Protestors Oppose London's Heathrow Airport Expansion

July 20, 2015

Below is an excerpt from a 7/13/15 EcoWatch article on actions by the group Plane Stupid, in opposition to a third runway at the Heathrow Airport.

Plane Stupid provided the following reasons for protesting this expansion:

• We cannot meet our climate change targets and build new runways at the same time. It's a choice between the two. This should be very simple to understand.
• We already fly more than any other country per head.
• Nine of the ten most popular destinations out of Heathrow are short-haul including to places such as Manchester and Paris. There are already very good existing rail alternatives that we should be using instead.
• 15 percent of the UK population take 70 percent of the flights. Building new runways will only benefit rich frequent flyers who are burning the planet for unnecessary leisure flights.
• Airport expansion will have terrible implications for noise pollution and air pollution.
• Local communities face being wiped off the map entirely by a third runway at Heathrow.
• Aviation gets huge tax subsidies and pays no VAT. Why are we propping up an industry which is highly damaging to the environment at the exact time we need to be reducing our carbon emissions?
• The huge advertising budgets of the aviation industry have tricked the public into believing we face an airport capacity crisis. Additionally, the employment benefits of expansion have been overplayed. Claims that airport expansion will create thousands of new jobs are based on unreliable statistics. Airport expansion actually results in more UK tourists going abroad, which creates a 'tourism deficit.'

To access the full report click on the following link - 13 Flights Cancelled, 9 People Arrested as Climate Activists Protest Runway Expansion