Dear Councillors,
I refer you to the letter that Capt Martin wrote in the Gloucester Echo this week, click here and my response (not published) follows below. Capt Martin's self interested and ignorant attitude is a perfect example of why it is going to be so difficult to get people to change and accept the enormity of the problem we face.
To give you a measure of the absurdity of his position I enclose a copy of a graph from this months IPCC report which indicates the size of CO2 cuts that we need to make. This is probably the most disturbing statement of our future that it is possible to imagine. As you are aware, the IPCC report is the considered amongst the most definitive of statements on global warming. It's authors can not be dismissed as "tree hugging lefties."
The two graphs need to be read together. The graph on the right hand side shows the expected stabilised temperature for various levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The best possible scenario presented is that the greenhouse gases stabilise in the 445-490 ppm range. This would result in a temperature increase of between 1.8 dec C to 3.8 deg C, which is potentially catostrophic. Mathematical modelling suggests that an average temperature rise above 2 deg C is likely to lead to runaway climate change, so we are already at extremely high risk. To achieve this best possible scenario, the necessary cuts in CO2 emissions are shown on the left hand side. This disturbingly shows that not only must we completely eliminate CO2 emissions, but we must somehow, think how to extract additional CO2 out of the atmosphere, even to get to the best possible scenario.
This is not a good time to have children, let alone build an airport. In fact, there is barely any justification to keep the existing airport going, when the science now argues that we effectively need to get CO2 emissions below zero.
Regards,
Kevin Lister
Letter to the Echo (not yet published):
-------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Editor
It is great when people such as Capt Martin come out with such claptrap. It shows how pathetic and self interested the argument in support of expanding Staverton actually is.
As a vociferous campaigner against Staverton who lives in Nailsworth, I cannot be accused of living too close to the airport and bringing any problems on myself. My personal concern is global warming, and if Capt Martin was a little bit brighter, he may actually take the time to acquaint himself with the science behind it, especially as the IPCC has brought out its most damning assessment yet of our future.
As regards, Kemble I do not live near that either, but I am continually harassed by the noise of planes dog fighting and practising aerobatics above me and find it galling that an airport is able to cause this level of irritation when it is does not even have proper planning consent. Kemble’s Managing Director in a response to one of my complaints said that the noise I was experiencing in my garden was no louder than a dishwasher. I am adamant that I do not want to be surrounded by the noise of dishwashers every weekend and against my wishes.
Capt Martin’s attitude to the environment and to the legitimate concerns of others is typical of the moral bankruptcy in the aviation industry’s approach to global warming. It puts him at the same level as the yobs that race their cars around our towns and villages on Friday nights for cheap kicks. The man is a clearly an uneducated fool who’s views should be ignored by anyone with any level of intelligence.
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