10,000 people (and Emma Thompson) halt an airport's expansion with clever land purchase
Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Charity
The Not So Friendly Skies
Actress Emma Thompson and Greenpeace UK are trying to stop Heathrow Airport from building a third runway that would destroy the village of Sipson and lead to increased airport traffic and CO2 emissions.
Samuel Kubani, AFP / Getty Images
Thompson is just one of 10,000 people whose name will be on the deed for a plot of land that stands in the way of Heathrow's expansion.
Matt Dunham, AP
Greenpeace protesters tend to the land they helped purchase. The British government could seize the land to push through the development of Heathrow Airport's third runway.
Matt Dunham, AP
Air travel has declined, making the need for a third runway, which would run through the village of Sipson, come into question.
Alastair Grant, AP
A protestor in Heathrow's Terminal Five protests against the airport expansion.
Oli Scarff, Getty Images
Becoming a land owner sure beats breaking things, living in a tree for a few years, or standing around bearing signs (although campaigners have done that last one, too). It's also not so expensive when large numbers of people contribute a small amount of money to legally make a statement about something they believe in. And as far as charitable donations go, helping buy a plot of land is a direct way to see where your money is spent, even if you won't be able to build a summer home there.
Thompson went on British TV to rail at the government, "almost incandescent" with rage (the video is here).
"All of us in this country have been told for the last 10, 20 years by the government, 'Now could you please switch off your lights? And when you turn the water on, you've got to turn it off again. Unplug your things, wash out your cans... And while you, little people, are doing all those little things... we are going to turn around a build a socking great runway that will add 250,000 flights a year and make Heathrow the biggest CO2 emitter in Britain!"
Her sentiments illustrate why the anti-runway campaign, spearheaded by Greenpeace UK, is gathering supporters of in every class of society. Even though the government can always seize the land using eminent domain (in Britain, called "compulsory purchase"), the legal process will now be time-consuming, expensive, and not at all guaranteed. And because air travel has dipped, the need for another runway is no longer so clear-cut, the effort would now be politically unpopular, although backers naturally claim that jobs will be created.
The anti-runway campaign may just win this, and if they do, it will partly be because, like Obama's presidential campaign, it used lots of little donations wisely.
Update: The tactic seems to be working. A Greenpeace UK rep wrote me to tell me that the group is "on the way to 40,000 sign-ups now and the online promotion and advertising is only just starting to kick in."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-21-2009 @ 2:14PM
Matt said...
Emma makes some very good points, but I always find it very hard to take a celebrity serious on the enviroment. I think the most important question the interviewer should have asked her was if she flies coach when she comes to America several times a year, or does she fly in a private jet to get to her enviromental rallies. If she is a private jet star then all she has to say is bull
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1-21-2009 @ 2:15PM
Margaret said...
Go Emma and cohorts.
Happened in Seattle - we now have a 3rd runway.
They bought houses to a certain distance from the airport, but did not take into effect that even beyond those purchases - the noise level is now 1 runway more.
The 'little people' are always the ones left with the crap to deal with.
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1-21-2009 @ 4:48PM
timinnc said...
Margaret, how many jobs for your so called "little people"did that 3rd runway create.Would you like to be the one to tell them you want their jobs to disappear.
1-21-2009 @ 2:42PM
rufus said...
does anybody else think the inaugration looked more like a red carpet affair for celebrities and politicians?
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1-21-2009 @ 5:52PM
Mike said...
same as all inaugarations
1-21-2009 @ 2:45PM
upurs said...
maybe we should have done something to protest the 700 billion dolar bailout form bankers/ceo's who can't manage money...!..maybe we still can..where are al the wanna-be-serial killers...?...maybe they can stalk the families of the rich..!
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1-21-2009 @ 7:16PM
Lori said...
Hey! Inciting violence is a crime. What's wrong with you?
1-22-2009 @ 9:03AM
s said...
maybe we should start a class action lawsuit against the banks that mismanaged our tax payer money that was supposed to be used to bail them out and prevent more foreclosures.
1-21-2009 @ 3:44PM
Morgan said...
Well, God Bless her and her compatriots,
I hope theirs works to preserve their communities and environment because it sure as Heck didn't work in Seattle, after voting down the 3rd Runway it secretly was built anyway, and we're all suffering from its presence now. Decades and millions of dollars, voting against and "winning" and still a runway...I think the word Ms. Thompson used was hypocrisy. That's the civil word for the crimes committed against Humans and Nature here in this area.
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1-21-2009 @ 3:45PM
Jim said...
I have watched several airports go up in my lifetime and they always start out as being in the middle of nowhere. Soon there are houses going up and business moving in, it's no the airports fault people want to be close to them.
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1-21-2009 @ 4:37PM
MacDaddy said...
Dog and pony show ! MONEY AND POWER WILL PREVAIL !
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1-21-2009 @ 4:45PM
joe said...
The inaugration ceramonies were different because the message for the last several months have been "Change" It was a great celebration for all who wanted to attend- it just happene's to be that this president has the support of a very diversified crowd it's about time, and isnt that wonderful? I have never seen anything like this before I am so inspired, you should all be as well!
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1-21-2009 @ 6:04PM
Ken said...
Joe I am glad you are inspired by the Obama dog and pony show. I hope you are just as inspired when you see what will be left of your retirement income. "Change we can believe in" LMAO. I wonder if Obama's wife still hates America.
1-21-2009 @ 10:06PM
gd said...
Where do you get off on telling other folks what SHOULD inspire them? Who the heck do you think you are?
1-21-2009 @ 6:43PM
mark said...
Michelle Obama does not hate America, but she has not always been impressed with the way it treats its citizens. She like I has seen the discrimination, hatred and bigotry that exists in our society.
Here is for a United States that isn't owned, run and ruled by rich old white hetrosexual men who will do anything, including lie about a man's wife, to stay in power
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1-21-2009 @ 9:44PM
wendy said...
so instead we have a rich, middle aged, biracial, heterosexual man in charge. i wouldn't call that a huge change. hopefully he can come through on his promise for a change we can believe in instead of changes we can't.
1-21-2009 @ 7:33PM
bobo said...
i like planes and 250,000 more would be nice!
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1-21-2009 @ 8:19PM
dude said...
If you don't want a bigger airport with more flights then stop flying so much you twits. I will do my part by not visiting England. Then you can have your little soccer field with jumbo jets flying over it all day.
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1-21-2009 @ 11:36PM
Linda said...
The entertainment industry with its movie stars, producers, etc. is a farce. They primarily make millions off of common people and then spend their money on very frivolous lifestyles. While the people who basically pay them are trying to make ends meet, the stars are doing cocaine, parties, red carpet, billion dollar homes in every country etc. Emma Thompson could probably afford to fund this entire protest but most likely goes around asking all the little people for donations. Obama with his line up of stars from the American entertainment industry could also afford to stock all the charities in America rather than running around asking the little people to fund him and whatever else he deems worthy of donations.
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