Greenpeace activists tempt jet-setters with free train travel
Greenpeace campaigners gave away free train tickets to air travellers checking in at some of the UK's major airports this morning.
Dressed as Stewards and Stewardesses, the campaigners set up special booths inside the airlines' ticket halls at at London City, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh Airports. But the attempt did not last long, as Greenpeace director John Sauven told reporters that armed police surrounded him and a number of his colleagues at London City Airport before marching them out of the building shortly after they started talking to passengers.
Mr Sauven said the aim was to give people the chance to make a climate-friendly train journey on their return. He said: "Flying does ten times more damage to the climate than taking the train. We are finding travellers are really interested to hear how polluting flying can be."
The news comes as the British Airline Pilots' association launched a counter-attack to the anti-flying movement, arguing that claims about air travel being the most polluting form of transport are exaggerated, and in some cases untrue. People who blame air travel for global warming were accused of using "half truths and untruths" to make passengers feel guilty about flying. Friends of the Earth, meanwhile, maintain that planes produce 10 times as much C02 as trains.
