our expedition trip to Canada to bear witness to the tar sands was perhaps the most eye-opening experience for me while on the GOT. Before leaving for the trip we spent weeks studying the tar sands.

We learned just how detrimental the tar sands are both to the land which contains large amounts of Canada’s wetlands and vast amounts of biodiversity, and also for the people including indigenous populations whose rights have been endlessly violated by oil companies.

Once we got to Canada, we went on an exclusive tour through the tar sands. Along with the DC GOT class and Greenpeace Canada, we successfully planned and carried out an action in front of the BP headquarters in Calgary.

Our action coincided with BP’s annual general meeting in London and other protests going on as part of the “BP Fortnight of Shame” to re-brand BP as an environmentally destructive company and demand that they divest from tar sands development.

The Calgary BP action was tons of fun to plan and carry out, but also required lots of hard-work, organization, and focus since it was almost entirely up to the GOT to plan and organize the event. Luckily, Greenpeace Canada was kind enough to give us space and materials to work, and also helped coordinate media to arrive at the event.

It’s hard to encompass exactly what the Greenpeace Organizing Term did for me in a few paragraphs. I want to say that if you decide to join the GOT, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

The GOT has and taught me how to align my beliefs with action that matters. For me, that’s the core of hope. And that, in itself, is a marvelous victory.

-Bessie Rose, Greenpeace Organizing Term Spring 2010 Alum