London Heathrow airport is in desperate need of a third runway.
Despite being one of the busiest airports in the world, all 481,000 yearly aircraft movements take place on just 2 runways.
Anyone who has arrived or departed from Heathrow has probably spent a decent chunk of time waiting in line for a take off slot, or received a complimentary 45 minute sightseeing trip making circles over London waiting for permission to land.
The UK government has been working on a proposal for a third runway for years, and finally agreed to grant building permission for it yesterday.
Of course, nothing airport related ever goes without some major opposition, and this one is no different.
Greenpeace is so strongly opposed to the expansion plans, that they purchased a chunk of land right in the village of Sipson. Sipson is one of the communities destined to become extinct when construction on the runway begins.
Their plan is to break the land up into smaller chunks, and sell it to as many people as possible, making it harder for the government to claim ownership.
Greenpeace argues that the third runway is not necessary, and they have a long list of reasons for being against this expansion.
Of course, environmental clubs like Greenpeace have a long history in trying to prevent new runways from being built, but very little history in actually stopping the construction.
A similar situation happened in the Netherlands in the mid 90’s when a local environmental protection club purchased a small plot of land just outside Schiphol airport and planted it full of trees. It delayed things a bit, but the runway was still built.
At the end of the day these actions just cost massive amounts of taxpayer money and clog up our legal systems, but it’s a noble cause and I don’t think anyone denies Greenpeace a little publicity stunt.