Recommended reading: very long and detailed article in the Guardian about the Arctic Meltdown expedition, and what exactly the on-board scientists are finding out: The Sermilik fjord in Greenland: a chilling view of a warming world.

Here is a really powerful German short film highlighting the problem with the carbon based economy - those using the carbon aren't the same as those footing the bill.
(In German with English subtitles)

So yesterday the EU pulled the plug on inefficient household lighting. The phase-out will be complete by 2012, when only energy saving lightbulbs will be made or imported into Europe for household use.

Almost anyone can tell you why switching to energy saving lightbulbs is a good idea -- even companies lobbying against efficiency standards advocate "making the switch" to save consumers money and greenhouse gas emissions.

So why should radical activists spend precious time campaigning on such seemingly uncontroversial low hanging fruit? Shouldn't Greenpeace leave this sort of thing to, say, progressive politicians and mayors, and concentrate on stuff like quitting coal and stopping nukes?

Wednesday marked the end of this year's Climate Camp in London, but it seems the "swooping" is not over. Activists recruited by the Camp for Climate Action organised various protests, ranging from a Climate Casino at the European Climate Exchange to the "embellishment" of the Barclay's Bank HQ with post-it notes. Now the organisation is preparing to stage what they call "The Great Climate Swoop" in order "to close one of the UK's biggest coal fired [sic] power stations, E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham." The event is scheduled for 17-18 October.

Now, what's not to love about Misty Oldland singing a song about CO2 emission targets with a personal shout-out to each of the G20 leaders, accompanied by a very large toy gorilla in sunglasses, for the 9.9.9. it's time campaign.

People, I have seen the future of the policy brief.
It's got an ambitious target, and you can dance to it.

By Mike Townsley, Head of News - Greenpeace International

“I have seen the future and it is murder,” lamented Leonard Cohen on my iPod as I arrived in Fort McMurray airport, Alberta, Canada. The oil man’s airport of choice for access to the vast dirty oil Tar Sands development: the biggest industrial development in the world and the largest capital investment project in history and, arguably, the stupidest.

Now I don’t really like flying, a classic case of fear of falling - or, to be more precise, landing - and like everyone else the bigger the plane, the less white-knuckled and apprehensive I am. So, we land safely, a small group of Greenpeace activists from around the world, and walk to a helicopter hangar, from which we will embark on a ninety minute aerial tour of what was once pristine boreal forest. At first, all is fine: the slightly scruffy looking Boreal forest seems to stretch forever, cut in two by one of the world’s largest waterways, the Athabasca River. But, after about ten minutes, the forest ends abruptly and in a straight line. The tree-lined horizon gives way to smokestacks, fumes, and vast lakes filled with the toxic water by-product of pushing and processing the bitumen out of the soil. So large are these lakes that they can be seen from space. Canada’s new not-so-great lakes! The earth is broken and scared on a scale that has to be seen to be believed.




There is a reason why an oil reserve so large has been left largely untapped until the last few years – although the industry has been experimenting for decades – it is extremely expensive to first clear the trees, and dig out several metres of soil to be processed to remove the bitumen and then process the bitumen into synthetic crude oil. A second, more recent technique is also being deployed, called in-situ. I forget my fear of flying, and remember my fear of climate change, unchecked industrial development and love of the wilderness.

Update from Mike Hudema - Climate Campaigner with Greenpeace Canada - 7am local time

It's a few hours before we enter the tar sands.

The tar sands are the largest industrial, capital and energy project on the planet but most people still have never heard of them. They are an environmental horror show located in Alberta, Canada that spew more emissions into the air than entire countries - by 2020 they could belch out more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire Czech Republic, twice as much as Peru and over 10 times that of Costa Rica. In addition they are set to consume an area larger than England (140,000 sq km) forever devastating one of the world's most diverse forest ecosystems and the planets largest carbon sink. The tar sands are one of the world's largest climate crimes and this toxic industry represents just how far our politicians are willing to go to keep us hooked on oil.

Unlike conventional oil operations to get tar sands out of the ground vast open pit mines or large well pads are created to get a sticky substance called bitumen out of the ground. The process is incredibly energy intensive – 3-5 times more energy is used then conventional oil operations, incredibly water intensive – 2-5 barrels of freshwater for every barrel of oil and the tar sands currently produce over 1 million barrels of oil every day and hugely destructive.

Today we are going in to say stop. We are going to stand in the way of the world's largest dumptrucks – over three stories tall and say no further. I am going because the tar sands represent the toxic future in store for all of us if our politicians continue to choose the health of big oil profits, over the health of our planet and the people on it. I am tired of sitting on the sidelines while our world is pushed to the brink of climate chaos. Tired of political stalling while millions are displaced or will die due to global warming. Today I will make a stand, like thousands before me and hopefully millions after to push for a better, greener world. Wish me luck!

Update from Mike - 9:20 am local time

"We have just locked down the mining site. The air is toxic. Two of us sit on top of a huge two storey dump truck chained to the inside and outside. Other activists are chained too trucks while other have unfurled a giant banner reading 'tar sands climate crime'"

Update from Mike - 9:40 am local time

"The mine is huge kilometres and kilometres of destruction. "

Update from Christy - 9:45 local time

Activists have blockaded a giant three story high truck and crane in the open pit mining operation. Now, activists have climbed on the truck and the crane and are locked inside the cabs of both vehicles. Both have stopped operations. Right now, Mike Hudema is locked inside the cab of a giant truck talking to media.

Update from activists locked to dumptruck - 11:00 local time

No trucks within site are moving - meaning Greenpeace activists have successfully shut down the operations in this area of the tar sands!

Update from Mike - 12:00 local time

Over three hours onsite with activists chained to two earthmovers and two at the very top of the crane. My eyes are burning but we are actively stopping this climate destruction.

Update from Mike - 13:00 local time

We have officially shut down all of shells albion sands operations! We have stopped this piece of climate destruction for four hours and counting. Spirits are high we will change this world.

Update from Christy - 2:20am local time

Our activists are continuing to occupy two giant trucks and a giant crane in the middle of a Shell tar sands mine. The whole 150,000 barrel a day operation continues to be shut down. Police are on site and the blockade area has been surrounded with spotlights, but it looks like police will not remove the activists during the night. The activists are in good spirits and are totally committed to sticking it out.

Final update on the Greenpeace tar sands mine action

After approximately 30 hours of occupation during which Greenpeace activists were able to halt production and un-roll massive banners reading: 'Climate Crime' - the action ended peacefully and without incident. Activists had communicated clearly the message that tar sands development is contributing towards a climate catastrophe - the high emissions and high energy use involved in extracting tar sands oil in northern Alberta will make it impossible for the world to meet the emissions reduction targets necessary to avoid runaway climate change. The tar sands do not fit into a clean, green and sustainable future. They must be stopped.

Ready to do something? Take action to stop the tar sands.

By Julien Vincent, Climate and Energy Campaigner - Greenpeace Australia-Pacific

The jobs question. It is often the ‘elephant in the room’ during debates over climate change and the need to decarbonise our global energy supply. Quite rightly, people will immediately be concerned for workers in carbon intensive industries that are incompatible with a liveable planet. This makes it all the more important that we tackle the jobs question head on and take action that protects and provides new opportunities for people working in carbon-intensive industries, as well as maximising the new opportunities in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Greenpeace’s Energy [R]evolution scenario is an example of how we can shift towards a renewable energy-based global energy system, putting us on a path to achieving the deep emissions cuts essential for a safe climate. Today, an essential addition was made to the Energy [R]evolution as the first ever jobs analysis of a clean energy scenario was made on a global scale.

Our new report, Working for the Climate, shows that far from delivering economic and social ruin, the Energy [R]evolution is our best bet for energy security, environmental security and job security.

As we shift away from greenhouse-polluting energy sources such as coal, gas, and oil, one less job in that sector is met by three new jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Result? Not only are we on a pathway to deep cuts in global CO2 emissions, but in 2030 we are 2 million jobs better off than we are today.

In fact, by 2030, there would be 8 million renewable and efficiency power sector workers if the world adopts the Energy [R]evolution.

A photograph of the PS10 Concentrating Thermal Power Plant in southern Spain - more installments like this are part of the Energy [R]evolution that can provide new, green jobs.

Some present the alternative as continuing with business as usual as some sort of bold defense of the working class, in order to protect the dirty energy jobs from ‘grasping greenies’ determined to wreck the economy. Think again. Under a business as usual scenario, the global power sector actually loses 500,000 jobs by 2030, mainly in coal mining. This really shouldn’t be anything new – coal industry employment is already in steady decline as mechanisation increases.

World leaders need to wake up to the fact that fossil fuels are a dead end. We desperately need an Energy [R]evolution to preserve a safe climate, as well as secure, affordable energy and jobs in the power sector in the long-term.

By Abigail Jabines, Solar Generation Coordinator

After walking 3 days under the scorching sun for the Chang(e) Caravan,
I am welcoming the thunder storm that is raging while we seek shelter
under the roof of a Buddhist temple at Nakhonratchasima Province in
Thailand.

For 15 days, I am part of a team led by Greenpeace that is traveling
250 kilometers through Thailand with 5 majestic Asian elephants from
Khao Yai National Park, a world heritage site, to Bangkok, in time for
the preparation meeting of the United Nations climate change summit
that begins in the end of the month.

Along the route of the Chang(e) Caravan, the team and I visit schools
and communities to share stories on how climate change threatens
people and the environment. We are also raising a challenge to US
President Obama and other world leaders to follow the examples of
simple citizens from Southeast Asia who decided to be part of the
solution to climate change.

One of these inspiring individuals is Um, a fourth-year student of
Silapakorn University in Petchaburi.

Four courageous, inspirational women from around the world are in New York right now to urge President Obama and heads of state from over 100 countries to take action against climate change. These women have either lost their homes, jobs or food supply to flooding, droughts and other disasters. But they are taking action to rebuild their lives and they are now speaking out for their communities - their family. They are from Mississippi, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands in the Pacific. In facing incredibly desperate situations - all of them have developed a strong voice for action climate change.

Sharon Hanshaw, a cosmetologist from Biloxi, who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, became a leader in preparing her community for the future. Ursula Rakova is moving the 1700 citizens of the tiny Carteret Islands to a mainland location in Papua New Guinea. Ulamila Kurai Wragg, a veteran journalist from the Cook Islands has galvanized Pacific Island women in media, from Hawaii to Fiji, to lead the way in addressing climate change. Constance Okollet, from a small village in Uganda, is a mother who is organising a network of 40 regional women’s groups to confront starvation, drought and inadequate health care caused by climate change.

Meet Sharon, Constance and Ula who explain why they have come to New York this week as world leaders gather to discuss climate change

Watch this space for more from these amazing women who will be participating in events throughout Climate Week in New York (click here to see the list of events). Join these women by signing up to be a climate activist. And If you have any questions you would like to ask thesm - please submit a comment below.

Are you affected by climate change at all? Please add your voice to the Climate Orb.

There may not be very much sea ice where we are right now, at around nearly 80 degrees north, and just over 4 degrees east, but we're soon heading back into the thick stuff again. Earlier in the week we experienced lots more, when the ship was pack bumping and grinding its way deep in the ice pack.

Hundreds of volunteers form a human countdown in Central Park as Climate Week kicks off in NYC. Image © Avaaz

Global leaders have only three months to get their act together and sign a strong Climate Treaty in Copenhagen. Today (Monday September 21st) - with all kinds of events in 5 continents organised by Avaaz and our partners in the TckTckTck campaign, we will show our leaders that our movement is massive and unstoppable.

Click here to look at the global map and find events near you that you can join today and/or find out how you can call your leader urging them to travel to Copenhagen for the climate talks in December and sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty!

Constance, a climate activist from Uganda, formed part of the earth in the Human Countdown. She's writing a blog about her experience today and we'll be posting that here soon

>>Check out the online edition.

>>Meet Zac, a film maker who volunteered this morning to hand out copies of the Yes Men paper.

Yesterday, Constance and Ursula took part in a magnificent piece of aerial art in Central Park.

>> Take action: Ask world leaders to attend the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen htis year and ensure a good deal to save the climate.

Check out the Grist review of the 'Global Wake Up Call' events across the world: -- includes a great slide show and video of Gordon Brown agreeing to go to Copenhagen!

World leaders are listening. Over the last few days the Dutch and UK Prime Ministers have agreed to go to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

Click here to join the call for ALL world leaders to attend the UN Climate Summit for a "FAB" deal (fair, ambitious and binding).

It's a film premier that spans six continents in 45 countries, 550 screens, one of the largest documentary film premiers in history -- a fitting tribute to its subject: the greatest threat our planet has ever faced.

Dear climate activist,

Last night the Danish Government invited heads of state from every nation on Earth to attend the Climate Summit in Copenhagen this December. More than a million of us have already made this demand through the tck tck tck campaign! Yet to date, only Gordon Brown (UK), Donald Tusk (Poland) and Jan Peter Balkenende (Netherlands) have said they’ll attend -- the rest have simply left the fate of our planet to their environment ministers.

Every head of state needs to go to Copenhagen and take personal responsibility for preventing catastrophic climate change. So we’re asking you and millions of people like you around the world to pick up the phone now and call your head of state.

Find their phone number here:

If you get through, just ask them if your leader is going to accept the Danish Government's invitation to personally attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December. Make a record of who you speak to, what you’re told and leave a comment reporting back to us here. Ask them to register your request and pass it along to your leader.

Denmark has opened the door -- now we need to push.

One activist in London got through to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who spent three minutes on the phone with him and pledged to attend. Could you be the one to put your head of state on record?

One phone-call could change the world. So pick up the phone, and find out if it’s yours.

Your friends,

Team Climate

P.S. We can all be button-popping proud that Adam Vaughan of the Guardian said this about our campaign to get leaders to Copenhagen:

"These digital campaigners can already claim some success. When Gordon Brown announced on Sunday that he'd be attending Copenhagen – which is a meeting of environment ministers, not world leaders – more than a little credit belonged to Greenpeace and BeThatChange..."

The action is over now, this was the live stream:

There's lots of pictures here

And an article here.

Now. Fourteen people were arrested in this action and were willing to face jail time to do something about climate change. What are YOU going to do? How about starting with a phone call?

What a busy - and ironic - week of meetings we are coming to the end of right now. It kicked off with 100 heads of state and government at the UN headquarters in New York, and has now moved on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - host of the G20 meeting. But what about that 'other meeting'? Head north from Pittsburgh, hang a left and you get to Edmonton, Alberta - host to the 'Oil Tar Sands Trade Show and Conference'. That 'other meeting'.

While the likes of President Obama, Hu Jingtao, and Kofi Annan talked climate rescue in New York - up in Calgary the Oil Sands conference was discussing - well, oil sands development - also known as the total opposite of climate rescue. This is where the week takes an ironic turn.

The same day that Greenpeace activists unfurled 'Danger: climate destruction ahead' in Pittsburgh to start off the G20 - the oil sands conference attendees were treated to a talk about how to better greenwash their dirty tar sands oil. (What degree of dirty are we talking about here? We are talking: pumping 100 million tonnes [Correction!] approximately 100.000 tonnes of carbon into the air - that's 36 million tonnes per year - and leaching 11 million litres of toxic sludge per day kind of dirty.)

This week was the battle of the meetings. And they seem to be in a deadlock - with both the potential good guys and the (already destroying our climate) bad guys dropping the ball. We didn't see much in the way of climate leadership from our so-called world leaders this week. While at the 'other meeting' tar sands conference attendees are kicking themselves for letting the cat out of the bag about the entire industry being a big, ugly climate crime. We helped them let that cat out though:

Hi it is Ulamila here, the climate witness from the Cook Islands with this tcktcktck.org campaign.

I am here in New York, been here since last Thursday and maximising every opportunity given to me to spread the word that global warming must stop! It has to stop, global leaders will have to step up and give us a moral and binding deal in Copenhagen.

Many a time I have been asked this question by journalists in New York, "what is it really you want out of Copenhagen?". I will tell them many words with the gist of my answers being that the leaders are running out of time, they have to act now, today, they have to cut what is happening, cut carbon emission drastically because global warming is lethal and dangerous.

I live on the coast in the Cook Islands, when the mean-high tide sets in my front lawn is a danger zone to my children. My mother used to eat fish from the lagoon but today it is a health risk to catch fish in the lagoon due to Ciguatera (a kind of fish poisoning, influenced by climate change). Our seasons are messed up. You see my ancestors and my parents planted, fished, and harvested according to the weather and this knowledge was orally passed down through generations - our traditional seasonal calendar. Today, we cannot rely on the chain of events that take place when expected. I don't know much about the science of climate change but I can tell you -- the climate is changing.

Ula, works with a media network in the Pacific called Pacific Wave. They raise awareness about issues including climate change and they are calling on governments for action.

As the G20 talks came to and end today in Pittsburgh it became clear to all of us here that industrialised countries have failed to realise the magnitude of the climate crisis.

Following inspirational speeches - in New York where leaders sounded the climate alarm - we were hoping that Heads of State would agree to put the money on the table that's needed for developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change in addition to to protecting their forests (vital carbon sinks). But they have hit the snooze button instead.

Climate financing is a key sealing a fair, ambitious and binding deal in Copenhagen this December. The lack of momentum here in Pittsburgh is quite a let down for the Greenpeace team here. And while we welcome the progress that has come out of this week - like the agreement to phase out fossil fuel subsidies - we're left staring at a gaping void between what's needed to avert climate catastrophe and what the industrialised countries are actually offering - despite their impressive rhetoric.

World leaders have finally realised that we're in a hole and they clearly understand the need to stop digging - but they need to agree when to put down their shovels. China and Japan have made some positive statements but key countries like Germany, France and the US are lagging far behind. If world leaders can't lead on climate - they should at least follow.

Inaction is unacceptable. It's time world leaders heard from all of us.

Pick up the phone - and change the world!

Cindy Baxter reports:

I am here in Bangkok at the latest round of climate talks, and my head is full of elephants.
Firstly, there are the five elephants that, with Greenpeace activists from across South East Asia and beyond, have just completed a 15-day, 250km trek through Thailand to highlight forest destruction. The Chang(e) caravan which trekked through the villages, forests and along coastlines, engaging with thousands of people along the way. (Chang means elephant in Thai)

Greenpeace/Athit Perawongmetha

Then there’s the five little piggybank elephants, filled during the trek with “small change” collected from the people they met – people who gave whatever they could spare to help protect their forests. It’s not as though they HAVE change to spare – this region has been described as one of the world’s most vulnerable and least able to cope with the impacts of climate change. But they gave it anyway.

And at the moment, all the money on the table to save the climate by saving forests is in those piggy banks. The elephants and the people who donated have done more than the G20, the G8, or the European Union on this issue.

When I arrived in New York last week to follow the journey of four women from across the world during Climate Week - I knew I would find some interesting stories. And I expected to feel a little emotional - but I had no idea how meeting these amazing women would really affect me.

As a Greenpeace web editor - I write about the impacts of climate change all the time. I'd read about the Pacific Islands, I knew about the droughts in Africa and I'd seen the catastrophic impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the news. But I had never met a single person who had been seriously affected by these kind of events that are now increasing and becoming more severe as a direct result of a climate that's changing - mainly thanks to us. And by 'us' I mean folks from industrialised nations like me.

Todd Lucier, a blogger who also met these women last week, puts it really well:

"For many of us, the idea of a changing climate is just that, an idea, something vague, distant and unfortunately irrelevant."

Hearing what these women have been through first hand - and what they have witnessed with their own eyes - really brought the issue of climate change alive for me. What were previously numbers and facts on my latop screen were now four women sitting in front of me. Looking at me. Talking to me.

During our action in the tar sands of northern Alberta, Canada last week we were running a Twitter and comment feed on the Stop the Tar Sands landing page - so that while people watched the live video feed of our activists they were able to send messages of support ... or condemnation. And we received lots of both.

These ranged from the general: 'Way to go, Greenpeace!' to the inevitable : 'A bunch of unwashed hippies in raincoats ain't gonna stop them'. (Just for the record we did stop them - activists shut down Shell's entire Albian mining operation during their 30+ hour occupation.)

One of the less hippie-focused criticisms that kept coming up again and again was that we weren't showing any images or videos of 'reclaimed' tar sands property - and therefore we were only showing one side of the story.

The idea that the companies currently operating in the tar sands can 'reclaim' the land they have destroyed is one of the myths that is allowing atrocious acts of negligence to be committed in the name of tar sands development.

This is a really cool time lapse video of some very creative graffiti being painted. It was made by our Danish office - for the Age of Stupid Premier in Copenhagen.

9:15am local time

Greenpeace activists from Germany, France, Brazil and Canada have just entered a Suncor upgrader facility in the tar sands of northern, Alberta and have shut down the conveyer belt of an open pit mining operation. This follows a previous action where Greenpeace activists stopped operations at Shell’s Albian mine during a 33-hour occupation.

Our activists are putting themselves on the frontlines of climate change again to draw attention to the complete lack of leadership shown by our world leaders. They have shut down a conveyer belt used in open pit mining and locked themselves down.

The tar sands are a perfect example of what lack of leadership on climate change and unchecked greenhouse gas emissions produces – a toxic disaster zone that is leaching 11 million litres of toxins into the groundwater and pumping 100 thousand tonnes of carbon into the air per day. This is why Greenpeace activists are taking action today.