What we're doing right

Hope for flight delays

17th November 2007

British campaigners protest loudly against aviation expansion

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This month, recordings of Londoners opposing a third runway at Heathrow Airport – which could almost double annual flights to more than 800,000 a year from 470,000 – will be blasted at aviation and government representatives. Part of a large-scale push against noise and air pollution, the Stop Heathrow Expansion Campaign is backed by the mayor of London, local MPs and thousands of residents who will lose their homes if another landing strip is built.

The British government argues that aviation accounts for no more than 7 per cent of greenhouse gas-emissions in the United Kingdom. But Emily Armistead, a senior transport campaigner for Greenpeace, says those figures are misleading: Emissions at 30,000 feet have a greater impact than those at ground level, making the true figure closer to 13 per cent.

Thanks to tax breaks and subsidies, Brits can jet to European capitals for as little as £10. Not surprisingly, they are also the world’s busiest airline passengers – 40 per cent ahead of the Irish, the second-most-frequent fliers. “For the government to allow flights to quadruple by 2050 and still say they are serious about tackling climate change is absolute lunacy,” Ms. Armistead says.

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• Tags:
• Activism
• Aviation
• Climate Change
• UK

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