Stop London Heathrow airport expansion plans


This February 2008 video from England is called Greenpeace protest on Heathrow short-haul flight.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Actions do not match

(Sunday 01 June 2008)

THE impressively diverse weekend demonstration against further expansion of Heathrow airport should cause the government to call a halt to these plans.

Those behind the demand for a third runway and a sixth terminal stress the jobs that would be created, but what really motivates them is the profits that they foresee.

That might be bearable but for the severe effects that the development will have on the environment and on the lives of the people living in the region of the airport.

Pressing ahead with expansion puts the government in a difficult position, given its frequent verbal commitments to combating climate change.

Unfortunately, its actions do not match what it says.

The government claims that the planned development meets noise and air quality targets, but it discounts the reality that the entire village of Sipson, with about 700 homes, would be utterly destroyed.

Nor will that be the end of the matter.

An expanded Heathrow, with a new runway and increased passenger numbers, will put greater strain on the already existing M4 and M25 motorways that serve the airport.

It is inevitable that the roads lobby will already be preparing the case to expand these motorways or to create another, leading to the further concreting over of another part of the overcrowded south-east of England.

The government ought to reject the short-sighted short-termism of the motorway and airline lobbies.

It should expand and modernise the environmentally friendly railways, with exclusive high-speed tracks to obviate the need for short-haul flights and take a conscious decision to drive down rail prices to encourage passengers to switch their means of travel.

Update 16 January 2009: here.

4 thoughts on “Stop London Heathrow airport expansion plans

  1. Pingback: Scottish Blairite Murphy’s anti-Semitic witchhunt | Dear Kitty. Some blog

  2. Pingback: British government’s anti-climate greenwashing | Dear Kitty. Some blog

  3. Pingback: More pro-environment activism needed | Dear Kitty. Some blog

  4. Pingback: British Conservative government represses climate change protesters | Dear Kitty. Some blog

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