November 2008

Boy are BAA keen on a third runway for Heathrow. Their enthusiasm knows no bounds, and there appear to be no lengths they won't go to to get their own way - purely for the good of the country, of course (even though they are Spanish owned) - no shabby profit motives involved.

So far in order to see their dream come true they have:

• colluded with the government (through a joint body - the Heathrow Delivery Group) to steer their plans through the consultation process
• supplied their own data for calculations of noise and pollution that inform the proposal, and prevented opposition groups gaining access it it to carry out their own analyses
• written parts of the consultation themselves
• drawn up a 'risk' list with the Department of Transport to counter opponents of the proposal (including the 2M campaign, the group comprising local councils representing 2 million people who'll be affected by the new runway)
• taken out an injunction against Airportwatch, the umbrella organisation who's members include such radical groups as the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, as well as ourselves.

Imagine you were in a car that was rolling quickly towards the edge of a cliff. The sensible thing to do would be to slam on the brakes as much as possible, knowing that it will take some time to stop, even with your best efforts and your foot to the floor. Another option would be just to take your feet off the pedals and hope it slows down in time. If it was an EU fisheries regulator who found themselves at the wheel, though, chances are they'd consult widely to ensure that they had the best advice possible on how to get out of the situation, and then totally ignore it...

All the available data shows that many fisheries around the world are in serious decline. Some face complete collapse (hence the 'falling off a cliff' analogy) unless drastic action is taken to end over-fishing and give threatened stocks time to recover. This can only happen by setting aside large areas of ocean as marine reserves, off-limits to all forms of fishing. But sadly the fishing industry itself still seems incapable of taking any meaningful steps to address the problem.

Yesterday's pre-budget report presented a great chance to Alastair Darling to fire the starting gun on a clean energy revolution, given that the combination of impending economic meltdown and climactic chaos facing us provide an historic opportunity to invest billions in a low-carbon, smart technology future.

But rather than take that opportunity - by encouraging the development of a new UK manufacturing base capable of exporting renewables and energy efficient technologies to the world, and creating hundreds of thousands of green collar jobs in the process, the Chancellor blew it.

Peaceful protesters from the our Climate Rescue Station were attacked by mine workers today as they entered the vast Jóźwin IIB open pit mine near Konin in Poland. As they prepared to paint a huge "Stop" sign next to a giant excavator, the activists were assaulted and prevented from carrying out their peaceful protest. A journalist accompanying them was also beaten.

Spain has the sunshine and now appears to have the will to use its potential to generate clean energy.

Rising out of the Andalusian countryside like a gigantic obelisk, a huge concrete solar tower is surrounded by fields of more than 1,000 mirrors that are carefully positioned to reflect sunlight in order to superheat water in the tower.

The latest edition of our Guide to Greener Electronics has revealed that very few firms are showing true climate leadership. Despite many green claims, major companies like Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple are failing to support the necessary levels of global cuts in emissions and make the absolute cuts in their own emissions that are required to tackle climate change.

More from our international site  »

Arctic Sunrise arriving at the DRC port of Matadi

Today we're celebrating the opening of a new Greenpeace office in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hurrah! We marked the occasion by inviting Congolese officials aboard the Arctic Sunrise, which is currently docked in Matadi, the country's principal port for timber exports.

This is a crucial time for the Congo rainforest, the world's second largest, as the DRC's government is the final stages of reviewing over 150 land titles, which cover millions of hectares of forest. While a number of titles were recently rejected by the government, the current 'appeals process' could see many of them returned to their former owners, the logging companies. The logging industry is using the present economic downturn to pressurise the govrnment to allow them to keep hold of (and exploit) what effectively amounts to millions of hectares of forest, and carry on business as usual.

Four Greenpeace campaigners scale the Bank of England to highlight need for green investment. © John Cobb/Greenpeace

Update: All four campaigners have now been arrested. You can see more photos from the day on Flickr.

Times are tough. We not only face an immediate global financial crisis but a long-term climate crisis. The urgency of the first is no excuse for neglecting the second.

Four of our campaigners have scaled the Bank of England this morning ahead of the Chancellor’s pre-budget report to highlight that the solutions to our financial crisis are also the solutions we need to tackle climate change.

The answer is a clean energy economy.