Blogposts tagged 'Aviation Expansion'

Come to the 'Train not Plane' party!

Posted by jossc - 15 July 2010 at 9:23am - 0 Comments

We've won a great victory against the Heathrow third runway, but there are still plans to expand aviation elsewhere around the country. The airline industry needs to take on its fair share of emissions cuts. We should be thinking about reducing, not expanding aviation. We can start with journeys which can clearly be made through other means - by replacing domestic flights with an improved national train and coach network.

On Saturday 4 September, our friends at the Campaign against Climate Change are organising a 'Train not Plane' day of action in London and Manchester. It starts with a demonstration outside London's City Airport in the morning, supporting the local campaign to stop increased numbers of flights at the airport. This will be followed by a

Slideshow: highlights from the 3rd runway campaign

Posted by jossc - 16 June 2010 at 9:17am - 0 Comments

The battle over a 3rd runway for Heathrow became an iconic struggle between those of us who know the climate change threat is deadly serious, and those who preferred to gamble our collective future in search of short-term profit. And when that latter group includes such heavyweights as the Department for Transport and the British Airports Authority, you know you're in for a fight - even when the science is on your side.

In the event it took three years of hard campaigning, and the building of a huge coalition of civil society (including residents' groups Hacan and NoTRAG, local councils, Climate Camp, WWF and RSPB) to bring the runway plans down.

Climate 9 trial gets underway in Aberdeen

Posted by jossc - 15 June 2010 at 9:43am - 0 Comments

The Climate 9 with family and friends outside court this morning.

The first major climate trial since the failure of the Copenhagen talks begins today in Aberdeen sheriff's court.

Nine members of Plane Stupid Scotland are in the dock, following their successful shut down of Aberdeen Airport in March last year. For taking direct action to highlight the climate impacts of expanding the airport - a plan closely linked to business tycoon Donald Trump's proposal to develop a new golf course complex in the area - they're now facing charges of breach of the peace and vandalism.

Government's aviation policy blown out of the water

Posted by jossc - 8 December 2009 at 4:10pm - 0 Comments

The Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) report on aviation, published today, explicitly undermines government plans to allow a tripling of passenger numbers on commercial aircraft by 2050.

While its Chairman Lord Turner has been careful not to totally rule out the possibility of creating extra capacity in the form of new runways, the committee is recommending that "the policy focus for aviation must be on limiting demand for flights and investing in alternatives such as better rail links and video conferencing." In an interview on the BBC's Today programme this morning, Lord Turner confirmed that a 200% growth in consumer demand for air travel by 2050, assumed in the 2003 Aviation White Paper, would make reaching proposed emission reduction targets impossible.

Don't miss the Alistair McGowan railshow!

Posted by jossc - 29 September 2009 at 3:24pm - 0 Comments

Impersonator extraordinaire, Airplotter and all-round funny man Alistair McGowan is shortly embarking on a nationwide tour of Britain, and he's going to great lengths to make it as green as possible. Alistair is a long-time Greenpeace supporter, and has committed himself to playing a key role in opposing aviation expansion by jointly buying the Airplot with us - the piece of land we acquired slap bang in the middle of the proposed new third runway development site at Heathrow Airport.

UK aviation emissions must be below 2005 levels and we can't trade our way out of it

Posted by christian - 10 September 2009 at 2:31pm - 0 Comments

If we can't trade aviation emissions away, and there's no technology fix, will domestic flights have to face the chop?

Big news on aviation emissions, as the Committee on Climate Change - the government's own independent scientific emissions watchdog - have said that the UK's aviation emissions should be 'capped'.

This would mean that they must remain at or below 2005 levels. When the government announced the third runway at Heathrow, they did say that they would do something similar, but the big caveat was that this cap would be flexible, in that it would be possible for the aviation industry to buy carbon credits through the European emissions trading scheme, to balance growing emissions.

Video: The human cost of Heathrow expansion in words and pictures

Posted by christian - 17 August 2009 at 1:13pm - 2 Comments

A lovely short photo essay, examining life in Sipson, the village directly threatened by Heathrow's proposed third runway, and home to the Airplot.

The Airplot Big Lunch

Posted by annaj - 21 July 2009 at 9:39am - 0 Comments

The Airplot hosted a very special picnic on Sunday as part of the Big Lunch, which saw a staggering 2 million people sit down for Sunday dinner with their local communities to indulge in locally grown food.

Legal challenge has Heathrow third runway in its sights

Posted by christian - 8 April 2009 at 10:03am - 5 Comments

We're taking the government to court. Again. This time it's over the third runway at Heathrow, and we're working as part of a coalition of groups that represent millions of people. NGOs, local councils and London local government bodies are all banding together to put a spanner in the works for the expansion plans.

Chipping away at the aviation industry fortress...

Posted by annaj - 31 March 2009 at 2:51pm - 4 Comments
Anna is next up in the spring blog relay - our quest to introduce to you all the staff members who keep the Greenpeace wheels turning here in the UK - click here to catch up on entries from other Greenpeace staff.

Just say 'no': Anna with Sipson residents outside the Department of Transport
Just say 'No': Anna with Sipson residents outside the Department of Transport

Another busy start to the week - though last week never really finished since I spent most of the weekend at the Airport Watch conference with fellow anti-airport expansion campaigners from all over the country.

It was a really useful weekend, sharing ideas, discussing how we tackle the various false solutions, like biofuels, and smoke and mirrors that the aviation industry is hiding behind, and reflecting on how far we've come. We've won all the arguments, and are gradually chipping away at the government and aviation-industry fortress, the final frontier around the out-of-date 2003 Aviation Policy that underpins airport expansion plans around the country.

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