Judo in Morocco

Since the Soccer World Cup started I've been curious to find out about this Chinese solar energy hardware supplier, Yingu, which is advertising in the stadiums. I've tried to find a website for Yingu, but strangely I don't seem to find any (maybe it's in Chinese-only).

There's only one solar company among the World Cup sponsors in the middle of many conventional companies (Castrol, Sony, Visa, etc.). But still, it shows that the green economy is on the move. And, because it's a Chinese company, I hope it's making European and American industry and political leaders realize that they're going to miss the train of the green economy unless they speed up.

I took this photo in the hotel where I'm staying in Agadir, Morocco for the international whaling negotiations, which in many ways look like a football match. Or political judo. After several days of formal and informal negotiations, so far everyone is still on the tatami. And no-one has shifted to karate.

If everyone continues to play by the rules, I think it is still possible to reach an agreement next week. For this to happen, Japan would need to agree to bring an end to its scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean, and we're not there yet.

There is a lot of media interest for this negotiation. The Spanish news agency EFE, for example has asked me to blog in Spanish from Agadir, and I started doing that yesterday. A few days ago, EFE also put out an interview with me, as their IWC curtain-raiser. I think this reflects the interest for whales in the Spanish-speaking world, where whale-watching has boomed in recent years.