One of third runway architects Grimshaw's earlier works (photo by Mat Strange)

Even though it hasn't been officially announced, it's been widely reported that architectural firm Grimshaw has won the bid to design the third runway at Heathrow. How much design a strip of tarmac needs I don't know, but presumably there's more to it than my ignorant assumptions suggest.

Grimshaw are, of course, the firm behind such eco-hits as the Eden Project and the firm's chairman Sir Nicholas Grimshaw has something of a reputation for sustainable and environmentally considerate approaches to architecture. Read more »

The sun sets on BAA's dominance of the UK aviation sector, probably derailing Stansted expansion plans for good measure.

Times are tough at the enormous aircraft hangar that I like to imagine BAA plot their world domination from. Being the biggest airport operator in the world, not to mention being best mates with the UK government's inner circle, you'd think they'd pretty much be able to do what they wanted. But it turns out the Competition Commission is going to make them sell three of their seven airports - Stansted, Gatwick and either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Campaigners took their opposition to Stansted expansion to the courts today, but are there other reasons to think it might never happen?

Another day, another airport expansion. It's a bit like the opening to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - as Arthur Dent lies in front of the bulldozers to protect his house from being flattened to make way for a road, the man from the construction company berates him: "What do you mean, why's it got to be built?" he says. "It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses." Substitute runway for bypass, and comedy morphs into reality.

This time its coming from British Airways and not us. You'd have to assume that BA and BAA simply can't see the irony in this video - but showing Terminal 5 under water (given the amount of emissions their short haul flights are causing) looks like a glimpse of the underwater future that we'll all be swimming in if we don't start cutting back on CO2 emissions - starting with aviation. Maybe they're subconsciously admitting that they are a major cause of the problem...

'Please DO something' - Plane Stupid send a message to the government

My favourite climate protesters Plane Stupid struck again this morning when they shut down Stansted, London's third airport.

Taking advantage of a temporary maintenance closure in the small hours of the morning, they set up a camp on the runway. Wearing high visibility vests with the message, "Please DO something", and raising a banner which read 'Climate Emergency', they barricaded themselves with fortified security fencing. The blockade led to 56 Ryanair short-haul flights being cancelled, and the eventual arrest of over fifty young climate activists. Oh, and prevented the release of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere in the process - the average flight out of Stansted has a climate impact equivalent to 41.58 tonnes of CO2.

After the increasing evidence of a damaging Labour rebellion on Heathrow expansion, and yesterday's "tap on the little finger" for Plane Stupid's parliament protesters, today there's news of a new challenge to the government's airport expansion plans - this time through the High Court.

Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has lodged an appeal challenging the government's decision to allow an extra 10 million passengers a year on Stansted's existing runway.

There've been two new blows to the UK's prospects of tackling climate change in the last couple of days.

First, City Airport got permission to increase flights to and from the airport by up to 50 per cent - despite the presence of dozens of flashmobbers registering their opposition outside Newham Town Hall (where the decision meeting was taking place), and local planners, teachers and campaigners from a number of organisations inside the hall. And despite the fact that the airport representatives couldn't and didn't even try to answer the accusations that they'd lied and their noise figures were inaccurate.

News just in from Carol of the Airportwatch/Stop Stansted Expansion group of skullduggery afoot by airport owners BAA to influence their application to build a second runway there. Apparently BAA has recently resorted to 'encouraging' not only its own staff members, but also those of its many suppliers, to write in to the local Uttlesford District Council in support of its new runway proposal.