It was a chilly Monday morning at one of the most heavily guarded airports in the world, and Anna Jones was on top of a just-landed British Airways jet, wrapping an outlaw banner around its tail fin.
"It felt quite exhilarating and it felt important," said the longtime Greenpeace activist, who was one of four protesters to attach the "Climate Emergency -- No 3rd Runway" banner to the Airbus A320 at Heathrow Airport. "It felt like we needed to make this stand, and I was proud to be someone who was doing that."
As Europe's appetite for cheap weekend getaways and lower-fare flights across the Atlantic collides with mounting public unease over greenhouse gas emissions, Jones is one of a growing number of environmental activists who have begun to adopt the tactics of civil disobedience in the war on climate change.
Two days after Greenpeace members hit the runway in late February, protesters from the group Plane Stupid circumvented the heavy security that has blanketed London since the city's 2005 transportation bombings, climbing atop the Houses of Parliament and unfurling two banners urging a halt to Heathrow's expansion.
As the airport prepares to open its $9-billion Terminal 5 on Monday, the controversy over building an additional runway for it has taken on a crucial new dimension.
British officials say the country's decade-long economic boom, already threatened by downturns in the markets, could grind to a halt in the quagmire that is Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport. The new terminal could alleviate the massive congestion that has become associated with the international hub, authorities say, but will have little effect on the crowds without the aid of a third runway.
Nigel Rudd, the head of BAA, the company that runs London's airports, said the expansion would launch Britain to the forefront of the competitive aviation industry.
"The nation has to decide whether we want to be a world-class nation or a second-class nation," Rudd told the BBC on Friday, noting that Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has six runways and that Heathrow's two have not been updated since World War II.
But opponents argue that expansion is superfluous when a large portion of the British aviation industry depends on domestic and short-haul travel that could be taken by rail, an option that eases airport congestion and is better for the environment.
