In a story not as weird as the environmentally-friendly bullets one but still somewhat unnerving, it appears the US military is gunning for an increase in the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources. Military chiefs want to see 25 per cent come from the likes of wind, wave and solar by 2025 and while it accounts for 1.5 per cent of US energy consumption, the biggest impact could be the civil application for military developments in technology and efficiency so the rest of the country could be following in its khaki-coloured wake.

It was a beautiful morning, if a little muggy, as I passed through the Kent countryside to Strood yesterday on my way to Climate Camp. I had to find out for myself what it was really like at the farm opposite Kingsnorth coal fired power station, where E.On wants to build the first new coal plant in the UK for over 30 years.

Joined by fellow climate campaigners, we received friendly smiles from local people who pointed us in the direction of Kingsnorth, egging us on our journey. (After all, not everyone wants to live next to a coal fired power station.)

We urgently need you to be a part of a growing movement across the UK urging Gordon Brown to give coal the boot. Get involved!

The Lego replica of Kingsnorth power station complete with 'Stop Climate Change' banner © Hans Bricks

Not one, not two but at least three climate change-related happenings popped up around the country yesterday, many of them carried out by Climate Camp attendees. Although the camp is primarily focused on coal and the proposed new power station at Kingsnorth, today's activities also highlighted other climate threats such as aviation and biofuels. Here is just a taste of what's been happening:

From today's Guardian:

"Less than a fifth of the biofuel used on UK roads meets environmental standards intended to safeguard human rights and guarantee carbon savings, figures released today show.

"The Renewable Fuels Agency says just 19% of the biofuel supplied under the government's new initiative to use biofuel to help tackle global warming met the green standard. For the remaining 81% of the biofuel, suppliers could not say where it came from, or could not prove that it had been produced in a sustainable way."

But even this "green" standard is misleading, as it ignores the side-effects of biofuel production such as massive deforestation:

"The standard does not include carbon emissions from indirect effects such as changes in land use caused by biofuel planting, which experts have warned could cancel out their environmental benefits."

See all Climate Camp updates.

While I've been stuck at my desk following the debates about Climate Camp police tactics, activists’ intentions and whether environmentalists are mostly ‘filthy adulterers’ (Julie Burchill, bless), the Climate Campers have been busy turning a quiet field into a living/working space powered by renewable energy, and debating the future of coal, the climate change movement and the planet.

See all Climate Camp updates.

In a pleasant grazing meadow outside Strood, the Climate Camp is open for business and I'm here for a couple of days to see what's going on, cover it for the blog and, more importantly, get involved.

It's difficult to talk about the camp without touching on some of fractious actions of the police. Fortunately, nothing much happened and, after a frustrating period when we could all have been doing something more constructive, the police withdrew.

Interesting news in from Japan (where as you'll remember, the government recently took the bizarre step of prosecuting two of our activists for exposing corruption between their own Fisheries Agency and whaling company Kyodo Senpaku).

Whale expert and former councellor for the Institute of Cetacean Research (in whose name the commercial whaling operation which masquerades as 'scientific reseach' is officially conducted), Shigeko Misaki, has written a blistering letter to the Japan Times demanding that all whaling in the Southern Ocean should be ended:

Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler - author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own.

As the era of cheap liquid fuels draws to an end, everything about modern consumer society will change. Likewise, developing societies pursuing the benefits of globalization will struggle to grow economies in an era of scarce liquid fuels. The most localized, self-reliant communities will experience the least disruption.

Oil is a fixed asset of the planet, representing stored sunlight accumulated over a billion years as early marine algae, and other marine organisms (not dinosaurs) captured solar energy, formed carbon bonds, gathered nutrients, died, sank to the ocean floors, and lay buried under eons of sediment. Like any fixed non-renewable resource, oil is limited, and its consumption will rise, peak, and decline.

Keeping the lights on - without new coal

"[U]nless we want to risk our security of supply and face greater cost burdens, stations such as Kingsnorth must be part of the energy mix."

"Currently, we have to use a mix of energy sources to power our country - fossil fuel, renewable energy and nuclear power. Together they provide us with a reliable electricity supply. And although the use of low-carbon energy sources is growing, fossil fuel will continue to generate power, not just here but around the globe."

Senior government and Big Energy have been working hard to propagate the idea that, to keep the lights on, we need to build new coal plants.

So, is it true?