Heathrow and Aviation

End Domestic Flights Now!

Demonstrations in London and Manchester,
Saturday 4th September

You can come to the London demonstration - or the one in Manchester - or, for just a fiver, join us in our special carriage on the train  (see here) for a full fun day of aviation activism!

 Timetable..

11.00 am  Demonstration outside City Airport, London. (take the DLR at Bank to get to the ‘City airport’ stop on the Woolwich line)

12.30  “Train not plane” party board the big red (open top double decker) ‘end domestic flights’ bus which takes the message through the streets of London to Euston station.

1.40 pm  "Train-not-plane" brigade boards the Manchester train at Euston.

3.49  “Train not plane” party arrives at  Manchester Piccadilly station

4.30 pm  Demonstration at Manchester Airport  More info info@stopmanchesterairport.org.uk

Evening  - Party, party, party for aviation activists at Hasty Lane near Manchester airport in a street threatened by airport expansion. Accomodation will be organised for those staying overnight.

Join us on the special  "Train-not plane" carriage on the 1.40pm train!  Take the big red bus from the City Airport demo to Euston station and then join our special “train-not-plane” carriage on the 1.40 train to Manchester. A fiver will get you to Manchester Airport taking our special carriage – first come first served for available seats. To book a ticket click here.  

But remember, you need to get back from Manchester!  The sooner you book the cheaper the return to London!  You can return from Manchester Saturday night or party in Manchester and return Sunday morning.  Return to London by train is £11.50 if booked well enough in advance, or around £5.50 on Megabus.  The last trains back from Manchester to London on Saturday leave Manchester Piccadilly at 19.37 and 20.35.

If you have any queries, e-mail enddomesticflights@campaigncc.org

Find out about  the local London City Airport anti expansion group “Fight the Flights”  at www.fighttheflights.com
Find out about SEMA, the “Stop Expansion at Manchester Airport” group at  www.stopmanchesterairport.co.uk

Put this date in your diary now! This will be the time to take the agenda forward on aviation, and insist that at this time of climate emergency we cannot afford to be using high-emission forms of transport where viable alternatives exist. And that aviation will need to bear the burden of emissions reductions along with other sectors.

Download a flier to publicise the demo from our leaflets page.

"End Domestic Flights" is one of the 'Climate Emergency Demands' - see here.

We asked people their thoughts on banning domestic flights and made a video of their responses, you can watch it here.

More info about this event soon.

'Why We Should End Domestic Flights Now' - Public Meeting

Why We Should End Domestic Flights Now

We've won a great victory against the Heathrow third runway, but aviation is still expanding. The aviation industry needs to take on it's fair share of emmissions cuts. We should be thinking about reducing, not expanding Aviation. We can start with journeys which can clearly be made through other means. Come and discuss how we can fight the expansion of aviation and hear the case for ending domestic flights now.

Speakers: John Stewart (chair of AirportWatch), Dan Glass (Plane Stupid), Anne-Marie Griffin (chair, Fight The Flights), Phil Thornhill (national co-ordinator, Campaign against Climate Change).

Venue to be announced nearer the time in future newsletters and on www.campaigncc.org

Victory against the third runway!

The new coalition government, in line with the manifestos of both parties, has ruled against building a third runway at Heathrow airport. It has also ruled against another runway at Stansted or Gatwick.

 The question remains as to whether there will be airport expansion in the rest of the country - and whether the government gets the message that we cannot allow an increase in emissions from any sector, including aviation. The Campaign has been demanding an urgent new look at aviation in the light of the Climate Emergency  with measures including a Ban on Domestic Flights.This demand  is part of the Climate Emergency platform - see here.

 and is included in the Climate Emergency EDM.

3rd runway - no way! - Demonstration against Heathrow expansion, 19th Feb 2009

Hundreds crammed into the police pen opposite Downing Street for a lively demonstration against the government decision in January to expand Heathrow with a third runway. Speakers on the evening included Jean Lambert (Green MEP for London), Susan Kramer (Lib-Dem MP for Richmond) and John McDonnell (Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington where the 3rd runway would be built).

No Heathrow Expansion! Get Real on Climate Change!

There was no mistaking the energy of the protest and the strength of the movement against the expansion of Heathrow. This event was one of a number of protests against the government decision carried on by a swelling coalition of groups and individuals. Additional speakers on the evening were John Stewart from HACAN, Anna Jones from Greenpeace. Phil Thornhill for the CCC and Linda McCutcheon from NOTRAG and a resident of Sipson village (which will be obliterated by a third runway).

Some more photos here.

There had been an earlier lunch-time photo-call at the Department of Transport - on the theme of the "BROWN past" and the the "Green Future" with Lucy Wills representing the latter and Chris Kitchen as a 'caveman' Gordon Brown representing the former. The message was for an end to 'carbon-intensive-growth-as-usaual' and for the government to be taking the kind of investment decisions that will plot the path towards a low carbon economy as fast as possible - a crash program for deep emision cuts in the short term that will provide thousands of 'green jobs' and help lift us out of the recession.

"COUNTER-DEMONSTRATION"
At the same time as the anti-Heathrow demo there was a "counter-demonstration" in Parliament Square. This numbered a score or so of people - but apparently quite a few of these were 'Plane Stupid' infiltrators! Who actually was behind this "counter-demonstration"? Well first of all note that it was supported by the climate-sceptic networks - see here. And apparently it was organised by something calling itself the "Modern Movement" - see here . However on scratching the surface the "modern movement" turns out to be yet another manifestation of the networks associated with "Living Marxism" and with their origin in the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party). See here. This bunch have effected a bizarre transformation from extreme left to extreme libertarian right ..they include Martin Durkin, producer of "The Great Global Warming Swindle" - see here. Disinformation and misleading the public (latterly by trying to pretend there is a grass-roots movement in favour of Heathrow expansion) is their stock-in-trade.

 We've let Gordon Brown know what a burke he is if he thinks he's going to overcome the tidal wave of opposition he will have to face if he tries to push ahead with this fantastically stupid decision. He's still stuck in the last century world of carbon-intensive-growth-as-usual - lets wake him up to the 21st century, to the low carbon economy of the future! Something that Brown's New Labour clearly fails to understand as it now shows itself to be the most crassly environmentally retrograde and destructive of all the parties.

The so called 'environmental safeguards' that this government has concocted for its Heathrow expansion plans are nothing more than window dressing and a smokescreen. If there is another runway there will be (a lot) more flights and if there are more flights there will be (a lot) more emissions. There is no method remotely on the scientific/engineering horizon to substantially reduce aircraft emissions. And residents around Heathrow have heard these kind of promises before: they know what they are worth - absolutely nothing.

The argument about jobs is misplaced. If the government was doing what really needs to be done to convert Britain to a low carbon economy as soon as possible then it would be creating tens of thousands of new green jobs. Only those jobs would be helping to win the fight against catastrophic climate change - not to lose it !

We are going to fight this plan - and we are going to win ! But there are other reasons why we need to challenge this decision as loudly and energetically as we can.

Over the past few years there has been an avalanche of scientific evidence that the threat from catastrophic climate change is more grave and more imminent than we had ever thought. See here. scientists now tell us that we have less than ten years in which to stop and reverse the the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions. The UN Talks this December in Copenhagen are widely seen as the last chance to secure an international deal that will make that possible ( to join our protest there see here.) . At this critical juncture it is the height of irresponsibility to send a signal to the world that we in the UK are not going to make the fight against climate change our number one priority but are happy to carry on with 'carbon-intensive-growth as-usual' - no matter that it is the poorest and most vulnerable around the world who will suffer from our soaring emissions the most. If our government cannot send a positive signal to the world then we, the people of the UK have to show that we do take climate change and the huge threat it poses to the global community seriously - by challenging the crass retrogressive decisions that our government makes - as loudly and energetically as we can!

Demonstration at Heathrow May 31st 2008

The demonstration at Heathrow was a great success ! Thousands gathered at Hatton Cross tube station, under the roar of the jet-planes, to demand "No third runway" and "no runway expansion in avaiation" and calling on the government to "get real on climate change". There were plenty of local residents and West Londoners - but also bus-loads of climate campaigners from as far afield as North Wales and Matlock. A colourful procession then streamed off around the perimeter of the airport with the 7 foot square CCC 'globe-in-a-greenhouse' on wheels in the thick of the throng, giving a clear climate change message. As the long snake of protestors reached the BAA offices on the Bath Road shouts of "No 3rd Runway" got louder. Soon after that the cavalcade finally thread its way into Sipson village - which will be destroyed if the 3rd runway goes ahead. Here 3,000+ demonstrators formed a giant 'NO'- an image that was then beamed around the media. John MacDonnel, local MP and strong anti-Heathrow expansion campaigner, acted as master of ceremonies and George Monbiot and others spoke to the crowd before everyone retired to enjoy local hostelries and entertainments in the streets of Sipson. The event got tremendous coverage in the media and represents a new high in the campaign to stop Heathrow's third runway, stop runaway airport expansion and get a grip on the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions - aviation.

The timetable for the day was as follows:

12pm assemble at Hatton Cross Tube station

12.50: two speakers (Archbishop Address and Deputy Mayor of London to lead off)

1pm: Carnival moves off. It will process around the airport to Sipson village, a distance of around two and a half miles.

2.30: Big NO begins

3.30: Big NO address

4pm: speakers on main stage

5pm: Sipson Street party : there will be food, stalls, drink and plenty to do for kids from face-painting to bouncy castles

7pm: close

More on Heathrow, Aviation and Climate Change

Spurred on by BAA the government wants to build a third runway at Heathrow. Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. If aviation continues to grow at the current rate then by 2050 it will account for half of what even the government thinks is the most the UK should be emitting by then (under the 60% target originally proposed in the Climate Bill - see here ). In other words it would cancel out all the reductions that had been made up to then.

Curbing aviation growth will not prevent the destabilisation of global climate on its own - but there's no way we can get serious about tackling climate change until we get serious about tackling the runaway expansion in aviation. The current trend in the expansion of aviation is just not compatible with any realistic plan to prevent a climate catastrophe.

The government is planning for a near trebling of air passengers by 2030. To cope with these the government envisages up to 5 new runways being built with just about all existing runways working close to full capacity. This amounts to the biggest single programme of airport expansion ever seen in this country. The governments aviation policy is clearly on a collision course with its climate policy. We need to make sure that it is the former that is made to give way.

If we eliminated short haul flights - journeys that could feasibly be made by other less polluting forms of transport - then there would be no need for a third runway at Heathrow at all

But at the moment aviation is given an unfair advantage over other forms of transport. It does not have to pay tax on its fuel (the way car drivers or train operators do) and for the most part does not pay VAT. So the aviation industry is mollycoddled with a hidden subsidy - which gives it an advantage over other less environmentally damaging forms of transport.

Taking an aircraft flight is when most people cause the greatest amount of emissions in the shortest amount of time - a one way economy flight, London to New York, emits more than half a tonne of of CO2. A return flight produces about the same climate-damaging effect as one year's motoring in an average UK car. This is taking into account the fact that emissions at altitude are nearly twice as damaging as the equivalent at ground level due to the 'radiative forcing' effect. Travelling by plane can emit anything between around half as much again, to four times more than travelling by train - and that is before we almost double the figure for the plane to take into account 'radiative forcing' (see in more detail here). Of course the very fact that aviation makes travel so much easier, and generally cheaper, means that more people travel more often and more climate-damaging emissions are produced. Most flights are not necessary in the way that heating one's house, or commuting to work is - they are part of an affluent lifestyle. Even cheap flights are taken disproportionately by the better off in society. Yet the people who will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change are those who will probably never get the chance to fly. So in other words the climate impacts of aviation represent a particularly striking way in which increasingly affluent, high-consumption lifestyles of the rich are having a negative effect on the poor.

Yet, if aviation was put on a level playing field with other forms of transport (for a start), and if other forms of transport were encouraged to replace short haul flights (the most carbon intensive per mile) then we would not need the kind of expansion in aviation envisged by the government and a third runway for Heathrow. Four fifths of all UK trips abroad are within Europe so many of these destinations could be reached by coach or train (and in a sleeper you needn't waste time, or get jet-lagged, either!). The government could be investing in more efficient, lower-emitting, surface transport instead of carbon-heavy aviation infrastructure.

Check here and here for more handy facts about aviation.