...for campaigning on rainy saturdays in nottingham? sadly not. our rather small demonstration about the fact that air travel is screwing the planet did, however, make quite an impact due to the fact that some students from trent turned up in order to film us, and that j. insisted on wearing what looked like air traffic control headphones and mike to unsettle the opposition. as dean noted in his indymedia article, the opposition (in the form of travel agents staff and disinterested council wardens) wasn't up to much on the day. as could be predicted the best bit was the chat in the pub afterwards.

in case you're wondering "but dan, why target lovely travel agents who are giving us those lovely cheap flights to far away destinations" here's the blurb:-

Air travel produces 19 times the greenhouse gas emissions of trains and 190 times that of a ship.

If aviation continues to grow at its present rate all other sectors will have to reduce emissions to zero to meet the Government’s commitment to reduce C02 emissions by 60% by 2050.

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by UK air travel have doubled in the past 13 years.

Aircraft taking off from the UK emit more CO2 than from any other country in the world except the United States.

A passenger on a long haul flight accounts for as much C02 as an average motorist produces in a year.

Emissions at altitude have up to 4 times the environmental impact of those on the ground.

Air travel is growing at UK airports at an average of 4.25%. In 1970, 32 million flew from UK airports; in 2002 189 million. By 2030 some 500 million passengers may pass through UK airports.

Cargo transportation is growing by 7% a year. In 1970 580,000 tonnes of freight were moved by plane; in 2002, 2.2 million tonnes were moved by plane. It is forecast to reach 5 million tonnes in 2010.

Flying 1kg of asparagus from California to the UK uses 900 times more energy than the home grown equivalent.

Sending goods by air, weight for weight, results in up to a hundred times as much pollution as sending them by train.

Globally, flying produces more than 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (an average household produces in the region of 2 tonnes per year).

There is currently no tax on aviation fuel and the Government gives an annual £9 billion of publicly funded subsidy to the aviation industry

The Government’s commitment to reduce C02 emissions by 60% by 2050 is incompatible with its plans to build new runways at Heathrow, Birmingham and Stansted.

this was part of the local dissent group's campaign on climate change issues, which looks set to culminate in a climate change action camp this summer. in nottingham people are particularly worked up about the proposed expansion of east midlands airport. i find climate change a pretty difficult one to campaign on, because flying and eating food flown in from the other side of the planet are such accepted parts of modern life. nonetheless, the facts are frightening, and the wider they are spread about by actions like this, and linked to travel agents' displays with cutprice offers, the more of an effect we'll have.