Anna's blog

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Plane Stupid Towers is delighted to announce our collection of sumptuous stickers. If you are lucky enough to have access to a computer and printer all you'll need is to download the designs from our flickr site and print them out on standard, non divided, A4 sticker paper (available from most printers and stationers).

Ok, so one or two of them are in the tradition of somewhat abraisive satire, but with designs ranging from the cutting edge illustration of Ben Whitehouse, to the classic 'government health warning' label, we hope there's something here for everyone.

In no way are these stickers intended to go on airline adverts, airports, or other places where they might cause people to think about the impact of flying. When going out and about with them we urge you to wrap up warm, making sure you wear a nice hat and scarf for any cctv cameras.

If you happen to see any of our stickers in interesting locations, please take a photo and email it to us, we'd love to compile a gallery.

Grimshaws, the architects firm which portrays itself as greener than green, the people who designed the Eden Project, were appointed late last year as architects for the third runway at Heathrow. No wonder three young men blacked-out their glass-fronted offices on Clerkenwell Road with tar.

Grimshaws thought the most sensible thing to do on the one year anniversary of the Government giving the go-ahead to the third runway was to have a high-level meeting with BAA. Imagine their surprise when they found their six-metre plate glass windows entirely blacked out. Not an auspicious start.

If Grimshaws thought this was just another job, then they've bitten off more than they can chew. The suave, award-winning Sir Nicholas Grimshaw has seriously underestimated the determination of thousands of people to stop the third runway ever being built. Actions like this are going to become common place as people recognise that our Government is not doing enough and start taking action themselves.

But this is not just a message to Grimshaws. It is to any firm that bids for work on the third runway. Heathrow's expansion is a poisoned chalice. Just leave it alone.

P.s. the image above is, of course, a cleverly constructed metaphor. See the tar pit. See the elephant, which is representing Grimshaws. See it struggling in the tar. There's an astute political message in there somewhere.

Source: Flickr

Cop 15 is a talking shop of the world's power elite, which is going to produce a 'deal' that will make a lot of bankers rich through trading pollution permits. What would a 'good deal' for aviation look like? Well there are some progressive ideas on the table from the Least Economically Developed Countries, who clearly have the most legitimacy.

A global levy on flights might be a good start, with the proceeds going into an adaption fund for the most vulnerable people. But it would probably need to be administered by someone other than ICAO - the former aviation industry bosses who currently run the international body responsible for aviation at the Climate Change talks who have presided over an unprecedented rise in emissions from flying.

The most radical proposal with any chance of success is the EU's one for +37% increase in aviation emissions by 2020. Which when you consider that the UK is supposedly committed to an 80% cut in all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is ridiculous.

Nobody should rely on the talks at COP15 to sort anything out; what really matters is what happens on the ground with new runways, motorways, coal fired power stations and the rest- which ordinary people have the power to change.

Source: Flickr

Q: What do you get if you take an idiotic government policy, add a dash of self serving business interest, a sprinkle of corruption, a handful of cash incentives and a short sighted local council, rub them all together and leave them to bake in one of the poorest boroughs in London?

A: London City Airport!

When central government asked all airports in the country to figure out the most effective way to shit on local communities whilst increasing carbon emissions as much as humanly possible – otherwise known as putting together an airport masterplan – London City Airport's owners, Global Infrastructure Partners, began rubbing their grimey money-grabbing palms together with glee. Their time had surely come!

And to be honest, they're doing a pretty good job of taking the piss. Heathrow's third runway may be threatening to bulldoze 700 homes, create a carbon emitting monolith and wipe out any possibility of meeting any climate change targets whatsoever. But do BAA have the self serving arrogance of LCA's owners with their audacious claims that a 50% increase in air traffic from City Airport - achievable only by enticing the business elite to pump increasing levels of noxious emissions and noise across one of the poorest and most polluted areas of London - will actually benefit the local community?

Luckily, even though the airport has bought out the local council (or is it that the councillors have bought the airport?...), and despite their determination to bribe the local community and ignore the fact that we're heading for climate catastrophe, the rest of us are fortunate enough to be able to see through their lies.

So it comes as no surprise that City Airport has been getting a bit of a makeover lately. A little reminder that this battle has only just begun. They'd better watch this space...

Source: Flickr

Environmentalists are often accused of being a little hard to please. Along comes this great techno fix and we stubbornly question its credentials. We start mumbling about corporate greenwash and false solutions, and ask who stands to benefit. Is the latest solution intended to prevent climate change or to line the pockets of corporate bastards?

Virgin's ventures into biofuels are a great example of this dilemma. The government told us that aviation can’t expand unless it miraculously becomes sustainable - so last year Virgin launched a spectacular stunt, flying from London to Paris on a plane which used 5% biofuels. It was widely hailed by the press as a revolution in the skies; one which would solve climate change and doubtless wipe out jet lag as well. But there are several reasons why Virgin's pilot will never be rolled out widely.

Not only do most of them require more carbon to produce than oil based products, but agrofuels have a catastrophic impact on the ecosystems we rely on to absorb greenhouse gas emissions. The need to grow fuel has exascerbated the already widespread deforestation of the world's ancient woodlands as greedy profiteers send in the bulldozers. As more land is taken from long-established forests and turned over to fuel mono-crops, the earth becomes less able to turn CO2 into oxygen. This is very bad news indeed.

It's not just the planet which is being killed by agrofuels: people around the world are being forced off their land so that western agrobusinesses can grow petrol-plants. Widespread commercial biofuel production has turned land which should be used to grow food used for fuel production and indigenous people driven off the land into extinction. The impact of this is stark: every year an estimated 100 million people die as a result of the rapid introduction of biofuels around the globe. As the UN recognised, agrofuels are the driving force behind last year's food crisis.

Faced with this, Virgin conceded that first-generation biofuels may not be the final solution, but have conveniently found the answer: ‘second-generation’ biofuels. These are sold as a refined and scientific solution to the failings of first-gen agrofuels, but with a great caveat: even if they don’t work, "the history of aviation is full of people doing the impossible".

Unfortunately second generation biofuels have exactly the same destructive impact as the first generation. First there's the issue of supply: the plane needed 150,000 coconouts to fly from London to Paris, despite being only 5% agrofuel. Imagine the amount of land needed to fuel all the planes departing Heathrow.

Aviation may be full of people "doing the impossible", but there are some things which simply can't be done. In 2003, Sir David King, then chief scientist for the Labour government, stated that there was no green alternative to aviation fuel. There still isn't. Rolling out a full programme of biofuel aircraft would lead to deforestation, food shortages and millions of climate refugees. Ask yourself: are you willing to give up eating to fly to Spain?