Another Installment of Rosh’s Rants - Bristol Airport Expansion Protest
I went to the protest against the airport expansion on Saturday - organised by people who have spent years campaigning against the airport expansion. In 2020 they won! In February 2020 Councillors voted to reject Bristol Airport’s application to expand. 18 voted in favour of rejecting the application, 7 against and 3 abstentions.
Two years later this decision however was overturned by ‘government officials’ stating that the ‘socioeconomic benefits outweighed the harm.’
Some of their statements are laughable - “Other environmental effects have been assessed, including climate change, highways matters, air quality, as well as character and appearance, and biodiversity. These are considered to be neutral in the balance.’ Neutral? Two million extra passengers a year and the effect would be neutral?? I’m no expert but this sounds a bit like all those statements Boris makes - employment has gone up during the pandemic, I wasn’t at a party, Brexit will provide extra money for the NHS - all bullshit and bluster. Let’s say whatever we want to get things done our way, let’s not listen to experts or scientists or modellers or statisticians - the truth doesn’t matter, integrity doesn’t matter, the greater good? Who cares? The RIGHT thing? None of it matters, money, power, status is KING - and the truth is none of that will matter when there’s nowhere left to live. It’s a terrifying problem and one which the government seems unable to take on, it is enormous and scary but it’s not going away by not facing it, by not tackling it.
Saturday was emotional - all these speakers who’ve already done so much to fight this resigned to the fact that they have to do it all again. I came back angry and upset - I couldn’t write about it straightaway.
That this government has trampled through all the processes they've been through to just decide that they’re going to overturn it is so typical of this government. They have made all the right noises about the climate, COP26, targets etc but then Boris took a plane back to London from Glasgow.
And the thing is we have to keep on fighting this because big decisions like this, expansions of airports vastly outweigh all the stuff we try and do ourselves. I walk, cycle, take the bus or the train everywhere I can but this is small fry in comparison to an airport expansion practically on my doorstep. I am by no means perfect and I’m forever realising I could be doing things better. And then I walk to school and its like a a parade of enormous 4x4s, and those people who leave their engines running whilst they’re waiting to collect (who the fuck are you?). And then there are the people taking unnecessary flights (hello Prime Minister) - surely if we’re learnt anything from the pandemic it’s that we don’t have to be in the same room or the same country to have an effective meeting. Those people using stupid coffee pod machines, a little bit of landfill with every cup. The people using disposable nappies, sanitary towels and tampons, little soap pumps, plastic boxes of washing liquid capsules, the list goes on and on - omigod I know that the some of the alternatives might be a bit less convenient but our convenience has got us in this mess and the only way out is to put ourselves out, to do some work. It's going to be a lot more convenient than battling fires and floods and famine that will be the reality if not for us then certainly for our children and grandchildren
I drive my husband mad - if we haven’t got our cups with us we can’t get a coffee anywhere unless they’ve got real cups, I won’t get take-aways or buy things in M&S food because their packaging is like actual tupperware. I haven’t bought a new bottle of shampoo or washing up liquid or bathroom cleaner for years - we just refill. If we’ve run out of milk we can’t just pick some up on the way home from somewhere because I need to get my glass bottle to refill it. Yes I know I should be vegan. Yes it is (and I am) a complete pain in the arse but I can’t just ignore it.
But who are all these people that think it doesn’t apply to them that they are immune to climate change? Do they really think it’s not happening? Money and status, enormous cars and fancy holidays are not going to protect them from all the challenges to come.
And people who say they are not political, that politics doesn’t affect them, that they ‘don’t like to talk about politics’ - Wake up! Engage! What they want is you to turn a blind eye. Everything this joker and his band of deluded, loyal minions are doing is for themselves, they don’t care about us or the long term or the planet. Be a pain in the arse to your MP, question your actions, the actions of others - do whatever you can.
