For those eager to absolve the carbon guilt caused by yet another international flight, Heathrow airport is trialling an innovative electric car shuttle fleet to ferry passengers to and from the business car park.

Seeing as Heathrow is the world’s busiest international airport, I suppose the effort is a little bit like launching an attack on a saber-toothed tiger with a blunt knife, or maybe a feather duster… But hey, maybe I’m being unfair - I suppose you’ve got to start somewhere right? And I admit, the system does seem a bit nifty - if not quite as good as the Johnny Cabs (video) in Total Recall.

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Leila Deen, a 29-year-old activist with the anti-aviation group Plane Stupid, has been arrested for the slime “attack” on a British minister last week after initially getting away without any repercussions.

Deen walked away after tossing green goo in the face of the British Secretary of State for Business. She was not immediately apprehended and even stopped in with the BBC for an interview later.

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A protester from the anti-aviation group Plane Stupid managed to toss a cup of green slime in the face of Lord Mandelson before scolding him for his support for the third runway at Heathrow airport.

Amazingly, the woman walked away without being arrested and has now come forward to identify herself as 29-year-old Leila Deen. She said that Mandelson is directly responsible for the approval of the plans to build the third runway.

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Greenpeace has launched a new website to explain what they intend to do with the small plot of land they purchased in the area where the runway is planned to be built.

The organization has invited the public to become beneficial owners of the land with over 36,000 people signed up so far. They hope to have at least 100,000 owners to further complicate the process for the airport to buy the land.

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The British Government’s plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport have come under attack from a surprising source. Doubts have been expressed by Tim Jeans who is Managing Director of Monarch Airlines.
Mr Jeans says the expansion would have a ‘detrimental impact’ on the lives of millions of Londoners but, more seriously, ‘prevent the aviation industry from being taken seriously over environmental issues’. He also felt that the Government’s suggestion that new technology would lead to reduced emissions was overly optimistic.

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Needless to say, I find it unlikely that in a recession and with tight CO2 emissions goals to meet we can justify expanding Heathrow.

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We covered the exciting news earlier that Greenpeace has purchased a $30,000 plot of land in the middle of the area that had been earmarked to become a third runway for England’s Heathrow Airport. Since Greenpeace announced the plan yesterday, publish support has been astounding.

Over 5,000 people have already bought parcels of Greenpeace’s plot. The idea is that the more people who own the land, the harder it will be for the airport’s owners to buy the land later — which hopefully will never happen. The owner of the company has already called Greenpeace’s plan “clever.”

Well, I’m going to assume that most of our readers here on Planetsave wouldn’t mind getting in on the action. Greenpeace has made that quite easy:

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Greenpeace has purchased a field previously earmarked to use to build a controversial third runway at UK’s Heathrow Airport.

Greenpeace intends to invite protesters to set-up camp in the soccer-field-sized space. They also intend to sell small parcels of the land to separate owners in order to force BAA, the airport’s owners, to negotiate a land purchase with each individual land owner.

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SAS flies slower to save fuel and lower carbon emissions.

Well, when I read this headline, conflicting views sprang to mind.

Firstly of course, being an Englishman with no sense of irony, I immediately leapt to my feet and saluted my queen and her armed forces.

Then I faltered slightly, and thought, if a crack team of SAS marines were being air dropped into some war-torn despotic state, surely, speed is of the essence, to ensure that the paras can be in and out again with time for a cup of tea a mere hours later.

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Click here to see the story in pics. Good stuff.

Story in full.

Air Pollution

Aviation tax proposals have been outlined by the government. Under the new guidelines, due to come into effect in November this year, it will be the planes, not the passengers, that will be taxed.

New Government figures released showed that emissions from air travel are continuing to rise. Between 1990 and 2006, emissions from aviation fuel use more than doubled.

21 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions will be attributable to air traffic by 2050, and the Treasury report insisted the proposed tax system would, “introduce fairer duty, more in line with the environmental impact of flights, including the distance travelled”.

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