April 2010

Ships work to contain the oil spill © Sean Gardner/Greenpeace

Will they never learn? Today the Gulf coast of the southern US is facing environmental catastrophe. Over 200,000 gallons of crude oil a day is leaking from the wellhead of the destroyed BP rig Deepwater Horizon, creating a giant slick visible from space.

The TUC's Frances O'Grady on the gaping hole at the heart of Britain's finances

Tonight sees the final leaders’ debate of election 2010, and with the polls still close and Gordon Brown facing up to the public after his 'bigot' gaffe, it should be a lively one.

The subject of the debate is the real issue of the day – the economy and how we are going to deal with our massive national deficit.

Brussels Expo: every sort of seafood imaginable - except bluefin

I'm in Brussels, at the annual European Seafood Exposition. In the shadow of the improbably-shaped Atomium, thousands of people gather to buy and sell seafood. Five vast halls in an impossibly imposing building, crammed for three days with every sort of seafood you can imagine, as well as quite a few you hadn't yet dreamt up. The scale of it takes your breath away. This is the world's largest seafood fair, and quite literally it's the place the big-money deals are done to trade away our ocean life.

Cattle ranching in the Amazon is the single biggest cause of rainforest destruction.

Back at the end of last year, while politicians were talking about the importance of forests in the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, we were busy taking on the single biggest cause of rainforest destruction worldwide – the expansion of the Brazilian cattle industry.

It seemed like it was going to be a pretty tough nut to crack, so we dug in our heels and prepared for a long fight to get lasting change at the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

But sometimes events surprise you. Completely unexpectedly, within months of the campaign starting, and following thousands of Greenpeace supporters taking action, the issue was making serious progress.

Ever since the economy, and public sector investment, hit the buffers in late 2008, our call for government to invest heavily in new clean energy industries has become more important. What's needed is a Green New Deal - a strong green stimulus combined with an active industrial strategy - to create thousands of skilled jobs, secure energy supplies and secure Britain's place in the global clean energy race.

And it's an idea that's very popular with the electorate. A new poll by YouGov for Greenpeace shows a 65% of people demanding increased government investment in new clean energy industries. That figure rises to over 70% in the North East, where many of the jobs would be based.

But will we get it?

If you’ve seen the media reports on whales over the past couple of weeks, you could be forgiven for thinking that there had been some sort of historical deal done. A deal that seems to be being spun as a way to save whales, by allowing some to be hunted. Media spin aside, we’ve been keen to see the detail of what is going to be on the table for our governments at the upcoming International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in June.

Yesterday, at last, the speculation ended when the IWC published the details of a proposal on their website. The proposal is just that, a proposal. Not a deal, and certainly not a done deal. So please, view the over-effusive headlines with some care.

China is the king of coal. It is the world's biggest producer and consumer - but this reliance on coal is costing the country dear.

Because coal kills.

From the miners who dig it, to the people who breathe in its fumes, to the skies that swallow immense clouds of carbon dioxide, heating the earth and causing climate change and rising seal levels, coal takes more than it gives.

What interesting times we're living in. The unexpected Lib-Dem surge has made this election impossible to call, and at the same time forced both Labour and the Tories to debate questions which they'd far rather ignore. How do they intend to pay down our frighteningly large national debt, for example?

Nick Clegg put the spotlight squarely on Trident in last week's leaders' debate, arguing that £100bn to replace a Cold War relic that has no military value makes little sense at the best of times, let alone when we're facing financial meltdown.