Blog: Climate

Which is the real security threat?

Posted by jossc — 28 February 2008 at 3:13pm - Comments

Heathrow climate protest: yes it really is this serious

Two audacious and well executed climate actions have deservedly grabbed headlines this week - Plane Stupid's 'No third runway' banner drop on the House of Commons yesterday perfectly complimenting our own Heathrow Airport plane protest on Monday. Both sets of activists involved spoke eloquently to the media about why they were there: to expose the government's 'public consultation' as a sham, and to remind us all that climate change is the greatest threat that we face, and we have little time to start getting serious about it.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, direct actions, heathrow, plane stupid

Energy companies sued by Inuits over sinking village

Posted by jamie — 28 February 2008 at 2:37pm - Comments

I just found this great story via Treehugger: a small Inuit community is suing 24 big, bad energy companies, claiming damages due to climate change. The melting ice pack has pushed up sea levels and exposed the residents of Kivalina to an increasing number of storms; the cost of relocating the entire village (which is sinking into the sea) is placed at US$400 million. Arctic communities are of course extremely vulnerable to the effects of changing weather patterns and are feeling the effects of climate change right now.

Article tagged as: arctic, climate change

The Weekly Geek: micro-hydro power

Posted by bex — 27 February 2008 at 9:23pm - Comments

It's Weekly Geek time, and this week we're looking at micro-hydro power: a truly reliable, highly efficient, and extremely clean (it has no direct carbon emissions) way of generating electricity.

It needs no fuel but offers a constant supply of electricity which often increases in winter, along with demand. It has a long life cycle (typically 25 years or more). It can have low implementation and maintenance costs. And, unlike some large scale hydroelectric power schemes, it has minimal environmental and visual impacts.

Article tagged as: climate change, decentralised energy, micro-hydro, renewable energy, weekly geek

Read all about it: our official response to the Heathrow consultation

Posted by bex — 27 February 2008 at 7:16pm - Comments

We've formally submitted our main concerns about Heathrow expansion to the government (almost as if this was a real consultation and the government was genuinely seeking views on airport expansion...).

You can read the full submission, but this is the introduction:

Greenpeace believes that if the government is serious about tackling climate change, there should be no question of increasing the number of flights coming in and out of Heathrow Airport. Instead the Government should be radically rethinking its out-of-date policy on aviation, implementing strategies to cap the number of flights at current levels with a view to reducing them in the future and move towards a sustainable, low-carbon transport system.

Greenpeace also considers this consultation process to be seriously flawed: designed to push through a decision that has already been made and without properly taking into account the effect on the environment, or seriously considering alternatives.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, heathrow, public consultations

Plane Stupid takes protest to Parliament

Posted by bex — 27 February 2008 at 11:18am - Comments

BAA's HQ

Plane Stupid protest at the Houses of Parliament

Another day, another voice loudly opposing plans for a new runway at Heathrow. Today, Plane Stupid campaigners have scaled the Houses of Parliament to protest at the collusion between government and the aviation industry.

In the absence of a genuine consultation with Londoners, the protest is a brilliant way to get the word out on the day the Heathrow 'consultation' ends. They've dropped banners reading 'BAA's HQ' down parliament's facade, and are enlightening the great and the good on their way to Prime Ministers' Question Time below by throwing paper aeroplanes - made from secret Whitehall documents that prove BAA has written parts of the consultation and the government has already decided to build a third runway - from the roof.

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, direct actions, heathrow

Video: Heathrow protest

Posted by bex — 26 February 2008 at 11:04am - Comments

The video of yesterday's protest at Heathrow:


Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, direct actions, heathrow, multimedia, protests, videos

Video: when I grow up

Posted by bex — 25 February 2008 at 3:12pm - Comments

A brilliant reminder from enoughsenough of just what's at stake when it comes to airport expansion:

Article tagged as: aviation, climate change, heathrow, videos
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