Environment: Carbon footprint is the same as driving from Sheffield to Sydney

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7 and the vast majority have been women and children.

F-35 jets don’t just do enormous harm to the people they are bombing, they do enormous harm to all of us by adding dramatically to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and exerting a massive opportunity cost. The money that has been spent on them can’t now be spent on good things like education, health, renewable energy or benefits. This was well illustrated by the Government slashing the Overseas Aid budget to pay for its massive increase in spending on weapons.

The F-35 fighter jet has a gigantic carbon footprint. For every 100 nautical miles flown, the F-35 emits approximately 2.27 tonnes of CO2. This is about the same as driving a petrol car from Sheffield to Sydney if there were a road that took you there! Emissions from war preparations are thought to make up about 5% of our global greenhouse gas total, and they must be rapidly reduced if we are to avoid climate catastrophe.

Jenny Patient spoke on behalf of Climate Justice at the demonstration and said “Public money, our taxes and our pension savings are being directed locally into arms manufacturers and our leaders are actively celebrating this as something they are proud of. But arms manufacturers can never be carbon neutral, and each job costs £200,000 to attract to our area. This money would be better spent insulating homes, investing in regenerative agriculture and in better buses”

At Brize Norton, Palestine activists broke into the RAF base and damaged two planes. This was quickly condemned by all and sundry as vandalism, but they did this to point out that flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. We must stop arming Israel.

Videos of the speeches and singing at the demonstration can be found at TelltheTruthSheffield.org