Cop watch: climate profiteers are the real criminals

By Anonymous on 25/04/2009
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Over the last six months, Plane Stupid activists have been targeted by a campaign of police intimidation. Many of our activists have been approached and teased with incentives to inform on the rest of the group. Elderly activists have been held in a cell overnight for innocently writing 'you fly, we die' in the snow. Now we can reveal that one of our activists, Tilly, was offered a blunt choice: either she spies on Plane Stupid or risks being unable to finish her degree.

The police claimed it wasn’t Plane Stupid they were “worried about, but individuals within Plane Stupid”; individuals, they claimed might be planning acts of violence in the name of our cause. We've heard it all before. At the Climate Camps, it was the elusive “hardcore of trouble-makers” intent on provoking violence, and in the case of the Nottingham conspiracy, “those arrested posed a serious threat to the safe running of the site." EON, the owners of the alleged target of the alleged protest, gave us a helpful clue about what is going here in their statement following the arrests: “While we understand that everyone has a right to protest peacefully and lawfully, this was clearly neither of those things.”

Did you spot the deliberate mistake? Their statement conflates the notions of ‘lawful’ and ‘peaceful’ protest. But the critical distinction between these two lies at the heart of the question of whether the level and type of policing being applied to the climate movement can be justified. Peaceful does not mean the same thing as lawful. No activists at Plane Stupid or the Climate Camp have ever been convicted of a violent crime, and we are proud to be a part of the long tradition of non-violent protest. Plane Stupid welcomes direct action in its name, so long as it is peaceful and accountable.

We know what we have to do. Stopping runaway climate change means taking action to stop and expose those working to protect a system which protects profit over the planet. Plane Stupid is not a threat to anyone‘s health or well-being. But we are a financial threat to big business and a financial threat to carbon-heavy industry. Aviation is still the fastest growing source of Co2. If the Climate Change bill is to be enforced, the industry has to scale down massively. For us, this isn’t merely about Plane Stupid and the police, it is about exposing 'police' tactics which protect a criminal justice system that defend big business instead of civil liberties.

The actions we take are necessary and sensible in light of the scientific evidence. We are a growing movement of concerned citizens who are prepared to put our bodies in the way of these high-carbon developments. We do so because we believe it is both justified and necessary, and that the negative consequences of our actions are better than the consequences of inaction. There's no need to carry out surveillance to catch us, we’re not going anywhere – you’ll find us chained by our necks to a conveyor belt, or superglued to the Prime Minister’s jacket. There is no need to punch or kick us either – that’s why we’re chanting “this is not a riot” with our hands in the air.

It is time to drop the discredited pretence of preventing violence against people, and start a serious conversation about all of this: about why the lie of violence has been accepted for so long despite the absence of any evidence to support it; about what constitutes appropriate policing of peaceful protest, even when it may be unlawful; and about whose interests are really being served by devoting such extravagant police resources to preventing peaceful disruption to major polluters, companies whose core activities are driving us ever closer to the precipice of catastrophic, runaway global warming.

Stern: Heathrow expansion makes no sense

By Richard on 22/04/2009
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Could this be the week when sensible comments from people with some tangental relation to power started taking over the political landscape? Nicholas Stern, writer of that infamous page-turner, the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, has launched a savage attack on Heathrow's expansion, which, he claimed does not "make sense in the context of a coherent carbon and transport policy for the UK, and... for Europe as a whole". Take that, expansionists!

It's as though the entire world is reacting to the launch of Pet Air, coming together in a mass outpouring of sensible to counter that enterprise's stunning levels of pointlessness. Heathrow's decision, Stern said, should only have been taken once the Committee on Climate Change had had a chance to look into the detail. He also dismissed the fiscal-stimulus (a.k.a. pouring money into high-carbon industries just so the UK can be proud of it's Chinese-owned car industry) as "undermin[ing] confidence in the UK's ability to meet its climate change target." Well, duh!

This sort of sensible outpouring is not what we've come to expect from the Government and their advisors. The Department for Transport is so in bed with big carbon that we just shrug when officials turn Kew Gardens into Terminal Seven or convert the West Midlands into a motorway. Suddenly I start hearing rumours that a senior Government Minister thinks domestic aviation in this day and age is the epitome of madness! Any more sensible comments and I might have to revise my opinions and stuff.

Brakes put on Leeds-Bradford expansion

By Richard on 21/04/2009
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After writing the last blog I had to hide myself in a darkened room to recover from a bought of despair brought on by wanton idiocy. There I was, knees hugged to chest, repeating "we're not all going to die because of flying pets" when a new email arrived in my inbox. Stupidity, it seems, is not widespread: councillors in Leeds have rejected plans to expand Leeds-Bradford airport because - shock horror - it would increase CO2 emissions.

The airport currently handles 3 million people, so its owners decided that it would be just perfect with another 2 million plonked on top. Unsurprisingly this would lump the local community with traffic jams, pollution and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace reckon that the expanded airport would be emitting more than the whole of the city of Leeds.

Rejecting this expansion seems to have taken everyone by surprise, with the BBC running a piece about how it was all getting the go ahead, and much shocked whinging from the self-appointed guardians of progress: the business community. Witness prize buffoon Sandy Needham, chief executive of the Leeds Chamber of Pollution, bleating on about "cogs" and "private-public partnerships" like a lemon.

By the way, can we clear one thing up right now? The expansion is not "expected to create 3,000 jobs": modern terminals use far fewer staff per passenger than older ones (more computers and automation, you see) and low-cost airlines, like Flybe and BMI, use far fewer staff than 'flagship' carriers. The only people who actually think 3,000 jobs would be created are the pseudo-journalists who scribe for local papers (a thankless task consisting of selecting a company's press release and hitting Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V in quick succession).

Stupid people do stupid thing with bad eco-impact, etc.

By Richard on 21/04/2009

It seems that for all our efforts, a small, determined percentage of society has decided that pointless things which trash the planet represent the pinacle of human achievement. It was for these people that Plane Stupid launches the Third Runway Award for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty. Last year this prestigious award was won by the inventor of Dairylee Lunchables, because they are just so gobsmackingly pointless.

This year's winners are Dan Wiesel and Alysa Binder, who have just launched an airline company for pets. I for one welcome this anti-speciesist move: for too long our pets have had to sit by, like second class citizens, while we send the climate to hell in a 747 just so that we can get places really fast. Forget stopping animal testing - all pooches really want to do is fly, and these guys are helping them achieve their doggy dreams.

The BBC puff-piece (which combines those mainstays of daytime TV: pets doing funny things, and crap inventions) is littered with more puns than even our website could stand: the pets are "pawsengers", it's "bone voyage", etc. Ha bloody ha. Of course the whole thing is made worse because the inventors look so bloody smug, like they popped to the loo and while there jotted down the cure for cancer on the bog roll without really trying.

Note to potential customers: your pets really don't want to fly. They'd rather be left at home with some kitty treats, a new scratching post and the next-door neighbour's son or daughter popping over to feed them each morning. Your next-door neighbour's kid would also prefer that, as they'll take the time to hoover up any loose change you left lying around, or pinch cigarettes from the stash your partner doesn't know about. So please: think of the children. Leave your pets at home. Or something.

Sipson photographer harrased under Terrorism Act

By Linda on 20/04/2009
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Have you ever been so angry that you can't speak properly? That happened to me last week when I discovered that, once again, the Police were harassing people coming to support us in our fight against BAA’s efforts to bulldoze Sipson and parts of Harmondsworth to build a third runway.

Brett, an American student studying for his Masters has been in Sipson for the past month or so, photographing residents whose homes are under threat. We like having him around, but the police don’t, and have regularly stopped and searched him. We don’t understand why, but they’ve been have using section 44 of the Terrorism Act because he is photographing “near Heathrow airport”.

Look on the map. Most of the village is a good mile from the airport, and hundreds of us take photos here every week. Last week he was stopped for taking pictures outside the King William IV pub. Local people like myself were outraged.

People came out of the pub and started photographing the police (four of them in a van) on their mobiles, at which point the police said they would arrest them too. I’d like to see them try! In Sipson activists and residents are determined to stand shoulder to shoulder against this invasion of our community.

Leila cautioned for chucking custard over Mandelson

By Richard on 09/04/2009
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Leila Deen was today cautioned for disorderly behaviour under section 5 of the Public Order Act for throwing green custard over Peter Mandelson last month. She has issued this statement in response:

"I have always been honest about throwing green slime over Mandelson to highlight the hypocrisy of this government’s attitude to climate change and the third runway at Heathrow. Despite the harmless and comic nature of my antics, the police informed me that throwing custard over an unelected government minister could be seen as a public order offence and have cautioned me accordingly."

Play Leila Deen - Custard Queen here...

"Climate change is the greatest threat we have ever faced through which millions will lose their lives and livelihoods. Thankfully the solutions are out there, but corrupt and unelected political stooges like Mandelson keep colluding with their rich friends and pushing ahead with runways nobody wants. They are trying to stop us doing what’s necessary to change our future.

"I don’t regret taking action against this government’s hypocrisy and am grateful that the country cheered me on for what I did. The movement to stop climate change is large and growing, and since our democratic system is crippled by people like Mandelson, we have no choice than to continue to use the noble tradition of direct action to effect the urgent change we need, and to call the government to account."