climate change

While our leaders continue to talk about what's "politically possible," the world continues to warm and precious days go by. The latest science shows that runaway global warming is even closer than we feared. We can't continue to allow our leaders to sit back and play political games when our future is at stake.

That’s why on October 24th, Greenpeace is joining with 350.org and a broad coalition of groups to participate in an international day of action. Events are already planned in over 100 countries around the world. Some are big, some are small - but every single one of them is absolutely necessary.

While BAA continues to make its case for a third runway at Heathrow, the plot of land we bought on the proposed site is still there, and the allotment Richard Briers helped establish has been providing the local community with all manner of produce. Leeks, potatoes, cabbages, rhubarb and blackberries were harvested, although many of the apples were scrumped and reappeared later as bottles of cider.

We now have 57,000 people who've agreed to be beneficial owners of this land (if you haven't become one, you still can) and it feels like the tide is turning. But we still need your help, now more than ever.

Gatwick will shortly have a new owner. BAA is selling the airport for much less than it originally hoped in order to reduce the company's debt. But the new owners have already indicated they intend to expand Gatwick as soon as possible, including a new second runway.

Global Infrastructure Partners, which has paid much less than BAA wanted, want to give Gatwick a major make-over, including a second runway. An injunction prevents them from doing this until 2019 at the earliest, but GIP has suggested it will get planning applications sorted so a new runway could be built as soon as possible.

A large chunk of northern Russia is tundra where the ground is hardened by the arctic conditions into permafrost. Yet even in these harsh climes humans manage to thrive - like the Nenet people, whose nomadic reindeer-herding way of life takes them across north-west Siberia.

But as climate change takes hold, the permafrost is melting, releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane. It's causing problems for the Nenet, altering the availability of their reindeers' food as well as prompting other changes in the local eco-system.

Ed Miliband receives some light reading material 

As if using a large fluorescent pen to highlight the reason why our volunteers were sitting up on top of the Palace of Westminster, on Monday the Climate Change Committee (CCC) released its first annual report on the government's progress in meeting its own emissions targets.

Not everything in the report chimes with what we think is required (there's no room or need for nuclear power, for instance) but what comes through loud and clear is the scale of the challenge and the radical action required to meet it. Our climate manifesto is exactly the sort of thing needed to deliver it.

If you've been wondering what the tweets and Twitpics about the dancers during the Parliament occupation were all about, here's the explanation. Yesterday morning, this group from the Power Shift youth conference staged a flashdance (like a flashmob but, you know, in the medium of dance) below the London Eye to supportaction on climate change.

They then upped sticks and crossed the river to repeat the whole thing in Parliament Square where the volunteers who'd spent a chilly night on the roof watching. Christian, who'd just arrived back from the action, says it really, really cheered them up.

(There's another video with footage from Parliament Square on the Guardian.)