One down, 99 to go: the clock is ticking at the Labour conference © Will Rose

Today might be your run-of-the-mill Tuesday with nothing more remarkable than the news that a rover on Mars will take two years to travel 11km, plus a slight smattering of rain. But according to the New Economics Foundation (NEF), today is more significant than you might expect because it's the point in the year when we've used up all of the resources the Earth can produce and we start going into ecological debt.

It's easy to talk about the government as if it were a single, all-powerful, bureaucratic machine, with tentacles stretching out from Downing Street into every aspect of our daily lives. Of course, it simply isn't like that.

Governments are a collection of individuals: from the 22 who sit round the Cabinet table, through the hundred or so ministers in various government departments, their political special advisers and civil servants. Throw in the external pressures of the media, business, and organisations like Greenpeace, and you see that far from being a single machine, it is a complicated alliance of individuals who come together to form the body politic. And as the Environment Minister Hilary Benn said today, it's important that they all "get it" on climate change.

Greenpeace scientist Dr Doug Parr speaking at the aviation fringe event

Wow! This conference is busy. For the last two days I have been running between fringe events, private meetings with ministers and - well - some parties.

So, a quick catch up on the Greenpeace conference campaign. Firstly our fringe events. On Monday we ran a large event on decentralised energy, which included a screening of our film "A Convenient Solution". The London Mayor - Ken Livingstone - spoke, as did the Energy Minister Malcolm Wickes and our very own John Sauven. It was a packed meeting which still managed to get into some of the detail on decentralised energy. If we are going to solve the climate challenge we are going to need real ambition.

Today Brown will deliver his first conference speech as Prime Minister, and you can't help but feel the excitement amongst Labour delegates. All the talk is about whether he will call a snap election.

Last night I was at the Social Market Foundation event and had a long chat to John Denham - the minister who notably resigned over the Iraq war in 2003. Now he is in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. He gave me some very good reasons why Brown might want to call an election sooner rather than later - mostly to do with the amount of money in the Conservative Party war chest.

As Labour start their 2007 Conference in Bournemouth today, all the talk is of a possible General Election. Every opinion poll gives Gordon Brown a big lead. A critical polling question is ‘Who would make the best Prime Minister?’ Brown wins hands down. He scores 54 per cent compared to David Cameron on 21 per cent.

Scots head to the voting booths tomorrow and the latest and last Scotsman/ICM opinion poll is saying it is too close to call.

Now there are a lot of reasons for Scots to be upset with Labour and want to oust them, but none seems more symbolic of the situation than the Scottish Labour party's stance on nuclear power.

Part of the Climate Clinic blog

We stuck a snapper outside Manchester airport on Sunday, wondering if we'd catch any of our oh-so-green politicians letting the plane take the strain. When a silver Merc pulled up outside Arrivals and Jeeves stepped out, our guy asked if he was waiting for a big cheese. 'Er, can't say mate.' So who came waltzing out of the terminal?

Oh Mandy, who knew that you flew here from London?

And Pete, what kind of gent are you, letting your young aide lug all the gear? Having a bag-carrier, it's all a bit Old Labour isn't it? All a bit beer and sandwiches. I thought The Project was all about personal responsibility and a culture of respect. Hmmm...