Yesterday: "I want British companies and British workers to seize the opportunity and lead the world in the transformation to a low carbon economy and I believe that we can create in modern green manufacturing and service one million new jobs" - Gordon Brown.

Today: British Energy is sold to French nuclear company EDF for £12.5 billion, exporting thousands of potential UK jobs to France, dealing a hammer blow to our chances of meeting our legally binding Renewables Obligation. 

Alex Steffen of Worldchanging recently wrote an excellent piece called Who Will Tell the People? And How? about the yawning chasm between the reality of climate change and the failure of government to bring in the massive changes needed. Talking about US emissions cuts, he writes:

We're running into a situation here where the acceptable political action is to move from A to C, but where realism demands that - if we want to dodge a catastrophic collision with ecological reality - we move from A to say Q. And that gap, between C and Q, is large enough to lose a future in.

As you're reading this blog, you probably don't need reminding about the catastrophic collision with ecological reality Steffen mentions. With stakes this high, the changes needed (Steffen's A to Q) are profound, fundamental and cross all facets of human existence - from our energy and transport systems to, dare I say it, our social and economic systems.

For environmentalists partial to a mild bit of schadenfreude over their tea and toast, this morning's Today Programme was a treat. You can listen to it here, if you're quick (Fiona and farnishk, I think you'll like John Humphreys' stance).

Environment minister Hilary Benn was invited on to talk about how things have been going in Bali (not so well). As Benn waxed lyrical about the urgent need for action to reduce emissions, Humphreys pulled him up on the yawning gap between the government's rhetoric and reality, what with the government wanting to build new runways and all. Then he pulled him up again. And again. And again. And again. It was a little like listening to a kitten being mauled by a teddy bear.