2008 is the year of greenwash. After years of denying climate change was real, or paying people to pretend that CO2 emissions weren't causing temperature rises, big business finally woke up to the fact that people aren't that keen on exploitation of the planet for material gain. Everyone, from Ariel ('wash at 30 degrees') to BP ('we're Beyond Petroleum. Please don't mention the Alaskan Tar Sands') was getting in on the act, with green adverts and strategies and targets and travel plans.

As ever there was just one teeny-weeny problem: for all their green plans, most businesses just make token gestures on climate change. Take flying: a survey out today by Barclaycard showed that although many businesses had green travel plans which discouraged flying, just 1% of the 3,000 business people interviewed thought they applied to them. The other 99% were obviously far too important not to fly wherever and whenever they liked.

Things are hotting up over the channel. Campaigners against the expansion of Frankfurt airport have been squatting the forest of Kelsterbach, where the airport's bosses plan to clearcut 100,000 trees to build a new runway. The runway would double the number of flights, destroying any last remenant of peace and quiet for local residents.

This week the protestors have been hosting a direct action camp, with training, information and networking. Today is when everything starts to kick off, with intense action planning meetings; days of action kick off on Friday. There's more information (in German) on the group's website, but expect action and excitement later this week!

P.s. the photo is from a 'Banneraktion' in Frankfurt's Terminal 2 in early August.

What would you do if your neighbour blasted loud noise every couple of minutes until late in the night; pumped toxic gases into the air and generally went out of their way to be anti-social? Welcome to the world of Clydebank residents, living near Glasgow airport. Sick of BAA dismissing their complaints as "isolated occurrences", they've banded together and demanded BAA be served with an ASBO.

This is one of the first outcomes of the Airportwatch Scotland's 'PlaneSpeaking' community mobilisation against airport expansion. Whilst Clydebank slaps an ASBO on BAA, other activists are working with airport staff on 'just transition' issues. Meanwhile other locals are plotting hard, with talk of mass kite-flying or balloon-releasing activities (which could ground planes for 'health and safety'). Watch this space...

What if you threw a consultation and nobody came? Not a problem for the Scottish Executive, whose recent consultation into the Climate Bill garnered 21,000 responses, most demanding that international aviation be included in the emissions reductions targets. Despite what civil servant automatons claim, it's not too complicated - basically you just convert 'bunker fuel' into emissions and include it within your calculations. An A grade GCSE maths student could probably do it.

But like their British counterparts, it all got too hard for the Scottish Government. They really, really don't want to include international aviation, because then they'll either have to tackle wanton flying or miss their emissions targets. Faced with thousands of responses, the Government did something rather sneaky - they lumped all the responses together into 8 different responses (one for each NGO that got its members to respond) and promptly announced that just a third of respondents wanted aviation emissions included.

Dr. Richard Dixon, head of WWF Scotland, was understandably pretty pissed off. "When the government themselves solicited tens of thousands of responses on the smoking ban, they were delighted to count them all. However, with more than 20,000 people telling the government to do the right thing by including flying in the climate bill, it is hugely disappointing that they have gone out of their way to sideline these responses." Some faceless civil servant responded, "Difficult to assess emissions... international effort... more than one flight... can't be arsed... going to miss my flight."

Isn't free-market capitalism great? Just when BAA was enjoying a few months of rest, after an annus horribilus which saw protestors against Heathrow's expansion sitting on planes, squatting their car park and prancing about on Parliament, along comes the Competition Commission demanding the airport operator sell two London airports ASAP.

Normally I'd be rolling about laughing, except that I made sure to read the fine print. One of the reasons the Commission wants BAA to split up is... it didn't expand airports fast enough. Apparently BAA should have issued a legal challenge against the cap on Gatwick expanding, as well as been more aggressive at Stansted.

Another week, another couple of eminent critics of the Heathrow expansion plans take their turns to speak up. This time it was Stavros Dimas, EU environment chief, and Lord Smith, the new boss of the Environment Agency and a former Labour Minister speaking up for reason and scientific opinion.

Smith told The Independent that building a third runway would be "a mistake" because of pollution and noise and said he'd keep telling the government that's how it is. Meanwhile Dimas announced that a third runway would "significantly" breach European air pollution guidelines, which will soon become law.

A couple of weeks ago I made a disparaging comment about the Department for Transport, claiming that their environmental policy only extended so far as protecting newts. Following this, Plane Stupid has been in close contact with an up-for-it band of amphibians, who have been making plans to take the fight to the DfT and its roads-and-runways plans.

This week they struck, setting up a Camp for Climate Action on the site of the proposed Carlisle Bypass (located, oddly enough, near Carlisle). Under cover of night (they're nocturnal) the Great Crested newts crawled on their bellies onto the site and have been making little newty homes. Reports that sections 6 notices have gone up are as yet unconfirmed.

The state moved fast to disrupt the protest, installing fencing to keep the newts out, and laying traps for those newts already in tunnels or splashing about in ponds. They've hired newt-baliffs Herpetosure to remove the newts, who will be "taken to a safe area" where they can protest in peace. Given that great crested newts are endangered because their habitats are being destroyed, wouldn't it be nice if they were just left alone and the road scheme stopped?