Heathrow third runway expansion plan exposes the 'Big Green Con' for what it is

Airlines - the pawn in the cocktail that surrounds the Heathrow expansion scheme

So, the big expansion of Heathrow is to go ahead, bringing 180,000 new jobs into this already crowded and expensive area of the South East, one of the most expensive areas to live anywhere, certainly the most expensive in the UK.

Not only that, but large areas of residential accommodation will be lost to make room for this concrete snake. So where will these residents go, in an already house-saturated area?

Aside from the 260,000 extra flights a year this runway will generate, the 747 Jumbo in the room is a collection of factors seldom talked about.

• The thousands of tons of fuel consumed in taking off and in flight,
• extra flights to fill slots
• near empty aircraft flown just to maintain routes
• the thousands of tons of CO2 expelled from the engines daily 
• the fact aircraft are not taxed on emissions and
• the fuel dumping that goes on where aircraft circle to land and have to vent fuel into the atmosphere to make themselves lighter for landing.

Climate change so-called, has been one of the great rip offs of history, 'buying' carbon credits, essentially giving you a licence to pollute is not the solution, preventing the pollution in the first place is the solution.

Money talks and air travel is big business.

'Climate change' rhetoric is another corrupt way of big players making money and controlling small players.

Expectations in our society for instant consumer gratification means that where items might be sent by sea and take a week or three to arrive, air travel speeds that to 3 days or 5, even at economy rates.

Why are we not satisfied with less?

This 'service delivery' expectations norm is behind this requirement to expand air travel.

The downside to this expansion and I lived in the South East near Heathrow for many years will be,

• Worse air quality, Heathrow would be the largest single CO2 polluter in the UK
• More pollution
• More road traffic on already overcrowded roads
• More aircraft movements
• Greater risk of air crash generally
• Greater risk of air crash due to fuel shortage and delays in landing
• Risk from some carriers skimping on fuel loads which could cause crashes
• Aircraft noise pollution
• More aircraft in the immediate airspace of the South East
• Travel to work for airport workers and ordinary commuters will be more difficult
• House prices will be hot or rise
• Houses will have to be built to replace those lost to expansion, in an already over saturated area of the UK

So, the apparent benefits of Heathrow being a 'Business Hub' are fairy dust, sugar coating a Kerosene saturated cake.

We were offered free, safe and clean energy in the 1950's in exchange for abandoning nuclear power and weapons. Had we taken this offer, then Heathrow might be a more acceptable solution.

However, we see the usual lefty comments on Heathrow from celebrities who spout green tosh and fly all over the world to pick up their awards. Funny that.

Is Heathrow expansion good news?

Only financially. Its the costs that people will have to endure that will show that this is a price not worth paying.

I am no luddite, but we have to start to reign in this consumer society before we run out of world.