Blogposts tagged 'Heathrow Expansion'

Given that Heathrow's third runway is by many (fairly reasonable) standards a hugely unpopular and environmentally damaging project which would flatten a community, significantly contribute to rising UK carbon emissions, and be campaigned against by those bloody NGOs, it's fair to say that it must have been a bit of a headache for the person project managing the task of getting it approved.

If you're a project management type, a risk register (and I had no idea about this before last week), is a document where you have to list everything that could go wrong with the project, how likely it is to happen and how much of a problem it would be. You also have to say what you're going to do about it.

Alastair McGowan is not only a renowned impressionist and comedian, he's also an Airplotter - and as one of the co-signatories of the deed on the land, he took the BBC down to have a look at the plot and have a chat about whether protest can make a difference.

Not green, and not strictly regulated

Last Thursday, while approving the construction of a third runway at Heathrow, Geoff Hoon claimed he was accompanying it with what he called "the toughest climate change regime for aviation of any country in the world." Cleaner planes, tougher regulation, green slots for takeoff and landing - the secretary of state was keen to broadcast the runway's green credentials.

You can understand why it's important for Geoff to make a lot of noise about green planes and strict regulation while cheerleading for a third runway. Pursuing a policy of aviation expansion while committing to an 80 per cent cut in UK emissions by 2050 might seem like a strange thing to be doing, particularly as Lord Turner of the Committee on Climate Change ruled that there must be "clear strategies" in place to cut emissions from aviation, otherwise any cuts made in other sectors will be wiped out.

In the next few hours we're expecting the government to annouce they're going ahead with the third runway. The aviation industry likes to suggest that building a third runway at Heathrow has become vital to Britain's future economic wellbeing and the government may use this as a justifcation. To listen to some of the more enthusiastic cheerleaders for aviation expansion, you might think that the entire UK economy is about to collapse, and only laying an enormous strip of tarmac through Sipson village will save it. But is it really that simple? We know aviation expansion is a sure-fire way to wreck the climate, but do we really have to choose between the climate and "jobs and prosperity"?