Rising Tide

Last week the Meteorological Office published the State of the UK Climate Report showing that 10 of the hottest years on record have come in the last 16 (since 2002). As you know the UK Parliament passed unanimously a motion declaring a Climate Emergency. The UK government acted upon the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) headline advice which was:
“The UK should legislate as soon as possible to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The target can be legislated as a 100% reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs) from 1990 and should cover all sectors of the economy, including international aviation and shipping”.

They did this via an unopposed Statutory Instrument "THE CLIMATE CHANGE ACT 2008 (2050 TARGET AMENDMENT) ORDER 2019" which merely changes the target for emissions reduction from 80% to 100%, i.e. net zero. That's all. So, since the original Climate Change Act excludes International Aviation & Shipping, that's not been changed by this amendment. The CCC said in their advice that they shall write to the government regarding Aviation emissions by the end of this year but until then they remain excluded despite what BEIS Minister Greg Clark says about plans for net zero including them.

FAILURE TO ACT

With more Methane and less Sulphur in the atmosphere we're on target to breach the 1.5C degree limit of The Paris Accord by 2030. We have a declared emergency then, but little in the way of action or a plan. In fact, since 2015 this government has been responsible for much obstruction, contradiction and dithering resulting in:-

Given our work has so many overlapping priorities we've agreed to work together with RtP in London (& Bristol) and hold joint meetings. One of the reasons we have got together is to support this camp to highlight a future of connected communities and a climate justice movement that recognises the rights of everyone - a mass action camp for migrant and climate justice, taking direct action against new gas infrastructure built by Drax, shutting it down and also training-up and learning how to support resistance to the UK's Hostile Environment for migrants to take action later this year. https://www.facebook.com/events/584658665344782/

Hopefully this may enable you to make what sense can be made around Heathrow expansion?
As you know even before the intended £18billion further expansion, Heathrow is the UK's biggest emitter of Greenhouse Gases at a time of Climate Breakdown emergency.
Another runway would boost current flights of 480,000 to 740,000 seeing passengers rise to 132 million effectively creating a new airport the size of London Gatwick!
FALL-OUT FROM JUDICIAL REVIEW (JR);
HEATHROW AIRSPACE & FUTURE OPERATIONS CONSULTATION;
AVIATION GREEN PAPER ON FUTURE STRATEGY

https://stay-grounded.org/conference/

The Anti-Fracking-Acidisation Camp set up at OS 264-431 at junction of A217 north of Hookwood, west of Horley in Surrey, near the so-called Gatwick gusher where UKOG are planning to drill further with several new wells, needs your help. Currently very low indeed on people and obviously anyone can visit anytime but locals currently prefer the camp to be a monitoring station not a base for disruptive action. If you're interested in staying there please contact RisingTideUK by emailing us, telling us a bit about yourself and we'll put you in touch. Horse Hill Monitoring Post page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1907665622633042/

"My home has melted!" mourned Santa from the streets of Horley!
Having been forced to abandon his waterlogged Lapland home due to climate breakdown caused by the burning of Fossil Fuels, Santa and his elves ironically stowed away in the lifeboats of a Liquid Natural Gas tanker to escape his now flooded former snowbound winter wonderland. Sleigh's were not an option as Rudolph and comrades are now merely starved carcass, after the recent 50% catastrophic decline in reindeer/caribou numbers due to the warmer climate in the arctic eradicating their food supply. Last Saturday, upon UK landfall the former seasonal folk made their way to Horley to find the Fossil Fool culprits who were responsible for his loss - UK Oil&Gas (UKOG),the lead company of HorseHillDevelopments Ltd, who are acid-fracking the nearby Horse Hill site. It was tragic to see Santa & his elves flaunting the Vagrancy Act and especially Santa who seemed to have turned to the drink.

UPDATE:-
The Stansted 15 are a group of anti-deportation protesters who blocked a UK government deportation flight at Stanstead Airport last year to make the links clearer between climate change, colonialism, homophobia and the border regime. In a world of the IPCC's current forecast of 3 degrees C plus, innocent climate breakdown refugees will face the power of the state to maintain borders. In the UK and many other countries, that "hostile environment" has already begun. They were sentenced on 6th Feb'19 by a Crown Court judge. They avoided immediate prison sentences, with 3 given suspended sentences and 12 given Community Service Orders. The jury found all fifteen defendants guilty of "intentional disruption of services and endangerment at an aerodrome" under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act – a controversial use of terror-related law. This outrageous verdict attempts to suggest there is a link between non-violent protest and terrorism.There seems to be no doubt that it is the UK goverment's Home Office that is guilty of terrorising.
In a statement, the Stansted 15 said:
“These terror convictions and the ten-week trial that led to them are an injustice that has profound implications for our lives. The convictions will drastically limit our ability to work, travel and take part in everyday life. Yet, people seeking asylum in this country face worse than this: they are placed in destitution and their lives in limbo, by the Home Office’s vicious system every single day. When a country uses draconian terror legislation against people for peaceful protest, snatches others from their homes in dawn raids, incarcerates them without time limit and forces them onto planes in the middle of the night, due to take them to places where their lives might be at risk, something is very seriously wrong. Every single one of us should be very worried about our democracy and our future. We demand that these convictions are quashed, and that the Government dismantles the vicious, barely legal, immigration system that destroys so many people’s lives.”
Please defend the right to protest and sign this petition:- https://www.change.org/p/home-office-end-the-hostile-environment-and-dep...

On 10th December the 15 were found guilty of a terrorism "aviation offence", namely that they "placed the safety of an airport in a likelihood of danger". This outrageous verdict attempts to suggest there is a link between non-violent protest and terrorism. They will be sentenced on Wednesday February 6th, 2019 between 8:30 am - 4pm at Chelmsford Court, New Street, Chelmsford, Essex, UK and many people will gather outside in solidarity. There seems to be no doubt that it is the UK goverment's Home Office that is guilty of terrorising. https://www.facebook.com/events/735004523524622/
Many Solidarity Rallies have been held in the UK since the verdict https://www.facebook.com/EDeportations/
Last year those 15 people grounded a deportation charter flight for 10 hours to prevent it taking off. The action was taken by our comrades at End Deportations, Plane Stupid and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants) and aimed to show links between climate change, colonialism, homophobia and the border regime. The individuals responsible for this non-violent direct action were charged with terrrorism-related offences that could result in life imprisonment. There seems to be no doubt that it is the goverment's Home Office that is guilty of terrorising.
In November we issued this Statement to say we stand with them in Solidarity .
"In line with our Rising Tide International Political Statement and also as Members of Stay Grounded, Rising Tide UK stands in solidarity with the Stansted 15. The 15 are nearing the end of a gruelling 8-week trial in Chelmsford, having taken nonviolent direct action to stop a deportation charter flight to Nigeria from taking off in March 2017. For this action, which highlighted a brutal and little-known aspect of the UK's border regime, they are facing charges of terrorism which could result in life imprisonment.
Deportation charter flights are a particularly horrific aspect of the UK's hostile environment for migrants, which also includes immigration detention centres, raids, signing at the police station and keeping people in a limbo of uncertainty over their future – often for years. People deported on these flights are snatched from their communities and families - without due process and without time to challenge the deportation through legal means. According to Corporate Watch:
"Up to 2,000 people a year are loaded onto these secretive night flights, often shackled in “waist restraint belts” or “leg restraints”. Deportees are manhandled by private security “escorts” (working for Mitie) onto aircraft hired from charter companies.".
The Home Office wants to get its money's worth out of each charter flight, so people are racially targetted to fill a flight; and more people are booked onto a flight than can fit, in case anyone manages to secure a last-minute injunction on their deportation, adding to the uncertainty and trauma people are already experiencing at the hands of the UK border regime.
The Stansted 15 were acting to prevent this form of state terrorism. Their Action has brought much-needed attention to the border regime and has resulted in at least one person who was on that flight receiving "leave to remain" in the UK. Eleven more people are still here and waiting for their claims to be processed – a chance that would have been taken away from them had this Action not happened. Some of the people on this flight were facing persecution and death if deported, some were victims of trafficking and many had ongoing asylum claims in the UK.
We see the impacts of the UK's hostile environment in our communities every day and it is only when people come together to challenge it that we feel the cracks opening in this unjust system. The Stansted 15's action was incredibly important, not only for the people on the 'plane, who were able continue with their asylum claims but also for what it represented and the ideas and conversations that have come out of it. People can stop charter flights from taking off; we can dismantle the hostile environment and treat refugees and asylum seekers with the respect and dignity they deserve. This wasn't terrorism, it was a practical display of solidarity with people going through the immigration process and a reminder to us all that we can and should be building a fairer world.".

They are still short in their crowdfunder appeal : https://chuffed.org/project/end-deportations-charter-flight-action-trial...
https://www.facebook.com/events/1818956471520835/?notif_t=plan_user_asso...
https://www.facebook.com/EDeportations/