I was in Poznan today as the UN climate talks started. Over 8,000 delegates are attending from all over the world. With bleak skies and media helicopters flying around the atmoaphere was really quite dramatic!

Jess will be blogging here directly from the talks so you can look forward to updates from her shortly. We've also still got the Climate Rescue Station in Konin where I have just returned. Lots of exciting stuff is happening here.

We rigged up these light strips to the batteries that we charged with solar pannels to send this message out to the folks at Poznan from our station.

Image &copy Greenpeace/ Karol Grygoruk

After a lot of hard work setting this up - some of the activists at the Climate Rescue Station managed to hang a message over the side of the mine.

The mine security freaked out and cut the ropes that were holding the letters... shame the Polish Government isn't cutting carbon emissions as fast!

The open cast mines around here are massive and seem to go on an on for miles. I had never seen an open mine before I came here but they are the most ugly looking landscapes. It's difficult to appreciate the size of one unless you go right into it and stand in the middle gazing up at the sides where men have cut away at the earth. Last week I didn't know what to expect when we went into the mine next to our camp but once I was in there I was absolutely speechless - well that had a lot to do with being out of breath since I am not exactly your most athletic blogger! - but I just couldn't believe the amount of trouble that some humans have gone to in order to get this terrible stuff out of the ground!

The machines they use to do it are gigantic things that churn up the ground at the front and spit all of the coal out of the back. They look like extraterrestrial monsters that have come here to destroy the planet and at night they are all lit up like spaceships. Yet they are not alien - humans create them and control them. These monsters provide over 90 percent of Poland's energy. They are the reason why most Polish people are able to switch on their lights at night - like so many other countries which are very dependent on this dirty fuel. These monsters are working for us.

Before the coal mine workers appeared at the site where we painting "STOP" last week, with chalk powder, I half expected to see the Orcs (Lord of the Rings) to emerge from fire filled tunnels below the mine or to find the Skeksis (Dark Crystal) coming towards me to drain me of my life essence! The landscape of the mine is really that evil looking. Unfortunately though - I wasn't just vividly engrossed in a Tolkien book or standing in a Jim Henson museum. This mine right next to our camp is shockingly real and the only demon in it is the coal itself.

I got back to the Climate Rescue Station from Warsaw last night. We just had a Polish photographer, Karol Grygoruk, here for a few days. Here's some of his lovely pictures.

More updates soon...

Whenever I talk to people outside Greenpeace they have the impression that all we do is create trouble, say "no" to a lot of things, hang banners and get arrested. Well I guess that's understandable since that's the stuff the media loves. But what you don't see is that for every activist chaining themselves to a ship or sitting in front of a bulldozer there is a scientist, a researcher or a political advisor working with Greenpeace for the same cause.

Yesterday morning in Warsaw, Poland we dumped a load of coal outside a hotel where a coal addicts meeting was taking place (see my previous vlog) and created quite a stir.

Then in the afternoon we released a detailed report on the true cost of coal - along with the independent Dutch Institute CE Delft.

This is the serious side of Greenpeace that people don't often see because it's not so dramatic even though it's just as important.

Another thing people usually miss is that we're offering realistic and effective solutions to climate change. We're not just asking the world to quit coal without presenting clear alternatives.

Check out our Energy [R]evolution to see for yourself.

We're serious about climate change - and we think it's time that world leaders got serious too. Time is quickly running out!

Images &copy Greenpeace/Nick Cobbing

I have just been released from a police station in Konin after taking part in an action today. I am back at our camp now - inside the dome - trying to make my frozen fingers move so I can tell you about it.

This morning, 22 of us (including folks from Poland, Germany, Hungary,Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and the UK) launched ropes over the edge of the mine next to the Climate Rescue Station. Despite some security workers trying to pull us away we all managed to slip down into the mine on the ropes.

It was a long way down. I wasn't expecting it to be so steep and so high but before I let my nerves take a hold of me - I pushed my feet into the muddy slope - grabbed the rope and somehow managed to end up at the bottom of an almost vertical cliff that must have been at least 30 meters high.

Just found this update from Lisa in my in box. It's her first look at the climate rescue station (perched beside a coal mine in Poland).

I have arrived at the Climate Rescue Station! Sadly - Gene went home to India today. He's such a rockstar that I wish he was sticking around but I have had to make do with a few brief hugs today as we crossed paths while I was finding my feet and he was getting ready leave. So for now - I'm your trusty blogger in Poland where the UN negotiations will be held in just over a week's time. Here we have set up a camp with a miniature Earth on the edge of coal mine to highlight the tipping point we will cross over if we continue to use coal - the single biggest cause of climate change.

You'd think a small planet would look really odd just sitting on the ground as if fallen from space but it didn't look that way to me as we approached the camp. It seemed to fit right in for some unfathomable reason. I had to do a quick double take... wondering just for a split second if that was OUR man made dome or something else that just evolved straight out of the ground.

Gene, at the Climate Rescue Station, compares the coal mining industry in Poland to what he has seen in his home country - India.

On the streets of Amsterdam, on the off chance that you're paying any attention to the pavement, you might spot a stray ladybug tile. These spots mark scenes of senseless violence. [editor's comment - does violence ever make sense?]

If these ladybug tiles were to be laid at every scene of senseless violence across the world, our planet would look like one big red-and-black ball from outer space.

A ladybug tile would be needed at the Jozwin 2B opencast mine in Konin, from the edge of which I write this blog. Dozens more would be needed for Poland's other coal mines. And one for the doorsteps of each of its thermal power plants.

These tiles would also need to stretch end-to-end across the coal belt of India, at thermal power plants in Dadri and Raichur and Kolaghat, at big dams in Narmada and Tehri, at nuclear power plants in Kaiga and Kudankulam, at oilfields in Assam and oil-rigs in the Kutch, at every assembly line manufacturing giant SUVs for India's fat and rich.

And of course, one ladybug tile would need to commemorate the senseless violence at Jharia.

Gene Hashmi, at the Climate Rescue Station, has documented a day in the life of coal in Poland. Some pretty shocking stuff! Click on each image in the slideshow for the story behind it.

After years of living in fear of climate change, we are fast acquiring the weapons to defeat it. But the only one who can unite humanity for this life-or-death struggle is Barack Obama - and he must act now.

Greg is part of the communications team at Climate Rescue Station. He writes...

Weaning the world off its addiction to coal will be a long, hard slog, however, the last week has seen some progress, with several actions and one important ruling in the U.S all making waves.

Poland is playing host to climate talks this month in Poznan in the lead up to COP 14 in Copenhagen. And last week has seen the launch of Greenpeace’s Climate Rescue Station (CRS), a huge globe on the edge of a vast open pit coal mine in Konin, very close to Poznan and the upcoming talks.

The Rescue Station is a bright blue speck perched on a man-made cliff next to the state-owned KBW lignite mine that seeks to show that there is still time to save the climate, but only if we back away from coal and the precipice it is driving us towards.

With winter no longer just looming, but bearing down on Poland, the CRS and its wind and solar power stands out as a beacon on the bleak landscape, showing that the future can be cleaner and brighter for all if dirty coal, such as the lignite mined in Konin, is replaced by renewable energy solutions.

The globe has proven a magnet for locals too, with 400 people from nearby towns turning out on Saturday to protest the mine which threatens their homes and livelihoods.

Our team at the Climate Rescue Station joined 400 local people in Konin Poland to protest against a massive open coal mine.

Follow Nicole, a Dutch volunteer activist, as she takes part in the 100 strong camp against coal in Rotterdam.

At the weekend I dragged myself out of bed and onto a train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. After waiting an hour at the train station I was finally picked up by a Greenpeace volunteer with a video editor in the back seat. We drove out towards the E.ON power plant that lies south of Rotterdam on the Maasvlakte.

Here's where we were at the weekend. Click on the image to see the where else we've been on the Quit Coal Tour

When we got there we were stopped by a police roadblock but I very cunningly walked along the beach and got across to the site where 100 activists were occupying the construction site of a new power plant that E.ON are building. To give you an idea of what it's like to be in a big Greenpeace action I've thrown together a very unprofessional vlog - with a commentary by Melanie, one of the activists, and myself.

The captain of the Rainbow Warrior was arrested after blocking the port and the ship has been impounded. Read more about this story.

- Check out Melanie's blog about the action

- Follow the Quit Coal Tour

Government plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants face growing concerns the industry needs another waste repository involving a massive escalation in cost.