Klimax (Sweden): climate activists in detention after trying to break into airport

Fly Nordic

On Friday 15th of February, groups of activists connected to Klimax, Sweden’s direct action movement against the root causes of climate change, struck against the country’s domestic aviation industry.

At Malmö Airport, seven activists were apprehended trying to break into the runway, some of them dressed as polar bears. They were transferred to a detention centre in another city in southern Sweden and kept in solitary confinement for more than 60 hours. The seven activists were interrogated throughout the days, charged with 'intent to sabotage air traffic' and threatened with four years in prison if convicted.

Heathrow consultation: expansion opposed by boroughs

Planes flying over a tower block

As the consultation deadline approaches, councils across London stand united against expansion. Hounslow, Windsor and Maidenhead, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Hillingdon and many others are all opposed to expansion. Of the councils near the airport, only Spelthorne supports expansion, although rumours of bribery are emerging, after BAA promised to supply mobility buses to the cash-strapped borough just before it pulled out of the 2M group.

Of course, Lord Soley, Acton resident and head of Future Heathrow, supports expansion. He paints a horrible picture of London's future without an aviation industry given carte blanche to expand at will. "Unless we get permission for this runway we are stuck. Passenger numbers are stuck, destinations are going down and we will have to close Heathrow." Sounds great Clive: on behalf of the two million people who can't get a good night's sleep because of planes overhead, where do I sign?

Want to show the Government you don't support expansion? Come to the Westminster rally on Monday the 25th of February. 7pm, Central Hall.

BAA greenwash goes into tailspin

Traffic jam

Sometimes things happen for a reason; other times, it's just coincidence. The day after Leo's post about the methods the aviation industry use to fudge their emissions, BAA puts out a press release claiming that cars arriving at Edinburgh airport pollute more than the planes. It's a classic example of greenwash.

In a slight of hand so unsubtle that even the Edinburgh Evening News mentioned it, BAA set up NOx readers at 20 locations around the airport to measure pollution levels. They showed that NOx levels were higher in the car park and on the approach roads than on the airfield - although, crucially, the readers do not measure gases emitted at altitude. BAA is comparing thousands of cars driving in and parking with the NOx emissions of aircraft taking off or landing while discarding those in flight.

Viking boffins raid aviation industry greenwash

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Viking raiders

The Journal of Sustainable Tourism recently published a paper by pair of Scandinavian academics, entitled, "It Does Not Harm the Environment! An Analysis of Industry Discourses on Tourism, Air Travel and the Environment". In a nutshell, they show that aviation industry spin-doctors lie through their teeth, using a limited set of deeply flawed, broadly irrational, and fundamentally dishonest arguments to misrepresent their contribution to climate change in order to keep people flying. Say what?

The authors ask why, with growing awareness of the problem of climate change, does consumer behaviour with regards to air travel not appear to be changing at all – despite the fact that 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions released through tourism-related transport in the EU come from air travel. They go on to analyse some of the aviation industry's discourses (chat) around air travel's environmental impact in an attempt to find an answer.

Does supporting expansion make you sick?

Mother Tabbinskins

Yesterday's papers carried the unsurprising news that living under a flight path can lead to increased stress and noise-related illness. But can supporting the third runway make you ill? We sent our roving reporter Dee Locke undercover at two governmental departments, to find out.

"I checked out the Department for Transport", says Dee, "and found that their staff were un-naturally ill. Staff at the DfT took an average of 12.4 sick days last year, compared to 9.1 for the Civil Service average. That's pretty high, leading us to suspect that the extra days could come from the stress of dealing with constant phone calls from angry residents and super-glue blockades of their offices."

Heathrow expansion no boost for economy

Pigs will fly

Heathrow expansion must go ahead, say Ministers, or London will be transformed overnight into a third-world city, whose population huddle under the yellow glare of street lamps and burn copies of thelondonpaper to keep warm. Not so, claim consultancy firm CE Delft, who have released a HACAN-funded report which debunks the economic arguments in favour of expansion.

The report explodes the myth that expansion and the economy are intrinsically linked. The DfT claim that each extra passenger brings £120 into the economy, putting the net benefit of expansion at £4.4 billion over 70 years. But CD Delft point out that this ignores the huge tax subsidy to the industry (currently around £10 billion per year). The overall benefit is closer to £30 per passenger. Additionally, £3 billion of the projected economic benefit will be money raised by the Government through aviation duty - leaving a direct boost to the private economy of about £1.4 billion a year.