My aim is to travel from the UK to Brisbane for one of my best friends' wedding. Plane travel is so environmentally damaging so I am looking for another way. I also think that by travelling over land and sea I will be able to understand our world better as I will connect with the people and landscapes and not just look at the departure board in the airport. Any tips gratefully received!! Departure date 1st September.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Take Action Now !!

I have just signed an online pledge stating my opposition to airport expansion and I thought if you are reading this you might like to sign up too. I hope you share my concerns about the impacts of flying and airport development. The government says it wants to take action against climate change but also plans to triple air travel - the most polluting of all forms of transport - over the next twenty five years. It wants to expand almost every airport in Britain and build huge new concrete runways across green fields at Stansted, Birmingham, Heathrow and Edinburgh. The communities around the airports will be blighted by noise and air pollution.

The government's own advisors - the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Environmental Audit Committee, and the Sustainable Development Commission - are all saying that this is a dangerous and destructive policy and still the government will not listen.

So I decided that I would make (another!!) personal stand and signed a public pledge to say that if the government refuses to back away from its expansion policy, I will take personal action to block airport expansion and to prevent companies from supporting and funding it. You can see my name and my personal statement at:

http://www.airportpledge.org.uk/read.php?entry=4271

The personal action can be anything you want it to be and the pledge will keep you informed of things you can do. But your first personal action can be to sign the pledge.

It's like a petition, but with the real threat that the people who sign it will be active and determined. The government is nervous of this kind of large scale opposition. The companies that fund and build the expansion are wary of this kind of risk to their investments. If we get enough people to join the pledge we can stop the airport expansion and force the government to adopt a transport policy which respects people and the environment.

So, please join me and sign the pledge. Go to www.airportpledge.org.uk and sign it now.

Babs x

p.s I could write about what I have been doing recently but really the main issue here is our planet and we have to think about it before ourselves sometimes (and more about me lounging on beaches and meeting cool people is probably not very interesting - especially to you people in the UK!x)

5 Comments:

At 6:06 pm, November 17, 2006, Blogger Unknown said...

hey Babs,
hello from Scotland from neil and fiona. we opened a newspaper some weeks ago and saw your photo and read about your trip. we live in the middle of nowhere and even we'd heard about it - well done!

i've signed the pledge - more planes means more wars to secure the fuel to fly them, it is that simple.

the world sometimes seems to be an awful place, with all the wrong people in positions of power, making all the wrong decisions, but it's good to know there's people doing great things like you - what a trip! - and that keeps us smiling. despite the rain and hail here.

cheers, neil and fiona x

 
At 12:00 am, November 20, 2006, Blogger LimePulp said...

Hi Ya Babs

or should i say 4134

Sorry i didn't get to post a comment early, been at your favorite place on earth CAT, hope its still your favorite place, even though it was wet from the time the MSc students turned up untill about 2 hours after they left it was a great week, with a very surreal James Bond themed Panto, but Ill email you about that tomorrow, just got back home so a bit knacked, not from the 185 mile journey back to my home but from the 2.4 mile bike ride up to the end of your drive, if you can cycle up that road without having to stop for a minor heart attack then you are a lot fitter than you though, anyway, agan more in the email.

Good to see that you still have time to keep upto date with whats going on in the very wet, cold and windy UK, durprised to hear that Aus has internet access on they beachs, how cool is that.

Going to sign the airport pledge as soon as I first this short comment.

Hope the sun cream is still working

email you soon, but i think i already told you that, did i say i was knacked?

Lots of Love & Luck and lots of airport pledge signer please

Steve XX

 
At 3:37 pm, November 20, 2006, Blogger Unknown said...

hey babs,
hello from fiona and neil in scotland. we live in the middle of nowhere, and even we've read about your trip - we saw your photo in a newspaper!

i've signed the pledge, more planes means more wars to secure the fuel to fly them, less wildlife (we're wardens of a woodland reserve now - nice!). things are cool here, and your news of your trip is making us smile. cheers!

fiona and neil x

 
At 3:54 pm, November 24, 2006, Blogger Ro said...

Babs,
You never cease to amaze me. I welled up with pride when I found out what you were doing, and just thought, although you amaze me, nothing you do surprises me.
I miss you loads and after reading all you've written so far I now want to know what you did after the wedding - I have been to Fraser Island, what did you think? And also, what happens next?
I will sign up to prevent airport expansion for sure.
I have started working for the North Devon Journal, and they are interested in letting me do a piece on your trip, if you're happy for me to.
My email in case you don't have it anywhere is rowrich@yahoo.com
Take care Babs.
Much love
Ro

 
At 3:55 pm, November 24, 2006, Blogger Ro said...

Babs,
You never cease to amaze me. I welled up with pride when I found out what you were doing, and just thought, although you amaze me, nothing you do surprises me.
I miss you loads and after reading all you've written so far I now want to know what you did after the wedding - I have been to Fraser Island, what did you think? And also, what happens next?
I will sign up to prevent airport expansion for sure.
I have started working for the North Devon Journal, and they are interested in letting me do a piece on your trip, if you're happy for me to.
My email in case you don't have it anywhere is rowrich@yahoo.com
Take care Babs.
Much love
Ro

 

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