With the government's long-delayed decision on a third runway at Heathrow rumoured to be imminent, the
intrepid women and men of the Climate Rush will be making their suffragette-inspired opposition felt at the airport next week.
MPs return from their winter holiday on Monday 12 January, so that evening at 7pm the Climate Rushers will hit Heathrow Terminal 1 for a peaceful picnic. Terminal 1, for those not familiar with the airport, deals principally with domestic flights, the sort of short-haul journeys which could easily be made by other, less climate-wrecking forms of transport. And they are inviting all of us who are fed up with the obvious lack of action on this most serious of issues to join them.
The plan is to arrive in Edwardian dress (preferably hidden under a big coat until the event starts!), bringing picnic food so that we can all have our 'Dinner at Domestic Departures' - that's upstairs by the departure gates. At the stroke of seven, a string quartet will start to play and everyone will reveal their costumes and start the picnic.
More entertainment will be provided by a 100-strong artistic collective aiming to turn the airport - however briefly - into an 'artport' filled with performance pieces and installations. It will all be fun and non-confrontational - there'll be no chance of getting arrested as all we'll be doing is sitting down in a public space.
So, start hunting through your wardrobes for suitable attire - in the words of the original suffragettes it's now time for "deeds not words". If the third runway and mixed-mode gets the go-ahead it will be more evidence that our politicians and business leaders have no real interest in taking climate change seriously. They promise action yet always continue with business as usual. Right now it's more important than ever to remind our elected representatives that their primary function is to safeguard the nation's long-term interests, not to maximise short-term profits for multinational companies in the hope of getting a directorship once they leave office.
So come along and make it an evening to remember. More details on the Climate Rush and Artport Facebook groups.
And for everyone who lives closer to Manchester than Heathrow, there's a Northern Climate Rush taking place at Manchester Airport Terminal 3 (Domestic Departures) at exactly the same time - Monday 12 January at 7pm.
