01/08/09, 03:22:20 UTC

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Airline protesters pitch up at Heathrow

iol.co.za

Harlington, England - A stone's throw from the runways of London's main Heathrow airport, environmentalists are gearing up for the fight against global warming, amid fears of disruption to tourists and flights.

Braving wind, rain and the scream of jets climbing skyward from under nearby rooftops, hundreds of people young and old have set up temporary home here in a tented village called the "Camp for Climate Action".

The activists say their presence for a week of "low-impact living, debates, learning skills, and high-impact direct action" is a peaceful protest.

They want to highlight what they say is the aviation industry's role in global warming and voice their opposition to the proposed construction of a third runway on the grass where they have pitched tents since last weekend.

"Building a third runway in the middle of an ecological crisis is madness," Isabelle Michel, a 34-year-old teacher from London, told AFP, her voice virtually drowned out as a jet at full throttle strained to take off nearby.

"One of the key aims of the camp is to take direct action against the real causes of climate change and aviation is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions."

Many of those at the site between the villages of Sipson and Harlington told AFP they are veterans of the 2005 anti-globalisation protests at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland - and their experience shows.

Walkways between the multi-coloured tents are clearly defined; wooden boards have been laid on the grass to stop the ground becoming a quagmire; and there are compost toilets and solar and wind-powered generators for electricity.

Some protesters sit in brightly-coloured hammocks slung between the frames of giant teepees, which have been used in previous environmental protests to stall police action or the work of industrial diggers.

Throughout the week, workshops on more environmentally-friendly ways of living have been running as organisers prepare for a day of direct action on Sunday, where about 2 000 people are expected.

But exactly what form the protest will take is still a closely-guarded secret.

Illegal activity has not been ruled out, said Gary Dwyer, a 34-year-old care assistant who made the trip to Heathrow from Liverpool in north-west England.

The British media has raised fears of bogus bomb threats and incursions over the perimeter fence in a week where an estimated 1,5 million people will pass through Heathrow, many of them on their summer holiday.

On Thursday, 11 people were arrested at Biggin Hill and Farnborough airports in south-east England after chaining themselves to the entrances and lying down in the roads to protest against a rise in the use of private jets.

"There is no decision yet of what the action is going to be. Public safety is absolutely paramount," Dwyer told AFP of the Heathrow protest. "We categorically deny that there is anything like this.

"Tactically it would be counterproductive even if it wasn't irresponsible morally."

Whatever is being planned, the police are out in force around the camp. New arrivals have to get through security cordons, are photographed and have their vehicles searched. Up to 1 800 officers are on stand-by.

But environmental researcher Timothy Lever, 25, from Oxford, south central England, was undeterred.

He laid the blame squarely at the door of politicians who talked about the need to fight climate change but at the same time encouraged airport expansion and the growth of the aviation industry.

"Politicians are locked into this ideal of endless economic growth and that's a thing we need to challenge," he said.

"If we can't trust the government to act for us, we have to take action ourselves."

 Printable Version  | published Aug 16, 2007