Update re Staverton Airport campaign

Below is a quick round-up:

- The Ecologist on Staverton (see pic left)
- Innuit action
- Petition launch coming soon
- Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign
- Staverton Airport Survey
- Letters to press

The Ecologist - last month ran a piece about Staverton Airport and a bit I sent them re their denial of climate change - in fact since then the Airport have accepted climate change exists - now all we need to do is to get them to take responsibility for cutting their emissions by 90% like all of us.

Innuit action - Aqqaluk Lynge - Head of Greenland's Innuits - pleads for the people of the UK to consider the plight of his people and stop the expansion of Stansted and Heathrow Airports. Read more and write to Gordon Brown from this website:
www.enoughsenough.org/inuit.html

Petition launch coming soon - we are launching a petition against Staverton airport - here is the wording - hopefully on the Glos Green party site to download very soon.

PETITION TO STOP GLOUCESTERSHIRE AIRPORTS EXPANSION PLANS

We, the undersigned, are opposed to the expansion of air travel at Staverton Airport as proposed in their current Business plan and planning applications. This will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions when the evidence is that we need to make 90% cuts in CO2 to avoid runaway global warming. We are also opposed to the developments as they will lead to a deterioration in the local environment by increasing noise, traffic and local air pollution.

Please return this petition by 12th February 2008 to:
Gloucestershire FoE c/o Rendezvous Society, 16 Portland Street, Cheltenham, GL52 2PB

Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign - The government has launched its consultation into plans for a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow. Already the
busiest airport in Europe, the plan would mean a 70 per cent increase in flight numbers and a corresponding rise in climate change pollution. It's crazy to be paving the way for such big increases in greenhouse gases when we should be doing all we can to reduce emissions. What's particularly shortsighted about this proposal is that a third runway at Heathrow really isn't needed. Well over a fifth of flights from Heathrow are to short-haul destinations such as Edinburgh, Paris, Manchester and Newcastle - already well served by trains which cause ten times or more less damage to the climate than flying. The real reason BAA wants a third runway is to increase its profits.

Gordon Brown cannot possibly justify a third Heathrow runway. Yet the indications are that the government has been planning for some time to do exactly that. Documents recently obtained by Greenpeace under the Freedom of Information Act show that airports operator BAA and the Department for Transport have been working closely together to ensure that the third runway gets built - so closely that they've even set up a joint body - the Heathrow Delivery Group - to steer the plan through the consultation process. All the calculations relating to noise and pollution in the consultation document have been supplied by BAA - data no opposition groups have been allowed to challenge!!

One further piece of evidence about where the government's sympathies really lie - the DfT and BAA have drawn up a 'risk list' of threats to the building of the third runway. The list includes the 2M campaign, the group comprising local London councils representing 2 million people opposed to the plans. Flying is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, responsible for 13 per cent of our climate inpact. Unless we bring it under control we'll stand no chance of meeting the CO2 reduction targets that the PM pledged to reach, or even exceed. And Heathrow is only one of more than 20 airports around the country in the process of submitting expansion plans. The Tyndall climate research centre has calculated that if aviation continues to expand as projected, Britain will have to totally decarbonise the rest of its economy by 2050 to effectively tackle climate change. And we all know that just isn't going to happen.

What you can do - Greenpeace action

Let Gordon Brown know that he's a public servant and that we expect him to act in our interests, not help big business maximise its profits.
- Join the thousands who want to stop Heathrow expansion by adding comments to Greenpeaces' video wall. Make your voice heard here.
- Write to Gordon Brown and tell him that minimising the effects of climate change is more important than increasing British Airways' profits! See here.

Watch the recent Newsnight debate about Heathrow between Greenpeace's John Sauven and energy minister Malcolm Wickes here:
www.email.greenpeace.org/euhbrhm_pxxeoexk.html

Staverton Airport Survey - the Cheltenham Centre for Change will be conducting a survey to properly articulate the views of the residents living near to the Airport. If you can donate a couple of hours of your time to help with the survey distribution, please email centreforchange@mac.com or call 01242 570111

Letters to press - The Citizen has covered less of the Staverton story than the Echo - although the Echo seems to print many more letters in favour - the one below is a response to letters about the clothing of some protesters! In some sense this is a complete red herring and in many ways I applaud the pro-airport folk for the divertion - the papers have still not pushed the Airport to answer the questions of responsibilities for cutting CO2...