Later this month, a judge in the UK is set to jail 13 non-violent protestors who occupied one of the runways at London Heathrow in July last year.
The protest, the first ever on a Heathrow runway, lasted six hours and caused the delay or cancellation of some 25 flights
It was carried out by activsts from Plane Stupid, who are opposed to airport expansion.
In their trial last month the activists – known as the Heathrow 13 – tried to argue the “necessity defence” in that their actions were necessary due to the “airport’s contribution to life-threatening climate change”.
It is the same defence that the so-called Delta 5 used recently in the US after they blocked a crude by oil terminal in Washington State.
But whereas the judge in the Delta 5 trial praised the defendants for being “part of the solution to the problem of climate change” and “quite frankly, the kind of tireless advocates we need in this country,” the judge in the Heathrow 13 trial sees it very differently.
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