March 2013

The third worst eyesore in Britain, according to readers of Country Life, and one of our top three polluters, closed forever today.

Today is the UN’s International Day of Forests. It’s also about two years since you helped us persuade Golden Agri Resources to stop chopping down Indonesia’s rainforests. Sounds like a good time to look at what happened next.

How would you feel if you were betrayed by the very people who are meant to be protecting your interests? This is what we discovered about the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) last month. It turns out that instead of standing up for small scale fishermen, they have actually been trying to deny them the wider representation in Europe that they so desperately need.

Over in Australia, our colleagues have just seen off an unwanted supertrawler, the Margiris. This monster of a boat has been sent packing after an unprecedented campaign by Greenpeace, local fishermen and NGOs, which resulted in the government banished it from fishing in Australian waters.

Now that VW, Europe's biggest and most powerful car company, has agreed to make cleaner and more efficient cars, it's time to convince the rest of Europe (and the world) to follow suit.

Imagine a wind turbine so big that it would take Usain Bolt 19.32 seconds to run across the 200m diameter of its blades (before plunging tragically into the sea). This is what wind manufacturer Dong says will help bring the cost of offshore wind down to below that of new gas-fired power stations (the size of the blades, not Bolt’s premature demise).

When Shell opened their annual wine and dine reception at the National Gallery last night, we made sure their exclusive invitees were treated to a evening of fine works of art in oil. Shell have had a disastrous year, so we captured the drama on canvas. Shell may have paused Arctic drilling for this year, but we're not going away until the Arctic is safe for good.