The Book
Reach for the Sky is a booklet making the links between cheap flights and climate change. A real parable for our times - what will become of no-frills airlines as climate change pollution is increasingly limited?
Leading writers like George Monbiot & Mark Lynas join with anti-airport campaigners & analysts to explore the tensions between an oil-dependent aviation industry and our part in reducing the emissions that cause climate change.
From food miles to peak oil via the psychology of climate change denial, the booklet explores current actions against airport expansion across Europe and offers a way for individuals to take positive action to limit their climate change emissions.
Flying is the most polluting form of transport, one which is artifically stimulated by a £9 billion annual bill to taxpayers to keep its costs down. The government is committed to trebling the amount of people flying by the year 2030. Such an expansion would completely cancel their target to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050. Something has got to give.
The Film
Winner Best Ecology Film 2006, Swansea Bay Film Festival
The booklet follows on from this 40 minute documentary charting a successful campaign against expansion at a South Wales airport. The local council suggested economic benefits from the airport would exceed any costs from damage to the environment, and approved almost £1 million of taxpayers money for construction at the privately-owned airport. They were unable or unwilling to consider climate change as part of those costs.
The film reveals the extent to which private aviation companies enjoy government support, and are free from any caps on their climate change pollution. While comparable industrial polluters like power stations or chemical plants have been forced to clean up their act, the aviation industry enjoys tax free fuel and increased its emissions by 50% in the 1990s.
How can cream pies, sitting on top of an airliner, singing on a runway or squatting a crane stop climate change? How do cheap flights increase sea levels? How did British activists stop an airport from destroying a beauty spot?
A documentary exploring the growing activism against the Labour governments plans to expand nearly all British airports despite the growing threat of climate change. Includes dramatic images of activists blocking a runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, treetop protests to hinder construction at Manchester airport and activists training to stop Swansea airports expansion. Exclusive images from Heathrow airport show how expansion was halted as local people scaled the security fences and climbed a 30m crane to squat with banners for an entire week.
Expand your mind with an explanation of Corporate 'Carbon Trading' and insights into how common lands have been stolen to build Britsh airports. Find out alternatives to flying. Have a laugh as corporate leaders are cream pied for their failure to stop climate change gases.
Bonus features - Reach for the Sky DVD also includes Mark Thomas Comedy Show, Globalisation & the Media, Cows with Guns, and other bonus features.
Review: e@undercurrents.org