Climáximo group has been holding protests for weeks now
Environmental activists from the Climáximo group glued themselves to the inside of a plane that was about to make a connection between Lisbon and Porto at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport today, the group has said in a statement.
Criticising the “absurd, deadly (…) and completely unnecessary” greenhouse gas emissions of short hop connections when there are public transport alternatives, the group claims this was a stunt to call for a commitment to rail and public public transport in order to guarantee a “fair transition of workers from the aviation sector to a safe transport sector”.
In statements quoted in the press release, one of the activists involved called it “an act of insanity” to continue with these kinds of short-hop journeys.
“It’s like watching your house burn down and throwing petrol on the fire. These type of pointless flights have to be the first thing to be stopped in the genocidal aviation industry, encouraged by our government to continue its expansion – now with the construction of a new airport – when we know that we need to cut emissions urgently, and that every day we don’t do so we are condemning more people in Portugal to death,” said Alice Gato.
According to Ms Gato, Portugal has fewer railways today than it did in the 20th century. She also accused the government of not having a plan for the future: “If we are in the hands of rulers who knowingly condemn thousands to death, we have a duty to resist,” she said.
Climáximo has been ‘super active’ in recent weeks, holding up traffic, pouring cement into the holes of a Lisbon golf course, throwing paint over a Picasso (fortunately, only a symbolic protest: the painting was properly protected by an acrylic), smashing corporate windows, and generally informing the rest of the country how close we all are to death.
It is difficult to understand whether their very Lisbon-centric protests are attracting support to the climate cause. Even the group’s own Facebook page is filled with criticism. Yesterday, for example, it posted photographs on participation in a conference in Amsterdam earlier this month: the comments were largely from people asking them whether they walked there, or had ridden on bicycles.
