Aberdeen Airport Expansion: Why We Are Against It

The Campaign against Climate Change is just that, a group set up specifically to fight climate change.

So why have our group in Aberdeen decided to focus on aviation? Quite simply aviation is the most carbon intensive industry in existence, for every pound you spend on a flight the majority of it goes directly on fuel.

The average UK citizen emits around 10 tons of carbon dioxide-the main greenhouse gas- per year, this includes running a car, heating your home, making and transporting all the goods you use etc. However 1 long haul flight can be responsible for more carbon dioxide than this! The situation is made worse because airplanes create contrails which encourage cirrus cloud formation, cirrus clouds cause futher warming.

The government has a target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60% over the next 45 years, if aviation grows as provided for by the projects currently under consultation then the carbon dioxide emissions that aviation is responsible will take up 66% of the governments target! Can we run the rest of the economy on that 34%, the answer is a resounding NO.

For more information about climate change check out "Climate Change Action" the website run by a member of the campaign against climate change in Aberdeen. For more information on the basics of climate change check out this article. Or for more information specifically about aviation have a look here.
Climate change is not just an environmental issue! Sure polar bears are going to die out, they live on ice which will no longer exist, estimates put species losses in the tropical rainforests at greater than 40% etc..But hundreds of millions more people will be without secure water, most of these in china and Asia where summer meltwater from the himalayan glaciers are set to dry up. Already the World Health Organisation estimates climate change is responsible for 150,000 deaths a year, mainly from increasing deaths from typhoid and diahoreal diseases which have extended there range due to warmer weather. Economically climate change is likely to be devastating for farmers around the world, and for many people at the mercy of extreme weather events.