climate change

'Please DO something' - Plane Stupid send a message to the government

My favourite climate protesters Plane Stupid struck again this morning when they shut down Stansted, London's third airport.

Taking advantage of a temporary maintenance closure in the small hours of the morning, they set up a camp on the runway. Wearing high visibility vests with the message, "Please DO something", and raising a banner which read 'Climate Emergency', they barricaded themselves with fortified security fencing. The blockade led to 56 Ryanair short-haul flights being cancelled, and the eventual arrest of over fifty young climate activists. Oh, and prevented the release of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere in the process - the average flight out of Stansted has a climate impact equivalent to 41.58 tonnes of CO2.

Oxfam have produced this rather splendid video, Face The Music, to illustrate how the people least able to cope with this warming world of ours (and will suffer more as a result) are also the ones who've contributed the least in terms of emissions. Worth watching for the music alone, which will hopefully reach the ears of those currently engaged in the Poznan talks.

The run-up to Christmas is usually a hectic time for climate change aficionados, not because we're busy buying each other wind-up torches and mini-wind turbines to put under the tree, but there's just so much happening on the global scene. Not only is it the time for international climate talks (Bali last year, Poznan happening now, Copenhagen in 12 months), but the Global Day of Action has swung round once more.

If you can brave the cold, this Saturday 6 December is the one to mark in your diary and London will witness a march to Parliament Square where the likes of Nick Clegg, Caroline Lucas and George Monbiot will be speaking to the crowds. Assemble at 12 noon in Grosvenor Square, outside the US embassy, and there's also protest bike ride from Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10.30am. Further details are on the Campaign Against Climate Change website.

Of course, as it's a Global Day of Action, there are events happening right across the planet. Examine the Global Climate Campaign website to find what's happening in your country.

Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change, which reported to the government on Monday, has gone a long way towards ruling out new coal plants like Kingsnorth from playing a role in any future UK energy mix.

Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.

The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world's global warming and energy problems in one sweeping "nuclear renaissance."

As you might expect, there's a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem.

Two climbers plan their ascent © Greenpeace/Rose

As the climate negotiations rumble on at Poznan in Poland, down the road at the coal power plant a group of Greenpeace climbers have scaled 150 metres up the chimney stack to hang 'Quit coal' banners, while another group has blocked the main entrance gate.

One of the climbers is Will, one of the Kingsnorth Six who were recently acquitted on charges arising from a similar action at (where else?) Kingsnorth power station in Kent - in fact, Will is providing the photos from the top of the chimney.