Features
Is this the end?
This week the government gave the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow Airport to be built. This could effectively mean the end.
The end of one whole village. The end of any hope to meet our two-month young 80 per cent carbon reduction target by 2050. The end of Britain's reputation as any sort of "leader" in the fight against man-made climate change. The end of any desire the rest of the world may have had to halt the growth of its own aviation industries. The end of any impression the rest of the world may have had that a reduction in aviation is essential to sustaining the thin hope of avoiding global catastrophe. The end of that fucking hope. The end.
This is more than just a bad decision. A wrong decision. An immoral decision. In the cold morning light of every man and woman with an ounce of intelligence warning of the need to contract our dependence and our desire upon this industry, not just because it is a fossil fuel industry, but because it is the only fossil fuel industry for which there is no alternative to burning carbon, knowing that. Knowing how Britain is viewed as a world leader, a preceptor to change. Knowing that no-one. NO ONE. Other than the corporations and their benefactors who stand to make money from this environmental act of terrorism is supporting a third runway. Knowing all of this, the government of the United Kingdom - voted in "democratically" by 21 per cent of "eligible" voters and led by a man who has never fought an election as leader - have made a decision that will be viewed as the greatest single act of environmental suicide ever made on these shores.
Are we over-reacting? Toward the end of one of the worst years imaginable for the fight against man-made climate change, we, here at The Taxman, described the third runway on 27th November 2007 as an act of genocide. It is so because burning carbon is already killing people. It is so because carbon burnt by jet aeroplanes is known to enter the atmosphere and begin its warming effect on the climate at least four times faster than by any other method. It so because this third runway will undo all of the achievements and progress made during 2008. The Climate Change Bill and all its successful amendments. The High Court judgement setting a precedent for future campaigners. The downfall of corporate extravagance during the economic crisis. Barack's win. Crichton's death. All of it. Undone. In one pathetic, lumbering concession to the airline industry's self-indulgence.
So, is this the end? No. This is just the beginning. Through the planning process, through the courts, on the doorsteps of 700 homes we will fight this. No bulldozer shall dig, no tarmac be laid. This isn't the end, it's only the start.
