Response to Roger Smith

Dear Madam,

I refer to Roger Smith’s letter “Airport Protests Are Hypocritical” where he claims that those protesting against the airport “have, on the same writing desk, their next holiday tickets jetting them from Birmingham, Bristol, Luton etc.”

As someone who has been vociferous against the airport’s expansion proposals in this letters page, I would like to assure him that I do not fly and have no holiday tickets on my writing desk for any exotic destinations. In fact, I refused to attend my brother in-law’s wedding in America this summer! I would also like to assure him that other people that I know of who are protesting against the airport also do not fly. They have chosen not to fly because they have carefully considered the evidence of the contibution that flying makes to the very real risk of runaway global warming.

I would further suggest that if Roger Smith took local holidays he would appreciate his local environment much more and see the importance of protecting it against the short-term profit motives of organisations such as Gloucestershire Airport.

Roger Smith may be able to get use to the noise of living under an airport. However, many others may not be able to get so used to it and do not want to do so. Furthermore, he is unlikely to be able to get so use to the impacts of global warming, such as food shortages and economic collapse, so easily which this development will contribute to.