Planting trees in Klobikau...

...is all the rage at the moment as the former East German town becomes the recipient of British carbon sinners largesse. Udo Wurzel, 60, is the mayor of Mücheln, a small city in the Geisel valley south of the eastern German city of Halle, which is framed by an abandoned brown coal open-cast mine and the 100-meter (328-foot) Klobikau slag heap. When he came into office in 1990, just after German reunification, he knew that the first thing he had to do was to plant trees, "to clean up the air that we were breathing." Now we all want to do it even Massive Attack. It's a start. Flying less would also be good (take a note Al Gore, who likes to use private jets). It was funny watching Blair and Brown greenwashing themselves at the Royal Society the other day, in the company of Sir Nicolas Stern. The Stern Report has produced much hot air in the media. What is now needed is action and lifestyle changes. How about cheap trains and bicycle lanes, Mr Blair? What about banning the incandesent light bulb? Let's also join Udo and plant some trees too, but not use that as an excuse to do nothing else.