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⚠️LIVE⚠️ Extinction Rebellion blockades Europe's premier private jet facility near London.
Eco-activists barricade Farnborough airport to demand end to private flights and tax-free fuel for the rich
Protest comes as world’s political and business elite prepare to fly by private jet to the Davos World Economic Forum
Extinction Rebellion is blockading the key entrances to Farnborough Airport today (21 May) to demand the UK government stops private flights now, because the rich and powerful are flying us all to extinction.
The protest comes as world leaders, influential business executives and selected billionaires prepare to fly out by private jet to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where climate action is supposedly at the top of the agenda.
Yet Davos is reknowned as the world's largest annual gathering of private jets, highlighting the sheer hypocrisy of the political and business elites attending this annual event.
Flying is the fastest way to burn fossil fuels and aviation fuel is exempt from any taxes almost everywhere on the planet, in stark contrast to the price paid for fuel at UK pumps.
The 30,000 private flights to and from Farnborough Airport each year carry an average of just 2.3 passengers with each passenger being responsible for the emission of nine times as much carbon as an economy flight to the US and 20 times that to Spain.
Despite a key recommendation of the Climate Assembly UK to ban polluting private jets and helicopters, Farnborough Airport has been given permission to increase flight movements to 50,000 a year and has set it's goals on unsustainable expansion.
A £35 million ($47 million) hanger is scheduled to open in 2024 doubling the available temperature controlled hangar space plus a new partnership with UK-based Vertical Aerospace aims to offer a luxury four-passenger eVTOL aircraft service.
All this, as private jet use overall has seen growth rates of up to 25% whilst ordinary UK citizens are having to choose between heating and eating.
Press release: xr-southeast.uk/extinction-rebellion-barricades-europes-premier-private-jet-facility-near-london/
Rebels & activists, will you help me raise funds for my friend Lubem's online newspaper, News Headquarter, based in Nigeria? Lubem started XR Nigeria.
I'm looking for more donors to engage, as well as writers.
Lubem has just started an Ecology & Climate section in the newspaper. Get in touch to discuss submitting your writing.
News Headquarter: Booster Fundraiser, organized by Matthew Lepley
www.gofundme.com
My name is Matthew Lepley and my pen name is Matthew Azoulay. Whilst scouring the… Matthew Lepley needs your support for News Headquarter: Booster Fundraiser
Three separate schemes have received some form of approval from government bodies during the six-month period since Boris Johnson’s administration hosted the UN climate summit in Glasgow. Campaigners say his government is reaching a crunch point, with three major onshore schemes currently being appealed and the levelling up minister, Michael Gove, set to rule on a number of such applications over the next six weeks.
In January, ministers gave the green light to the Abigail oil and gas field off the east coast of Scotland, while a coal licence extension was granted in south Wales later that month. Plans to continue and expand oil production at West Newton, east Yorkshire, were then approved by local government in March.
UK has approved several fossil fuel projects since Cop26, analysis finds
www.theguardian.com
About 50 schemes are thought to be in pipeline between now and 2025 despite climate pledgesAaaarrrrggghhhh
How climate is making Australia unliveable.
In the past three years, record-breaking bushfire and flood events have killed more than 500 people and billions of animals. Drought, cyclones and freak tides have gripped communities.
Climate change is a key concern for voters in Australia's election on Saturday. So is the cost of living - and these issues are converging like never before.
Australia election: How climate is making Australia more unliveable
www.bbc.co.uk
Climate-driven disasters are converging with key financial decisions like never before, experts say.