Your editorial Brown makes the correct decision on Heathrow focused on the economic sense of an extension. There's no detailed mention of the social and environmental effects of this travesty, which have a very strong economic argument of their own.
An independent study on the economic benefits [February 2007 by the respected Dutch consultancy CE Delft] showed business has continued to flock to London despite expansion of airports across Europe. The UK Government has failed to provide any similar studies to support their arguments, so any claims they make are merely unsubstantiated assertions. In truth, if the £9 million in subsidies enjoyed by the aviation industry were instead diverted to public transport infrastructure, it would be cheaper and more efficient to find alternative forms of transport for a lot of the short-haul business and pleasure journeys currently undertaken [reducing demand for airport expansion] and would create far more new jobs across the UK instead of in a single overcrowded area around west London.
As for the RSPB's 'carbon budget' argument, after the huge social cost, it is perhaps the most valid. Expansion will mean increasing flights from 480,00 to 700,000 a year. This would make Heathrow the single largest contributor to UK CO2 emissions. This matters hugely because the Government set itself legally binding targets of reducing CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. To achieve this with Heathrow's increased activity will mean harsh crackdowns on both public and industry emissions from transport, energy and waste. If the cuts are not made, we'll see the impact on wildlife and our environment with birds and other wildlife disappearing with a knock-on effect on agriculture. Meanwhile, the costs of climate change are growing all the time; last summers' floods were estimated to have cost £3 billion. The Stern report on the economics of climate change estimates that the 'business as usual' climate change will cost between 5 and 20% of global GDP.
With all of this evidence, can you really say expanding Heathrow is the correct decision?
Israel plans to have its troops out of Gaza as soon as possible after the weekend cease-fire that ended three weeks of fighting in the Palestinian territory, Israeli officials said Monday.
