In the relentless stream of news about the economic crisis, there are a few gems that suggest the credit crisis may have some very beneficial impacts for the environment.

When people become more worried about where to get the best deal on their next meal instead of a short-haul flight for the weekend, passenger numbers fall and the need for expansion begins to evaporate, as does the money to fund it.

Happy Christmas from all of us here at Greenpeace. And don't forget to make your new year's resolution to get active with Greenpeace and help us save Santa, um I mean the climate.

xx

Rumours have been flying around for the last few days that the government would make an announcement on a third runway at Heathrow on Tuesday, but the BBC just reported that the government is delaying the announcement until January because of a split in the cabinet.

It’s good to see Gordon Brown is finally feeling the heat over Heathrow expansion.

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.

It’s pre-budget announcement day, and there is already a lot of talk about the details and how Labour’s plans to reinvigorate the economy are going to shake out. As I tumbled out of bed Radio 4 was discussing the impact this announcement will have on the next election - it could make or break the Labour party.

But while most are focusing on the short term measures to get us through the toughest months, we also need to look at investment that will ensure a better quality of life in the long run and a healthy planet. We’ve published ads in the Guardian, Times and Independent today focused on the longer term investment needed to refocus the economy, provide jobs and protect the most valuable asset we have – the planet.

Before you do anything else, watch Coalfinger. I’m just going to babble on about how much fun it was to make it which isn’t nearly as amusing as watching the animation. While you’re at it, share it with your friends because we need to expose the real coalfingers of the world and their carbon cronies and the threat they pose to our climate.

Rainbow Warrior and canoes at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent. © Kristian Buus/ Greenpeace.

One of the volunteers coming up the ladder on the jetty © Will Rose / Greenpeace.

Image from the Rainbow Warrior webcam

I’ve been sitting back in the office watching all of Bex’s updates come through on Twitter, Moblog and this blog, but have to admit I forgot to watch all the excitement live on the webcam on the bridge, kicking myself (thanks for the twitter ecotist).

The Rainbow Warrior is still alongside the Kingsnorth jetty and you can follow what is happening on deck here.

It's official, Brown's personal pollsters tried to fix another public consultation on new nuclear power.

Late yesterday we received an astonishing response to our complaint to the Marketing Research Standards Board about the government's second public consultation on nuclear power. The board sets the standards for opinion research and found that the market research company Opinion Leader Research breached the Code of Conduct. The board said Opinion Leader "information was inaccurately or misleadingly presented, or was imbalanced, which gave rise to a material risk of respondents being led towards a particular answer."
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