Letter to Douglas Alexander MP, transport secretary, copied to David Miliband and Tony Blair.

For the attention of Rt. Hon Douglas Alexander (copies to David Miliband and Tony Blair)

29th Dec 2006


Dear Mr. Alexander,

Following the publication of your paper on the future of airport expansion at Heathrow, Stanstead and Luton, I am writing to protest at your wanton disregard of the environmental impact of this decision.

Already at Heathrow there is a plane coming in every 60-90 seconds, and your proposed plan will add 250,000 flights each year. Each 747 flight burns 500,000lbs of fuel. This is discharged into the high atmosphere where its global warming impact is magnified and it takes many years to come down to sea level for subsequent absorption by vegetation and the sea itself.

You must know full well that your publicly quoted statistics regarding CO2 contribution from air travel to the total UK output are incorrect as they only count the outgoing flights. Given the severity of this issue, a distortion of the truth like this is simply criminal.

In addition to the critical issue of global warming, the levels of pollution in and around Heathrow are consistently breaching the European Union Air Quality standards. The poor air quality is a serious risk to the health of people living around Heathrow. Incidents of respiratory and heart diseases are increased dramatically for people who live around the area of the major airports. It is not an accident that the worst fog in the country before Christmas occurred in and around Heathrow itself.

The government has just released the Stern report which demands a 90% cut in CO2 emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change. Can you explain how you will achieve this whilst at the same time sanctioning a massive increase in the airport capacity?

In your announcement, you stated that there would be detailed monitoring of the environmental assessment. Why do you think this is necessary? It is obvious that an extra 250,000 flights per year will have an untold impact on global warming. What would the monitoring actually entail? Would it be observing the final demise of the polar bear or monitoring the flooding of our major cities or droughts in Africa? It was crass of you not to define clearly in your announcement what this monitoring would entail.

As part your announcement, you also stated that the environmental costs would be covered by additional ticket prices by buying carbon offsets. Your argument is fatally flawed on two counts. The first flaw is that you can not determine the environmental cost? How do you put a price on species becoming extinct by the day, the polar ice caps melting more rapidly than predicted, and the Amazon, which has spent millions of years developing, drying out? The second flaw is that if there are any good carbon offset ideas, we should be pursuing them as a matter of priority, and not merely using them as a feel good factor to ameliorate the guilt of flying. The sad fact is that many carbon offset ideas are not based on sound science and in some cases actually cause more warming than they attempt to compensate for.

Your position is in complete conflict with the government’s rhetoric. The government has on many occasions correctly stated that global warming is our biggest threat. Yet, every time that this government has had a choice between making a stand for the environment and big business, big business and has won every time. This time it is no different.

Lack of leadership has become the hallmark of the governments approach to global warming. As I write this letter, Tony Blair is in Florida taking his second holiday this year in the Americas. He expects us to make sacrifices in the name of global warming, but he himself is not prepared to sacrifice any of his own luxuries. This is the selfish logic of the dictators that we have sacrificed so much blood over the years to dispose. Leadership is something that should be practised by example, not by exhortation.

In common with the government’s general attitude, David Miliband received great publicity when he took over as environment secretary and made global warming his number one priority. Yet, he has been silent on this issue.

In the week of your announcement I compared the airfare from the London to Glasgow. The cheapest air ticket was £12, the cheapest train ticket was over £150. It is no wonder that the demand for air travel is so high. Perhaps if you were to ensure that the aviation industry paid its full cost through appropriate taxation that represented its true environmental impact, then the demand that you are trying to satisfy would disappear.

I am sixteen years old; unable to vote, unable to have my say in what is to happen with anything involved in the world. Nevertheless, it is my generation that will be burdened with a climate that is quickly spiralling out of control. Already within my life time the climate has warmed and the seasons have changed; I am writing this letter at the end of December, Christmas lights are decorating the outside of people’s houses. Even with this, the season could not be any less festive; the leaves fell off the trees just before Christmas. The average night time temperature is higher than what it is meant to be during the day for this time of year. Yet, still you are proposing to expand the airports with the thought of economic growth in mind. How will this economic growth be served by cities underwater? At what point are you going to decide when enough is enough? You are stealing my future to buy votes at the next election.

The time has come for the government to show leadership on this issue. I urge you to revoke your short sighted and damaging decision. I look forward to your reply.

Yours truly,



Callum Lister