A group of people dressed as aircraft ground crew marched through crowds of spectators along the beach promenade at the airshow on Sunday morning. They are aiming to raise awareness of the climate impact of the 4 day air festival and call for an end to greenwashing by BCP Council.
The XR BCP Ground Crew marched from Durley Chine to Bournemouth Pier, where they unfurled a banner with the message “B’MOUTH AIRSHOW: 14YRS FUELLING CLIMATE CRISIS”. They wore pink Extinction Rebellion high-vis vests and carried paddles emblazoned with unique, powerful and quirky signs: “DON’T LOOK UP” “ BCP COUNCIL GREENWASH”, “CLIMATE CRISIS” and “PLANE CRAZY”.
Bournemouth Air Show has estimated that the while the display aircraft generate 275 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the emissions caused by visitors attracted by the air show amount to over 6,000 tonnes.
In 2019, BCP Council, the organisers of the show, Europe’s biggest air event, committed to planting 275 trees, one for every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted by the aircraft that perform during the event. The pledge included planting trees in the local area and also saving an additional tonne of carbon dioxide for every tree planted through a forest conservation project in Brazil.
Recent reports citing conservation experts indicate that tree planting schemes often fail through lack of aftercare and an investigation by the Guardian demonstrated that the methodologies used to calculate potential carbon savings – particularly in avoided deforestation projects- are deeply flawed.
Daniel Glennon, a customer service trainer from Bournemouth who was at the event today, said:
“We know people see the Air Festival as simply a fun, free day out. But how many people are thinking about the environmental impact? In 2019 the council said they would offset the emissions from the jet fuel burnt by planting trees, but that doesn’t take into account the larger impact from four days of gridlocked traffic – its greenwash.
“XR BCP have also submitted a Freedom of Information request to the council to ask how many of the local trees promised have actually been planted but we’ve had no response. I believe we can infer that the trees have not been planted.”
Melissa Carrington, a former environmental consultant from Christchurch said:
“33 million people have lost their homes in Pakistan since mid June from catastrophic flooding made many times more dangerous by climate collapse. Yet here we are applauding a fly past from a B52, the most polluting aircraft ever made. It emits around 11 tonnes of carbon for every hour of flying – that’s more than most UK citizens are responsible for in a year. This is madness.”
“The whole idea of Net Zero is deeply flawed as it allows countries and local authorities to carry on emitting carbon today in the hope that they will be able to “offset” or capture the carbon later. In reality, tree planting schemes regularly fail with trees dying off after planting through lack of care and carbon capture technologies are a long way from being operational at scale. It’s just greenwash, we need massive cuts in emissions sooner rather than later. ”
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Good for them quite right to draw attention to the council’s lack of action.