Climate Change Activists Plan on Shutting Down London’s Heathrow with Drones

Some climate change activists are planning on shutting down one of the UK’s busiest airports and it is all to drive home the message about global warming and the contribution the international air transportation industry adds to it.

How are they going to do it? By flying drones near the airport in an imitation of an incident that shut down Gatwick airport during the last Christmas travel season.

The group’s name is Heathrow Pause and the plan on flying enough drones near the airport so as to make entry and exit for aircraft impossible. That’s a pretty brazen move and one of the bolder uses of drones we can remember. The possibility of adding a third runway to Heathrow’s lineup has also sparked tensions locally as this would increase the airport’s “carbon footprint” as FStoppers reports.

The activists don’t intend on flying the drones anywhere near aircraft and are not going to “attack” the aircraft in any way. But their proximity to the airport will basically force Heathrow to shut down air traffic and that’s the goal.

Climate change activists across the world are increasingly turning to new ways of getting their message out, but many people on the Internet that are part of the drone community have expressed concerns that this might be a reckless use of UAV technology. Nonetheless, the group Heathrow Pause seems committed at this point.

Heathrow Pause says of the proposed runway that, “It is a crime against humanity — and all life on earth — to support carbon intensive infrastructure projects.”

What do you think? Is this a dangerous precedent to set or an innovative form of protest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Also don’t forget to check out our other photography news articles here on Light Stalking.

[FStoppers]