climate change

That's the eye watering message from our friends over at I Count. They're talking of course about the Climate Change Bill - and are asking you to put the virtual squeeze on your MP, to make sure the bill gets the balls it needs to stop climate change:

So, today the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) comes into effect and we'll all be using more biofuels as a result. Regular readers will know that this exciting piece of legislation will see 2.5 per cent of our petrol and diesel coming from food crops, and that we have been asking everyone to send emails to transport secretary Ruth Kelly asking her to postpone the RTFO. Now we need to see that she abandons so if you haven't expressed your concern about this already, you can still do so.

Image from Plane Stupid

I don't know if you've been following this story about the mole who tried to infiltrate Plane Stupid recently but if you're anything like me, you'll be less surprised at the fact that someone's tried to infiltrate a direct action group working on aviation than at the fact that somebody's felt the need to invent the word 'threatscape'.

Toby Kendall / 'Ken Tobias' (the spy concerned, who listed Top Gun as his favourite movie on Bebo, along with 'war movies' and 'revenge movies') works / worked for 'security' firm C2i International. C2i apparently works closely with clients "to understand their unique threatscape" before delivering "appropriate and proactive solutions".

Woo! We've just heard that our film The Convenient Solution has been chosen as an Official Honoree in Public Service and Activism category of The 12th Annual Webby Awards (aka "the Oscars of the internet").

Apparently, being an Official Honoree means we "scored in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. With nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for you and your team."

Help create the biggest and loudest NO the world has ever seen!

The campaign against Heathrow expansion is already huge; there've been rallies, direct actions, flash mobs and an incredible 70,000 responses to the consultation (more on that shortly).

But an agenda for colossal airport expansion and colossal climate change demands a colossal response, and we want to make sure the plans to expand Heathrow receive the biggest and loudest NO the world's ever seen. Literally. A great big NO spelt out by human bodies, which we'd like to set a new world record as the biggest and loudest NO in the world.

We had Fossil Fool's Day last week with plenty of action around the country to highlight the dangers posed by coal, but the dreadful punning doesn't stop there. Continuing the theme, next Tuesday is April Biofool's Day which admittedly falls on the 15th rather than the 1st, but that's because the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) - which will overnight increase our consumption of biofuels - begins to make its presence felt.

On the day, the good folks at Biofuelwatch and the Campaign against Climate Change are organising a protest outside the home of a certain Mr Gordon Brown, Number 10 Downing Street. You can join the crowds outside Number 10 from 6pm and further details are on the websites of both organisations. If you can't get there, you can still do something - write to transport secretary Ruth Kelly with your concerns about this rush towards biofuels.

Meanwhile, concerns about biofuels are rising up the political ladder, as last week UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called for a review on global biofuel policies. Our government currently has the indirect impacts with biofuels under review but the results aren't due for some time, and certainly not before Biofool's Day next week.