Gatwick 'open and operating normally' following Just Stop Oil protest
Climate activists aimed to disrupt operations at Gatwick airport on Monday morning (29 July), the latest action in an ongoing global campaign urging governments around the world to commit to divesting from fossil fuels by 2030.
Seven Just Stop Oil (JSO) campaigners were arrested at Gatwick after using suitcases with lock-on devices to block the departure gates at Gatwick’s south terminal. Airport authorities said Gatwick was “open and operating normally".
"There are a small number of protestors at the airport who have now been arrested and are being removed from the airport,” said a Gatwick spokesperson.
The action comes after the record for the highest global average surface air temperature was broken twice in successive days last week, reaching 17.09C on Sunday (21 July) and 17.5 C on Monday (22 July).
Just Stop Oil says action is necessary to lobby governments to agree an emergency treaty that would see fossil fuels phased out by the end of the decade.
It follows coordinated action across Europe last week under a new "Oil Kills" message, which saw several activist groups seek to disrupt airport operations, including at Heathrow, where a group of JSO supporters were arrested along the airport’s perimeter road last Wednesday (24 July).
At Cologne-Bonn airport in Germany, supporters of environmental group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) gained access to the airfield and glued themselves to the runway. There was action too targeting airports in Oslo, Barcelona, Zurich and Geneva.
Speaking ahead of Monday’s action, one of the JSO supporters at Gatwick – former environmental consultant Mel Carrington, 63 – said: “We’ve just had the hottest three days on earth in recorded history and possibly for hundreds of thousands of years.
"Innocent people around the world already face extreme weather and deadly heat and no one is prepared for the societal collapse that unchecked global heating will bring. I’m terrified of what it will mean for my family and friends.
“Our government must work with other countries and commit to signing a legally binding fossil fuel treaty to phase out oil, gas and coal by 2030 – and it must support poorer countries to get off fossil fuels too."
Another, Doncaster mathematician Greg Sculthorpe, added: “I can’t bear to stand back and watch millions dying because the rich and powerful prefer to protect their wealth and status [rather] than the lives of ordinary people.
"We need an emergency fossil fuel treaty to phase down fossil fuels by 2030.”
TTG explored the recent climate activism targeting airports and commercial air travel in our latest Big Question feature, which asked: Is direct action targeting air travel ever justifiable?
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