Climate Change Action

Just back from London. I try not to use this blog like a diary because, lets face it who gives a F$"& but i`ll mention a few of the things a got up to that where vaguely climate related.

The first was the Climate March. This was great fun, a huge success and lots of really inventive people making it quite a spectacle. Also met loads of people i havent seen in an age.

The second was an action at the Civil Aviation Authority headqaurters. The CAA, an industry funded body has for no good reason been given the key responsibility of regulating international aviation as aviation is outwith the Kyoto Protocol's national emissions inventories!

Anyway, needles to say the rate of action has been...along the lines of an arthritic sloath walking against the flow of a glacier.

Here are a few of our photos, followed by an article on the collection of actions that our humble action was a part of. It made it into the Guardian!

We handed over a check for 9.2 Billion in govornment tax breaks. The CAA wouldn't officially accept it so we sent it to there spokesman via the internal mail system! We also handed out thousands of easyClimate leaflets to the general public...generally a good response, a few people where stunned that the CAA had anything to do with climate policy, well so am I! Self regulation to save the planet...umm, the insanity hurts my head.

John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday November 7, 2006 The Guardian

The protesters, drawn from the direct action groups Plane Stupid and London Rising Tide, hung banners at the easyGroup and Civil Aviation Authority offices in London, and demonstrated at Bristol, Leeds, RobinHood (Doncaster), and Cambridge airports.

Short-haul flight operators were targeted yesterday by environmental activists who stopped easyJet opening its parent group's offices,demonstrated at five regional airports and locked the doors of 25 travelagents.

The protests followed the invasion by Greenpeace of a coal-fired powerplant last week and 25,000 people marching in London at the weekend inwhat was thought to be Britain's largest single environmental protest.

They also coincided with the opening of UN talks on climate change in Kenya and a report saying that the poorest people in the world werealready suffering from global warming.EasyJet, whose offices were picketed at 6.15am, said the activists hadchosen the wrong target. "We don't have business class," said a spokesman.

"We operate the newest, least polluting aircraft and seat for seat we
emitfar less than other airlines. Moreover, we only fly direct between cities.Only 8% of our flights are in any competition with railways."

Plane Stupid is one of several direct action groups to have emerged in the"

"It is out of order for easyJet to be offering artificially cheap flights to destinations easily reachable by train, which is over 10 times less polluting,"
said Plane Stupid's Andy Nash."We all know how serious the threat posed by climate change is," said MattCooke, of London Rising Tide.

"Binge flying cannot continue. Nearly halfof all flights in Europe are to destinations of 500km or less; journeysthat are possible by train. We will not stand by and let the aviation industry, aided and abetted by the Civil Aviation Authority, trash the climate."
Plane Stupid is one of several direct action groups to have emerged in the group has previously blocked entry to BAA's head office. Made up of a mixof veterans from 1990s anti-road building protests and younger activists,they claim to be part of a rapidly growing grassroots movement tacklingthe root causes of carbon emissions.

Nearly all British airports now haveprotest groups.--London Rising Tide,c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES www.londonrisingtide.org.uk
www.artnotoil.org.uk

Shell is the new sponsor of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.Send us your photos, artworks and ideas for a roving October exhibition &infotour:www.shelloiledwildlife.org.uk

See also the Camp for Climate Action site: www.climatecamp.org.ukas well as Climate Indymedia: www.climateimc.org

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Labels: aviation