The kids are revolting... and so are their mums

By Anonymous on 01/05/2008
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Beth's letter

We all want the best for our kids, right? But 'the best' is not what we're giving them. If business-as-usual goes on for much longer, we'll be handing them down a climate-changed world of hardships and horrors, with few of the opportunities for happiness and prosperity that we ourselves have enjoyed.

One group of high-powered mums has woken up to the true nature of what responsible parenting actually means in this time of climate crisis: whatever tender hopes and dreams we may have for our children's lives will become distant, hollow fantasies if we fail to prevent runaway global warming, and so part of the role of every responsible parent alive today must be to radically intervene to stop this from happening. These clear-eyed mums have also recognised that our political 'leaders' are still leading us in exactly the wrong direction, and if we continue to follow them we will soon find they have led us over the edge of a cliff.

Continental air tax dodge: fat chance!

By Richard on 27/04/2008
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Tantrum

Some PR boffin at Airlines PLC has been working their socks off, persuading everyone that the government's planned reforms to Air Passenger Duty are going to increase carbon emissions by encouraging people to fly further. The new taxes, which scale according to the type of aircraft (penalising old, dirty planes) are charged according to how far you fly.

The airlines think this is the begining of the end, and have been crying to the papers all week about how dreadful the new taxes will be. Their latest wheeze takes the biscuit: they claim that people wanting to fly long-haul will book a short-haul flight to Europe, paying the short-haul tax rate, and then change for a long-haul flight in Schipol or Charles de Gaulle, avoiding the greater long-haul tax. According to Saturday's Times, a family could save up to £200 through this loophole.

Like so much of the airlines' spin, this is clearly nonsense. Flying with a family is one of the most unpleasant experiences known to man, and the idea that people will voluntarily extend the misery by breaking their journey - increasing the length of time standing in Duty Free being pestered by their kids and increasing the likelihood of baggage getting lost - is laughable. Anyone mad enough to try this will end up getting the cold shoulder all holiday from their exhausted partner who can't believe they spent three hours stuck at Frankfurt airport to save a miserable £200 on a holiday costing the better part of a couple of grand. Good luck to them, say I.

Expansion: just say NO!

By Richard on 24/04/2008
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Make a NOise!

As anyone who reads right-of-centre papers will tell you, the coalition against airport expansion is getting broader all the time. West Londoners sick of the roar of planes overhead; environmentalists worried about global warming (13% of the UK's climate impact and counting); residents of Sipson who'd rather their village wasn't bulldozed - these days it seems like everyone with half a brain is up in arms over BAA's plans for Heathrow. This is just as it should be - expanding Heathrow (or any airport) while trying to tackle climate change is complete and utter madness.

So what to do with this unlikely coalition? Well much as they'd all have been welcome to join us on the Commons roof, it might have been a bit crowded. A more practical solution is the 'Make a NOise!' rally on the 31st of May at Heathrow, which brings everyone who opposes the third runway together to, um, make a noise about it.

Aviation industry to tackle precisely nothing

By Richard on 23/04/2008

Plane whirl

Hold the presses - the aviation industry has signed an awesome Earth Day agreement to do some stuff about the whole climate thingie! Great news for anti-aviation campaigners, but is it time to hang up our d-locks and put away the banners? Of course not - once again the industry is talking nonsense and massively overstating its ability to reduce its climate impact.

This time they've signed a declaration to do something about the amount of CO2 each plane farts out ("to lead towards carbon neutral growth and a totally sustainable future"), but declined to set any targets or timescales- or even to explain how they might go about tackling the issue. The "declaration on climate change" also focuses on per passenger efficiency - easily tackled by making bigger planes which carry more people - while ignoring the growth in overall emissions from coaxing more and more people to fly unnecessarily.

Breaking (BAA) up is hard to do

By Richard on 22/04/2008
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Break-up

Another day, another blow for BAA. After months of speculation, the Competition Commission has indicated that BAA might have to sell off Gatwick to break up their monopoly over London's airports. While the papers are taking great delight in kicking BAA while it's down, I'm getting worried. Could splitting up the monopoly lead to more airport expansion?

According to the Evening Standard, the Commission condemned "A 'short-term and reactive' approach to airport expansion. Major decisions about infrastructure have 'generally been too late to meet demand'." If that wasn't enough to worry you, try this accusation: "BAA managers have also too easily given commitments not to expand further at an airport and abdicated responsibility to government for strategic planning."

Poisoned chalice: best job in Britain

By Anonymous on 16/04/2008
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Poisoned chalice

Here's a poisoned chalice if ever there was one: BAA are looking for a pair of mugs to take on the roles of 'Heads of Corporate Responsibility' at Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Quite apart from being utterly lacking in any kind of scruples, prospective candidates will also need to be profoundly stupid – BAA is one of the most hated companies in the whole of Britain, and the job entails becoming the smiling face of this celebrated nadir of corporate public relations.

The advert for the post gives a taste of the sort of unsavoury activities that lie in store for the successful applicant. Opening with the line "At BAA, we believe that it's possible for the aviation industry to grow sustainably" – a view that is fundamentally at odds with the conclusions of the UK's best climate scientists – the advert goes on to explain that "whilst representing BAA at external meetings with the local community… you will be the face of our corporate responsibility affairs, and a source of expertise to all affected parties and stakeholders." 'Expertise' here means spin, gloss and lies; 'affected parties' means victims, like the millions of Londoners about to gain noisy flight paths over their homes and schools; and 'stakeholders' include the 2,000 villagers who will be forcibly evicted to make way for the third runway. These terms are probably not meant to encompass the 160,000 people already dying because of climate change each year, or the nations of Bangladesh and Tuvalu which are soon to disappear forever under the rising sea; but they should.