In a column published on franceinfo, these organizations encourage demonstrations, from Tuesday to Sunday, in favor of “the downward cap on the number of flights” and for “a curfew in all airports, aerodromes and heliports in France”.
They denounce the impact of the growth in air traffic on global warming and on human health. In this column published by franceinfo.fr, more than 70 environmental associations and collectives call for “put a halt to the growth of air traffic”while accompanying “the retraining of the workers concerned”. “We can no longer allow our health, our well-being and the future of humanity to suffer from activities that mainly benefit the most privileged, and for which alternatives exist”, they denounce. The signatories also mark their support for the demonstrations organized from Tuesday May 9 to Sunday May 14 in favor of capping airports. They express themselves here freely.
The crazy growth in air traffic must stop. It is not sustainable either for the climate or for the millions of people who suffer day and night from the noise and pollution of aircraft. Victims of airport nuisances and present and future victims of global warming, we are asking for a cap on the reduction of the number of flights as well as a curfew in all airports, aerodromes and heliports in France. We can no longer allow our health, our well-being and the future of humanity to suffer from activities that mainly benefit the most privileged, and for which alternatives exist.
The Dutch government and the manager of Amsterdam-Schiphol airport have understood this well. The growth of the activities of this airport, of a size comparable to that of Roissy, is no longer tenable; so they decided to reduce the total number of flights, to establish a curfew, to ban private aviation and to abandon the project for a new runway. “We can’t ask people in the region to make sacrifices for years for those who fly just for their holidays,” said Ruud Sondag, the airport’s CEO. In France, the CEO of ADP [Aéroports de Paris]Augustin de Romanet, acknowledges that “in developed countries, which have benefited a lot from the plane, we must claim reasonable use”but we continue to expand airports and make traffic growth a non-negotiable objective!
“Despite the promises of the sector, the silent, carbon-free and non-polluting plane is not for tomorrow.”
The signatories of the tribuneon franceinfo
There is therefore no other solution in the short and medium term than to put a stop to the growth of air traffic and to reduce it gradually to limit its impacts on both health and climate. Such a change of course is not without consequences on employment, it must imperatively take into account the retraining of the workers concerned.
Noise isn’t just about discomfort. It is a major public health problem: sleep disorders, cognitive disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases. Its social cost has been estimated by Ademe at 6.1 billion euros annually for airborne noise alone. The European directives which impose the implementation of reduction plans are not respected by any of the French airports. And only a few airports, such as Orly or Nantes, have had curfews imposed, the duration of which remains insufficient to allow sleep of a duration compatible with a good state of health.
Air pollution kills. It is even the third cause of death in France behind alcohol and tobacco. Aircraft engines pollute and, unlike automobile engines, it is impossible to equip them with particulate and nitrogen oxide filters. In addition, the ultrafine particles (UFP) they emit are smaller than those of diesel engines, and therefore potentially more toxic. Yet they are neither regulated nor measured. Recreational aviation still burns leaded gasoline, banned for more than 20 years for automobiles! Atmospheric pollution from airports remains largely forgotten in air quality policies.
Finally, on the climate side, the picture is much less rosy than what the aviation sector wants us to believe with blows of “green washing” : commercial aviation contributes up to 7% of France’s CO2 emissions, and to this must be added the climate impact of emissions other than CO2, in particular contrails, which at least double the impact of CO2 alone. Thus, the High Council for the Climate is formal: reducing air traffic is essential to meet our climate commitments, because technological progress and “sustainable aviation fuels” will not be available in sufficient quantities within the required timeframes.
Confronted with the worsening of climatic upheavals and the deterioration of the health of the affected populations, outraged by the persistence of unfair tax exemptions and by the insignificance of the measures taken following the citizens’ convention for the climate, we are more and more people to mobilize us. This is how the associations and collectives who have signed this platform will organize or support the demonstrations from May 9 to 14 as part of a European mobilization. We ask that France follow the courageous path opened by the Netherlands and finally take concrete measures: limiting the number of flights – while ensuring that noise, air pollution and CO2 emissions are also downward – and the generalization of curfews in airports, airfields and heliports.
The petitioners :
Associative alliance for the suppression of air pollution and the reconversion of the Toussus-le-Noble aerodrome
Association against the dangers and aerial nuisances of Annecy airportMeythet (ACDNA)
Citizen Association for the Defense of Calm Azur (ACDC Azur)
Citizens Association of Saint-Pierre-Réunion
Association against the nuisances of the aerodrome of Lasclaveries (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
Non-violent action COP21 (ANV-COP21)
Association for the defense against air pollution (Adecna)
Association for the defense of the environment of residents of Beauvais-Tillé airport (Adera)
Association for the defense against air pollution at Cannes-Mandelieu airport (ADNA)
Chavenay aerodrome nuisance defense association (Adnac)
Association for the defense against air pollution of Lille-Lesquin (Adna2L)
Association for the defense of the inhabitants of Poisy against air pollution (ADP)
Association for the Defense of Residents of Basel-Mulhouse Airport (ADRA)
Association for the Defense of Residents of the Reunion Department (Kolair974)
Association for the Defense of Residents of Roissy and Le Bourget (Advocnar)
AEHDCNA-Bordeaux Mérignac
Association Grande-Motte environment (AGME)
Association Templemars overflown defense of residents of Lille-Lesquin airport (ATSDRAL)
Alofa Tuvalu
Alternatiba
Alternatiba Paris
ANA Paris Orly
Association for the protection of living conditions and the environment in Balman (APCVEB, residents of Toulouse-Lasbordes aerodrome)
Association of residents of Lognes-Emerainville aerodrome (Arale)
Areca Plain of France
The Icarus Workshops
Montpellier Emergency Landing Collective
AviActions – Network of local struggles for the reduction of air traffic
Friends of the Val-d’Oise Earth (ATVO)
Association Bondy ecology
Associations of residents of the Lyon-Bron, Lyon-Corbas and Villefranche-Tarare aerodromes (Rhône)
Collective against air pollution in the Toulouse conurbation (CCNAAT)
Collective danger Aix future (CD2A, in Aix-en-Provence)
Cilaos my love (Reunion)
Collective association of the refusal of air pollution in the Nnorth-west Ile-de-France (Cirena)
Citizen Collective 06 (Alpes-Maritimes)
Against Green Dock (Epinay-sur-Seine)
Association Collembole et Cie (Beauvais)
Committees of residents of Saint-Exupéry airport (Corias)
Air Pollution Health Collective (CSNA)
Defense of the interests of residents living near Pontoise-Cormeilles aerodrome (Dirap)
Defense of residents of Paris-Orly airport (Drapo)
Association Environment, living environment, town planning in Verson (ECU, Normandy airports)
Dhuys et Marne Environment Association (EnDeMa 93)
Environment 93
France nature environment
France nature environment Alpes-Maritimes
France nature environment Bouches-du-Rhone
France nature environment Ile-de-France
France nature environment Seine-et-Marne
Greenpeace
No to the expansion of Lille-Lesquin airport (Nada)
Collective No to T4 (Roissy)
Collective No at Andorra airport
National movement for the fight for the environment 93 and North-East Paris
Association Opposition to air pollution Seine-et-Marne and Aisne (Onasa)
OYE 349 (aassociation for the protection of residents of Orly airport)
Let’s think about aeronautics for tomorrow
Association For all in Houplin-Ancoisne
Association for the protection of the banks of the Seine (Epinay-sur-Seine)
Tranquil White Quercy Association
Stay Grounded Network
Climate Action Network
The Overflown Collective (Lille-Lesquin)
SOS Montmorency Valley
Collective Stop extension Marseille-Provence airport
Acting for the climate (Taca)
Collective for the Triangle of Gonesse (CPTG)
European Union Against Air Pollution (UECNA)
French Union Against Aircraft Nuisance (UFCNA)
Federal union against nuisances at Strasbourg-Entzheim airport (Ufnase)
Val-d’Oise Environment Collective (VOE)