London Heathrow "is the world's busiest international airport. It is an iconic global symbol of aviation." This is not presented as a piece of information, it is an explanation - on an evironmental organisation's website - as to why Heathrow was targeted last week by a group called Camp for Climate Action.
This will not be the last the industry sees of action like it, and in due course other airports in the UK and mainland Europe can expect to be targeted.
Whether these camps and other active environmentalist tactics have the potential to influence policy or change people's thinking is doubtful. The 19-year protest outside the UK Royal Air Force station at Greenham Common when it was a NATO base achieved notoriety but nothing else. The declared aim of Heathrow activists was to disrupt aviation. If groups like it succeed in causing disruption, their action will have side-effects: safety may be affected, security will definitely be compromised, and passengers will suffer hassle. The most probable public reaction will be irritation or even anger, and government policy will not be affected at all by protests of this kind.
So can the industry ignore this kind of action because it will be ineffective in its primary aim? Clearly not. If the movement becomes more sophisticated it could become a real part of the battleground on which hearts and minds are won or lost - and this is a hearts and minds game.
The industry has to be sophisticated also. Harrumphing about protests is not sophisticated. Cogently presenting what the industry is doing to become sustainable is an essential component, but simple information about the benefits of aviation in the world and the disadvantages of constraining it unduly would be more effective one of the arguments on Climate Camp's site is that power generation and cars are essential, but aviation is "unnecessary".
Recently we argued: "Curbing aviation emissions may currently be accorded a high profile on European politicians' agendas, but in almost all the rest of the world the opposite view prevails. The issue of aviation emissions is not totally ignored outside Europe, but as a target for political action it is way down priorities lists. Beyond Europe, aviation's effect on the environment occupies the place in political priorities that an industry producing only 2-3% of global warming gases could be expected to occupy." We stand by that. Europe cannot act effectively alone, and any group that thinks it can is dreaming.
Source: Flight International
