Plane Stupid Close Stansted Airport
A group of young activists from Plane Stupid sliced through security fencing at Stansted Airport, in Essex, Britain, at 3 am on Monday. Forty-nine people have been charged.
The Plane Stupid demonstration closed the runway and meant dozens of flights had to be cancelled or delayed. The airport’s owner, BAA may be liable for large fines, as rebates to airlines in the event of a bad performance by this company are already established at its other airports: Heathrow and Gatwick airports, but have not yet been applied at Stansted.
Government hypocrisy pinpointed
The strike was organised to highlight the British Government’s double standards – Plane Stupid say there is clear hypocrisy in their giving permission to build a new runway at Stansted while claiming to be seeking to reduce CO2 emissions nationally.
The Plane Stupid website displays a message from ‘Robbie’, one of the protestors who says that ‘We took the decision to disrupt the airport to directly reduce the CO2 impact of Stansted, as a response to the government’s consent to its expansion. We did so with heavy hearts, knowing it would disrupt passengers, because we knew the consequences of this action couldn’t be worse than the consequences of inaction. If irreversible climate change kicks in, millions of lives will be destroyed.’ In addition, Plane Stupid says 57 people were arrested, and 56 flights cancelled – equalling one flight per protester - meaning each activist individually prevented 41.58 tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalent entering the atmosphere.
Stansted airport photograph courtesy of acebal at Flickr under a Creative Commons Licence
