I guess that there are some experiences which are pretty standard in the first week of a new job. Filling in forms, getting the printer to work, trying to remember people's names. There are some experiences, like stumbling into the middle of a plot to buy up the proposed third runway at Heathrow from beneath the government's noses, which might be considered a little more unusual.
This was my first week as a web editor for GPUK, and on Tuesday when ‘Airplot' was unveiled - Greenpeace's cunning plan to foil the third runway at Heathrow - it all kicked off. There is general popular acclaim for the campaign, an absolute media scrum, rocketing visits to the website, and over 10,000 people signed up to be beneficial owners of the plot within the first day. At one point Ben who heads up the press team sticks his head around the corner - "You think this is busy? We buy airports all the time - it's going to be Stansted next week."
On Wednesday, the news filters through that finally, after over a year of waiting, the government is about to announce a third runway at Heathrow. In the face of Geoff Hoon's weak environmental apologies for the scheme, the office gets ready to respond, and Thursday is a whirl of activity - with my colleagues signing up supporters, taking donations, doing interviews and answering calls at ever-increasing rates.
It's all change for me, and straight into one of the busiest weeks Greenpeace UK has had in recent memory. It's a lot to take in - particularly as this time last week I was sitting in a pub in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, contemplating a move to London and starting a new job. (Hello to everyone in Wales by the way - it's nice here, but the water tastes a bit funny.)
It's a good time to be busy. 2009 is shaping up to be an absolutely critical year for addressing climate change. Unless the government's climate-trashing policies on aviation expansion and building new coal-fired power stations are reversed, and unless global deals on protecting forests and cutting emissions are secured at Copenhagen in December, then the accelerating impacts of climate change we're already seeing will seem, in the future, like a golden age of environmental stability. So, that's what's going to get me out of bed in the morning from now on.
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