CNN
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Hundreds climate activist breached a runway on Saturday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to try to prevent private planes from taking off, during latest rally by protesters to draw attention to climate crisis.
Greenpeace Netherlands says “more than 500” Green Peace and Extinction Rebellion activists was at the airport, one of Europe’s largest, on Saturday afternoon, in a press release. A spokesman for security forces Schiphol could not confirm that number.
There are more than 300 activists, Royal Dutch spokesman Marechhaussee, the military force that guards the airport, told CNN.
Robert Kapel, acknowledged it was a “large-scale” demonstration but said air traffic was not affected as the runway was used only for private aircraft and no flights were scheduled until Saturday night.
“Activists this morning gathered in the nearby woods, carrying flags and banners with slogans such as ‘SOS for the climate’ and ‘No more flying.’ At the same time, another group arrived at the airport from the opposite direction by bicycle,” Greenpeace said.
Images from Greenpeace show groups of dozens of protesters sitting down on the tarmac by multiple planes on the tarmac. Other images show demonstrations inside the terminal.
More than 100 “and continuing” arrests have been made so far, Kapel said. He added that he thinks all arrests will be made by 10pm (local time), which is when he said the first flight is scheduled to take off. Security forces have cordoned off the area and made it inaccessible from other parts of the airport, he said.
Protesters “plan to keep air traffic from the private jet terminal to ground for as long as possible,” Dewi Zloch, a spokesman for Greenpeace Netherlands, said in a statement.
She continued: “The airport should reduce flights, and build a whole new terminal instead. The wealthy elite are using private jets more than ever, which is the most polluting way to fly. This is typical of the aviation industry, which doesn’t seem to see that it is putting people at risk by exacerbating the climate crisis. This has to stop now. We want fewer flights, more trains, and a ban on non-essential short-haul flights and private jets.”
Greenpeace warned authorities there would be some kind of action at Schiphol weeks in advance, Zloch, who was at the scene, told CNN. They did not disclose the exact location, she added.
Schiphol Airport CEO Ruud Sondag said activists should “feel welcome, but let’s keep things civil.”
He responded to an earlier letter from Greenpeace and stated his goal is to achieve “zero-emission airports by 2030 and climate-neutral aviation by 2050”.
“However, this is only possible if we all work together,” Sondag said in a statement released Friday.
“Coming together for the environment, government and society, clear laws, regulations and proper permits is essential. We need clarity on that soon,” he added.
Elsewhere in Europe, two climate activists were arrested in Madrid, Spain after each glued one hand to the frame of two Goya paintings in the Prado Museum on Saturday.
The press office of the Spanish National Police in Madrid told CNN.
The suspects, two Spanish women, wrote “+1.5C” on the wall between the artworks, which are Goya’s masterpieces “Las Majas,” according to police.
Futuro Vegetal, an activist group in Spain, tweeted a video of the museum protest. The group is taking responsibility for the incident.
They describe themselves as a “collective of civil disobedience and direct action in the fight against the Climate Crisis through the adoption of a plant-based food growing system”.
“Last week, the United Nations recognized the impossibility of keeping itself below the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature rise, to pre-industrial levels,” Futuro Vegetal wrote in his tweets.
Security officers at Prado quickly alerted the National Police, which has a unit dedicated to guarding the perimeter of the famous museum, and officers made the arrest within minutes, the office said. Police press said.
The Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations’ COP 21 in December 2015, aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The protest comes just a day before the COP27 climate conference is scheduled to begin in Egypt.
