Greenpeace Blog

Do you like eating fish? Did you realise that around 75 per cent of the world's fish stocks are now fished to their limit or over-fished? While you can still eat some species of fish with a clear conscience, others are being rapidly fished close to extinction. Oxford-based band Stornoway has helpfully recorded a song that tells you which are which. 'The Good Fish Guide' is based on the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) guidelines to ethical fish consumption. It will shortly be released as a downloadable single via the Truck label, an environmentally proactive record label, with all profits to the MCS.

Harpooned!

Interesting, exciting and downright odd things doing the rounds on the web this week:

• Harpooned (subtitled Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator) is the best game I've played in a long time. With tongue firmly in cheek, your hunting vessel speeds through the Southern Ocean, collecting whale meat for scientific study but watch those pesky protesters and TV news crews! (Thanks, Osocio - I laughed like a drain.)
• A nightclub in San Francisco has been going green for several years, and has plans for a piezoelectric dance floor that converts the conga into current.
• Speaking of clubs, the world's first vegan strip joint has opened in (where else?) the States.
• 'Go unscrew yourself' demands Unscrew America, a violently happy website doing its bit on the light bulb front with a user experience that's like a Yellow Submarine flashback.

Blimey. First Al Gore, then Nasa's top scientist and now Prince Charles. Yep, Charlie has joined the clamour against new coal and, while he didn't go as far as Gore and call for "rings of young people blocking bulldozers," he did stand up in front of the European parliament and ask:

"Can we really understand the dynamics of a world in which energy and food security will become real issues for everyone? ... Can we possibly allow twenty years of business as usual before coal powered generation becomes clean? Are we truly investing enough in renewable energy?"

As reported in yesterday's news, London's congestion charge is being modified again to improve the capital's green credentials. From October, vehicles emitting the highest amounts of CO2 will have to pay £25 a day which gets a big thumbs-up, while the most efficient cars will get into central London free of charge.

Some commentators have pointed out that this effectively changes the purpose of the charge from reducing congestion to reducing pollution, and that's no bad thing. According to the World Resources Institute, road transport spews out around 10 per cent of global emissions (pdf), so providing incentives to move to more efficient models is going to do a lot to cut those exhaust fumes.