Will it take a ban on flying to stop climate change?

Stopping global warming means cutting air travel. Jonathan Neale looks at how this could be done without targeting the poor

Jonathan Neale’s book Stop Global Warming: Change the World will be published by Bookmarks in next year.

Tackling climate change means cutting carbon emissions drastically. We have to start now – that’s clear. But there’s confusion over what to do about air travel.

Half of global carbon emissions come from seven sources – heating buildings, air conditioning, cars, trucks, petroleum refineries, cement plants and steel plants.

Air travel may seem less important right now. Planes are responsible for 3 percent of carbon emissions globally.

But air travel puts other, more powerful and rarer greenhouse gases directly into the stratosphere. It’s the fastest growing carbon source.

It’s true that planes now use 70 percent less fuel per mile than they did 40 years ago, and further design changes are possible. But that alone won’t be enough.

One common answer starts by saying cheap flights are the problem – so tax them heavily, and fewer people will fly.

Sounds good. But then only the rich would fly. This is the problem with all green taxes.

There is always another solution that is fairer and cuts more emissions.

For instance, you can tax cars and roads heavily. Then only the rich will drive, and ordinary workers will hate environmentalists.

A better solution is to ban cars in cities and provide excellent public transport. Then you have beautiful cities where parks replace most roads.

Again, if you tax energy and make it expensive to heat houses, the poor and the elderly will freeze. And most people will hate environmentalists every time they open their bill.

But if the government gives grants to insulate every house, we can cut energy use from heating by more than half.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California is building one million solar roofs. We could do the same in Ireland.

The way to stop global warming is almost always not to cut what we have, but to do things differently. So it is with air travel. Here are some social justice solutions that will work:

First, ban all flights in Europe. But don’t make people give up their holidays. Instead have subsidised trains that prebook until they’re full, like cheap flights.

We would need new train lines. Those trains will have to be publicly owned. Privately owned railways invest less, cut the number of trains and raise the ticket prices.

What about longer flights? One answer is to ban expensive flights, not cheap ones. Luxury transatlantic seats create four to five times as much carbon.

But much more important, much long haul travel is done by business people. There are not so many of them, but each makes many flights.

The solution is rationing. Let people have one long flight a year. But don’t let them sell that ration – they use it or lose it. The business people can teleconference.

With new railways, that means more travel, more holidays, and less carbon emissions. And if we cover the world with wind farms and solar power, we can run the railways on almost carbon free electricity.

These kinds of massive public works that create jobs and improve people’s standard of living is what will stop climate change.

Otherwise, activists lay themselves open to the right. Look what Tony Blair said about air travel. He claimed his hands were tied because ordinary people wanted their holidays, and would never stand for airport cuts.

In reality right wing governments build new airports to please business travellers.

Blair posed as the working people’s champion because he could smell the weakness in green taxes – they’re unfair.

We have to build a global mass movement to stop climate change. Time is short, and nothing less will work.

We can’t build that movement by asking ordinary people to sacrifice when the rich don’t.

In almost every area where we have to act on climate change, there is a choice. The conservative answer is to keep the economy the same. Then we have to cut living standards.

The radical answer is to change the way the economy is organised, so we can have both growth and fairness.

None of this means we wait for the new railways before we shut down runways.

We have to fight for both, now.

Heathrow climate protest defies anti-terrorism laws

1,800 police sent in to deal with the climate camp at Heathrow - using “anti-terrorism” as an excuse

by Kelly Hilditch

New Labour’s anti-terror legislation is being used this week against protesters wanting to take part in the climate camp near Heathrow airport.

The government has given the police the go-ahead to deal “robustly” with campaigners.

This move follows the failure last week of an attempt to use anti-stalking laws to prevent protesters from “harassing” BAA, the airport corporation.

The police used anti-terror laws to stop and search everyone approaching the camp, to prevent any access to the site by vehicles, and to “inspect” the site.

The heavyhanded tactics have been paralleled by scaremongering in the mainstream media, with headlines such as “Heathrow Protesters ‘Are Terrorists’ ” and “Extremists To Hijack Climate Change Demo”.

But these tactics have not been enough to scare off the protesters. “The camp is brilliant,” one told Socialist Worker on Tuesday of this week. “People of all ages and backgrounds have been turning up to take part.”

Released

The police haven’t been exactly welcoming, he added. “A woman on her way to the camp was held for 30 hours under the legislation – then they let her go without charge. Another guy was arrested then released – the police said he looked too old to have his student rail card.

“The police are being heavyhanded because they can be. At one point they were refusing to allow water or medical supplies onto the camp. It’s basically petty bullying.”

The number of police at Heathrow has more than doubled from the 800 meant to protect the airport against a terrorist attack to the 1,800 to protect the airport from climate campaigners.

Alistair from Birmingham was cycling to the protest on Tuesday of this week.

He told Socialist Worker, “Cyclists are coming from all over to join the camp – I’ve met people who have got this far from all over Britain.

“We went to meet people near London City airport and picked up police along the way as well – at the last count there were eight coppers on bikes with us, and six vans full of police following behind.”

One activist from Edinburgh said there was anger at police use of counter-terrorism legislation to hold demonstrators:

“To invoke anti-terrorist legislation to stop us from our protest is really inappropriate and irresponsible.

“This isn’t just about people’s freedom to fly. This is about people’s freedom to live on a planet that has a future.”

The following should be read alongside this article:
» Campers win solidarity from local people against BAA

Klimax Sweden occupy Airport runway- Stop Domestic Flights

On 14 April, activists broke into Bromma Airport in Stockholm to occupy the runway for half an hour. The scheduled flight to Gothenburg – a very short distance indeed – was delayed, and some planes had to divert their landing. The ten activists, linked by chains and carrying a huge banner which read “Stop domestic flights”, managed to enter the airport and runway without being detected. After some five minutes, police arrived to the scene, but refrained from violent intervention. When the blockade had been carried to its planned end, the activists were arrested and informed of the formal charge of aggravated trespass. The most likely punishment is some heavy fines, but prison terms are possible.

The action was carried out by Climax, a group in Stockholm formed two weeks ago. It is the seed of a direct action-movement against the root causes of climate change in a country which has just recently woken up to the facts of ongoing global warming. Climax is inspired by Plane Stupid and Rising Tide. The action of 14 April, coinciding with the enormous National Day of Climate Action in the U.S., was the first of its kind to occur in Sweden. More is bound to follow soon.

Global action against global warming!

Klimax Stockholm
2007-04-15