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As you may remember RTUK set up the StayGrounded Aviation Greenwashing & False Solutions Working Group to produce a series of Factsheets and we've been working with them on these for the last couple of years https://stay-grounded.org/greenwashing/ . These are so far:-

So right up front we'd like to say long-term sick & disabled people (LTSDP) are the new underclass (really the old underclass) and if we're going to have a government, we seek your help in exposing and publicising the scandalous absence of any extra UKgov "cost of living" and pandemic help for those most vulnerable.

ANY comments from UKgov, like Sunak's "we will support the most vulnerable, we did it in the pandemic and will do it again" from 26th Oct'22 and "fairness and compassion is at the heart of everything we do" from 2nd Nov'22 are simply LIES, we'll explain why and would like your help in getting the message out there.

We'll endeavour to keep this updated here:- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KI_2HfexzDUjmn-RiX9e3xLb5mjHN2khSo7…

A Requested Briefing Paper for COP26Coalition from RisingTideUK

With no Nuclear Power campaigners at any major UK NGO there's a danger of the reappearance of Nuclear ambivalence, maybe particularly with 2020’s high profile defection of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) newspaper "Hour Glass" editor to pro-nuclear power propagandist lobbying.

These briefing notes aim to prevent that scenario developing and was requested in response to PM outlines his Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution for 250,000 jobs - GOV.UK and £40 million to kick start next-gen nuclear technology - GOV.UK by the Coalition’s Political Strategy Working Group.

Nuclear (National Grid average as at year ending Mar'21), accounts for 16.1% of the UK electricity supply mix, with Renewables at 40.3%, Natural Gas at 38.2%, Coal 2.7% (& "Other" also 2.7%).

So apart from:-

taking more than a decade to build;

no current safe or adequate waste storage solutions, even after 70 years of operation; 

a major accident every decade - Windscale (UK), 3 Mile Island (USA), Chernobyl (Soviet Union), Fukushima (Japan), Forsmark (Sweden) and in the Netherlands, France etc. etc;

rising sea levels at all coastal sites;

exorbitant guaranteed "strike prices" for electricity generated and prioritised over Renewables;

continued weapons proliferation via requisite grade plutonium created in civil reactors;

radioactive and radiation health threats causing cancers and other fatal diseases;

potential terrorism targets;

huge coolant water usage and warm water discharge;

the mind-blowing monumental cost compared to the Renewables displaced:-
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Nuclear Power is not low carbon.

So, the mouldy green dust of the "climate Davos" has settled on another COP "negotiation". 27 years on and the story is still: can; kick; road. Rather than consigning coal, oil and gas to the past, the first mention in text ever for "fossil fuels" was in a weak reference to removing ‘inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels’ with a ‘phase down’ of coal that doesn’t even mention gas or oil!  COP26, more impotent than important.

On the 5th and 6th of November 2021, aviation protest actions across the globe coordinated by Stay Grounded, called for an end to aviation’s greenwashing and an effective reduction of air traffic. The diverse protests were part of a Global Day of Action called by the https://cop26coalition.org/gda/  a UK-based civil society grouping, mobilising around climate justice during COP26, the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow. In addition to the 18 events for 12 UK expanding airports, protests also took place in Mexico, Nepal, Germany and France.

Aviation is the most climate-damaging form of transport and one of the worst examples of climate injustice, so nobody should be fooled by attempts to greenwash aviation. New technologies and so-called ‘sustainable’ fuels will take decades to be used on commercial, long haul flights – and it is these flights that cause the vast majority of aviation’s climate wrecking emissions. (Check out 5 Greenwashing Factsheets here:- https://stay-grounded.org/greenwashing ). Research shows that relying on techno-fixes will not decarbonise the aviation sector rapidly enough to stay below the globally agreed 1.5 degrees C limit; and the UK government’s advisory body, the Climate Change Committee, recommends NO net expansion of UK airports and has repeatedly warned the government that technological solutions alone will be insufficient to make the aviation sector even net zero by 2050. Yet, every UK airport has plans to expand. 

In this context we took to the fields and streets to counter greenwashing and aviation expansion. In what rapidly became a full Week of Action, Rising Tide UK co-ordinated the Stay Grounded activities in the UK for airports at:  Bristol, Doncaster-Sheffield, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, Leeds-Bradford, London-City, Luton, Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton and Stanstead. Our press spokesperson Ray Stewart said:-
  "We warn that trusting yet-to-be-developed technology to reduce climate-wrecking emissions is an extreme risk we cannot afford to take. Instead, we demand immediate action be taken to prevent aviation growth to cut associated emissions, for us to stand any chance of remaining within 1.5C.”

18 events for 12 UK airports showed what happens when we get together and co-ordinate united action around common themes under the Stay Grounded UK Chapter umbrella. So well done to those groups that took part and thanks to those who acted as group spokespeople, took photo's and did techy stuff. Lets have more groups covering more airports next time! We encourage those groups to visit https://stay-grounded.org/how-to-become-a-member/ .

Here's a round-up of what happened and where, with media links of which we're aware.