Thomson protesters strip to reveal the Naked Truth about biofuels

6.10.2011

3 pro­test­ers dis­rupt­ed the launch of Birm­ing­ham airport’s first bio­fu­el pow­ered flight by strip­ping to reveal slo­gans opposed to the con­tro­ver­sial new depar­ture.

The Plane Stu­pid pro­test­ers min­gled with pas­sen­gers before calm­ly remov­ing their clothes. Dressed in noth­ing but red body paint that declared ‘bio­fu­els aren’t green’ they called on Thom­son to recon­sid­er their plans.

Thom­son claim that bio­fu­els offer a green­er future for avi­a­tion, but respect­ed envi­ron­men­tal and social jus­tice organ­i­sa­tions from Friends of the Earth to The World Devel­op­ment Move­ment and Chris­t­ian Aid believe that they will make the prob­lems of glob­al warm­ing worse.

Today’s launch fol­lows a delay of some months, after Thom­son found they couldn’t source enough used cook­ing oil. Even for one short haul flight a week from one air­port.

Pro­test­er Jo Turn­er said-
“It’s not sur­pris­ing that Thom­son have strug­gled to find enough recy­cled oils for their stunt. Demand for recy­cled road trans­port bio­fu­els already far out­strips sup­ply. Sad­ly, any­one with basic maths can see that used veg oils will nev­er be a viable solu­tion. They’re just a way of soft­en­ing up the mar­ket to make way for the real nas­ties like palm oil and jat­ropha. Bio­fu­els are a dev­il in dis­guise — a mas­sive­ly inef­fi­cient way of mak­ing fuel that destroys the very ecosys­tems we need to con­trol run­away cli­mate change.”

Pro­test­er Chris Coop­er added-
“Thomp­son seem to be acknowl­edg­ing that we can’t con­tin­ue busi­ness as usu­al in the face of the cur­rent cli­mate emer­gency. It’s a shame their solu­tion is to make mat­ters worse. Vast tracts of rain­for­est, ecosys­tems vital to halt­ing cli­mate change, are cur­rent­ly being trashed to make way for bio­fu­el plan­ta­tions.

Land that grows food is being stolen from some of the world’s poor­est peo­ple so that it can start feed­ing planes. It’s a dis­as­ter.”

All three have been arrest­ed and are await­ing charges.
Con­tact Emi­ly Simon 07864643650 for inter­views and more infor­ma­tion.

Notes to edi­tors:

1. The avi­a­tion indus­try talks about ‘nov­el’ bio­fu­els which won’t com­pete with food and forests. While major con­cerns remain around these process­es, includ­ing their use of syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, none are wide­ly avail­able. Palm oil appears to be the only real­is­tic choice for com­mer­cial avi­a­tion bio­fu­els over the next few years, it’s wide­ly recog­nised for it’s destruc­tive impact.

2. Cur­rent­ly palm oil plan­ta­tions for a vari­ety of uses cov­er 12 mil­lion hectares of land. The avi­a­tion indus­try claims that bio­fu­els rep­re­sent ‘zero car­bon growth’. Bio­fu­el watch cal­cu­late that by 2030 avi­a­tion would need 45 Mil­lion hectares of land to meet their growth goals. For more infor­ma­tion see www.biofuelwatch.org.

3.On 1st July 2011 com­mer­cial air­lines got per­mis­sion to use 50% bio­fu­els made from spe­cial­ly refined veg­table oils as well as oth­er plant oils and ani­mal fat in their engines.

4. Plane Stu­pid is a grass roots group that uses direct action to oppose air­port expan­sion.