September 2013

Today 40 Greenpeace activists in Germany chained themselves to a railway line to block coal shipments to one of Europe’s most polluting power plants. The plant is run by the Swedish state-owned energy giant, Vattenfall, burning brown-coal (or Lignite), the most polluting way to generate energy. Gregor Kessler reports from the railway line in Lausitz, where activists from have been chained since three this morning.

On Sunday, something incredible happened. I got on my bike. I cycled around Washington, DC and 14,000 people came with me, in over 106 cities, in 36 countries, in every continent around the world. I joined the biggest demonstration ever in defence of the Arctic. And this was just a taste of what our movement can do.

David Rose has penned an article in the Mail on Sunday about the Arctic sea ice, and it’s buzzing around the denial-o-sphere like a bumble bee on crystal meth. The thrust of his piece is that the ice is more abundant this summer than the record low of last year (as the vast majority of scientists predicted) and that climate change can therefore be declared bogus.

As designer and creative director on Aurora I have seen her grow from my initial rough sketch in to a fantastical giant. Working on such a unique project allows for great freedom in designing and creating.

Coaches have been arranged from Bristol, Brighton, Oxford and Canterbury to bring you to London for Aurora's parade on 15 September and take you back to your destination. 

To secure a place on one of these services, please book your seat by 5pm Wednesday 11 September. 

To book, click on the relevant link below: 

Brighton - click here. 

Pick up from Brighton train station at 9.30am

Lucien is the director at Factory Settings, a scenic construction company, based in East London.

For us at Factory Settings, constructing strange imaginings is our stock-in-trade. Unfortunately, most of the more outlandish enquiries never get to the production stage. It's an all-too familiar conversation these days when we get a call, for example, asking "Can you make us several dinosaurs to be installed around London?"  

Arriving to work this morning, staff at Lancashire County Council will find a fracking rig drilling outside County Hall in Preston. It's a fake fracking outfit - the same Frack & Go that struck in George Osborne's constituency ealier this year - but it gives a small taste of what being next door to a drilling operation is like.

It's particularly timely as the council planning committee will be deciding soon on a new application from Cuadrilla, the same company that has attracted huge protests in Sussex.

When we commissioned the work for Aurora, the world’s biggest polar bear, the Shard had never been climbed. The 6 women who then climbed it on 11 July had not yet inspired thousands of people through their epic ice climb to save the Arctic. Greenpeace hadn’t yet said: what will you do?