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CtrlAltShift Blog #3 - Rosie Slay -  There are many ways in which self defence doesn't capture the aims of climate action. Self defence, in legislative terms, is a way of defending oneself and one's own interests, and climate action is usually taken to defend others. This is both those in the present who do not have the luxury of time before they face the consequences of a changing climate, and those in the future, who may not have the opportunity to defend themselves from climate change, because our generation's actions have pushed us too far.

Climate action is, however, self defence in a broader sense of the word; defending human life and human communities, rather than any one individual. As a species ourselves, we are completely intertwined with the wider biological system we live in: "Earth". If we choke the lungs of the planet we only choke ourselves. If we strangle the planet's life system (of clean air, water and natural resources), we, as one of the recipients of these life systems, will only serve to strangle ourselves.

'Self defence' is often understood as a reaction of someone who is under (immediate) threat. But in many cases, our laws and institutions protect rich individuals, big businesses and economic growth, having little regard for the future generations, the protection of natural resources or social justice. This is clear from the case of the Climate 9, who, seeking to defend themselves and others, have instead been found 'guilty' by the courts, for the actions they took to shut down a polluting industry.

I believe that, at this juncture of the fight against climate change, climate action should not only be excused as self defence, but accepted and encouraged as the only rational response to possible climate catastrophe. Climate action (in whatever shape or form) can be far more proactive and socially responsible than the finger pointing and lip service which constitutes the sum total of our own governments reaction to this challenge.

In a rare but satisfying turn of events Varsity air services have realised the shortcomings of domestic flights, and suspended their Oxford-Edinburgh route just a week into its operation.

The reason for the suspension is not their sudden realisation of the climatalogical impact caused by flying people from Oxford to Edinburgh, but the rather mundane fact that Mr Halstead (the baby-faced entrepeneur who runs - or rather, ran - Varsity) had not paid his bills.

This shouldn't be seen as unusual. The aviation industry, who already get better tax breaks than non-doms, for the service of polluting our lungs, bulldozing whole comunities and driving the world ever closer to climate chaos. So why anyone thought they'd be paying pilot's wages and other costs is anyone's guess.

Halstead should have learnt from his past mistakes. In 2006 his other airline, Alpha One Airways, cut it's service between Edinburgh and the Isle of Man after 6 weeks. He also failed to deliver on the promised delights of that great missing link- an Oxford to Cambridge plane service.

This man is single-handedly grounding short haul flights across the UK, and Plane Stupid thanks him for his efforts, only adding that he needn't start the airlines to begin with; we're happy to provide him with some d-locks and harris fencing to achieve top quality results.

German anti-aviation campaigners have been contending with huge regional airport expansion plans. Airport managers hope to stimulate demand by expanding rather than catering to a demand that already exists, excitedly talking up weekend shopping trips to London amongst other equally essential flights.

Construction is already under way at Kassel Calden regional airport, which is going to expand into a commercial airport with the help of massive subsidies of €150 million. Residents, neighbouring municipalities and BUND launched a legal challenge, but their case was dismissed in April last year and a massive forest was cleared last month.

True to style, it wasn’t left at that and campaigners now have to contend with the attempted destruction of the Querumer Forest to lengthen the runway at Braunschweig airport. A spokesperson for the group, Peter Illert said "This airport doesn't serve public interests, it is used by managers of the nearby Volkswagen AG headquarters in Wolfsburg."

Supporting the attempted expansion on such a beautiful natural site is a strange move by Volkswagen, who have been working hard on their greenwash by a sustained campaign of tree planting. Angry at the injustice, climate activists and local groups have set up a vigil camp in the endangered area, similar to one that sprung up near Frankfurt this time last year.

Illert went on to say, "Nowadays, the north of Hessia is a poor country, and gets still poorer - of money and of quality of life - when a new airport is erected for a small number of businessmen and ambitious local politicians for charter traffic and medium distance flights."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Imagine 74 people are trapped in a pub and this pub starts to go up in flames. Meanwhile, 26 people stand on the outside smoking. A couple of them see smoke coming from out a window. They tell the others and start discussing how best to stop the fire, who should do it, or even how they should treat the wounds of those who are inside.

They’re all very hesitant to go near the fire because they may get burnt and so take their time talking about it so they don’t have to do anything themselves. The pub burns down, with the 74 people inside, and then it spreads, if not actually killing all of the remaining 26 people then burning down their houses and destroying their way of life.

For me, although massively simplified, (the person who started the fire should have also been outside, for instance), this was the Copenhagen summit that has been going on for the last two weeks. After an awful lot of talk, we're no closer to a strong deal to secure the future of this planet and its inhabitants than we were with the Kyoto protocol in 1997.

For me, this demonstrates the impotence of the current political system and affirms and justifies my belief that grassroots movements and direct action are the best tools that we have to stop this world from going up in flames. The world’s political leaders have been talking up Copenhagen as the solution to catastrophic climate change for months now, and if it has failed - and no amount of spin can make it seem like anything but - then their plans for tackling climate change are in disaray.

They have had their chance, and now it’s ours. Those proper political channels that we have been urged to adopt so often have well and truly failed us. By failing to reach a deal at Copenhagen, politicians have abidcated their responsibility for solving the problem. It's up to us now; it's time to take the power back.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has asked to get his own private jet. Even when Blair and the royals were refused them last year on environmental grounds, Miliband has the gall to put his perceived needs before all else. Apparently the former Secretary of State for the Environment needs a special plane because... other people have one.

Flying, even in a commercial jet, is one of the worst things you can do in terms of carbon emissions. So for Ministers to demand their own private jet epitomises the lack of understanding, leadership and commitment to environmental issues that we have seen from this government. We can only hope that Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Climate Change and David’s brother, will give David a good talking to around the family kitchen table.

Not wanting to unfairly berate a public figure, I did some calculations to see what kind of environmental impact this would have. If Miliband took a return flight to Washington he would use approximately 73 tons of CO2. That is over 7 times the average annual emissions for one person living in the UK. Say it again to yourself, slowly. Seven times you or my annual CO2 emissions. On one return flight. Unless Miliband is literally defecating rainforests he won't be able to offsetting these flights.

This comes at a bad time for Government, who just announced that it was unlikely to hit its own emissions reduction target of 12.5 % by 2011-12. No wonder, with officals and Ministers trying to fly everwhere. The Sustainable Development Commission argued that civil servants shouldn't be able to fly domestically or to EU destinations easily reachable by train. I don’t think it even crossed their minds that anyone would be so audacious as to demand a bloody private jet!