Greenpeace at the Climate Clinic for a debate on coal vs renewables.

We've just found out we're up for another web award: The People's Choice Website of the Year Award. If you like what we do here in cyberspace, please tootle over and vote!

Strangely, we've won two other awards in the past few weeks. EfficienCity, our virtual town showcasing decentralised energy, has won the W3 Best in Show for animation. (The W3 or World Wide Web Consortium are the folks who decide the standards for the web. The criteria they judge include creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use, so all credit to our friends at BiroCreative who built EfficienCity.)

I've noticed a higher-than-expected amount of traffic going to our Obama press statement over the past couple of days, so it looks like people are interested in what we make of Obama's victory.

I think this image, on the homepage of the Greenpeace USA website, says it all:

Ed Miliband (image by Christian Guthier, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

Big news from this morning's Cabinet reshuffle: Gordon Brown has created a new department for climate change and energy, and Ed Miliband has been appointed its head.

This is, potentially, fantastic stuff. Until now, one department has been dealing with climate change and another - the department for business (DBERR) - with energy. This entirely nonsensical division hamstrung any chances of a coherent, low carbon energy policy and kept business and environmental interests at perpetual loggerheads. No prizes for guessing who usually won.

Government wonks have once again been druming up support for GM food, the latest tub-thumping courtesy of science minister Ian Pearson. He's been saying that if engineered crops can be demonstrated to alleviate hunger around the world, then the great British public will be only too happy to see them being cultivated in our green and pleasant land as well.

Benet (right) joins Climate Clinic's 'Coal vs Renewables' debate

One of the great traditions of British politics is the seaside conference. It is sad to think it might soon be a thing of the past. In 2007 all three political parties held their conferences in seaside resorts; this year the Climate Clinic only needs its bucket and spade once – for the Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth.

US climate change policy will deliver hell and high water
© Greenpeace/Bill Auth

Last night, a day after George Bush's final State of the Union speech, Greenpeace volunteers in the US used one of their nation's most iconic monuments to paint a clear picture of what his climate change policies will mean for the planet.

I am bathed in the warm glow of the righteous, for not only did I march with them, but I marched in the rain. Once you've made the decision, a little bit of meteorological adversity boosts everyone's sense of camaraderie. Apart, that is, from my fair-weather 'friend' Richard, who buggered off to the pub about ten minutes in, and is therefore the worst sort of part-timer and highly deserving of public contempt and derision. I try to do my bit.

So, apart from Richard the faithless, we were all there to send a message to Bali, where our glorious leaders are trying to save us all from climate Armageddon without imperilling the ability of large companies to make more money. Fortunately, climate change was recently reclassified from environmental disaster to business opportunity. Phew.