Today, the international Rising Tide network and its allies have called for a day of action against the fossil fuel industry FOSSIL FOOLS DAY! A group of climate change activists have presented Air New Zealand with New Zealand’s first ever ‘Fossil Fool’ award.

The company was chosen for the award because of their recent eco-branding program which attempts to give their customers the impression that damage to the climate due to air travel can can be offset by purchasing carbon credits or significantly reduced by flying with an airline which uses a biofuel ‘blend’ to fuel its planes.

The Award was presented by a climate refugee polar bear to management at the Air New Zealand Holidays center on Queen Street as leaflets were handed to customers and passers-by explaining why customers ’shouldn’t buy Air New Zealand’s greenwash’.

The shop’s signage was adjusted to read ‘HOT’ Air New Zealand.One of the people who was involved in presenting the award said that “Air New Zealand’s claims are just a load of hot air and that manipulative green branding and carbon offsetting is nothing but a fluffy distraction from the systemic, economic and behavioral changes that are absolutely necessary if we are to avert catastrophic climate change.

In fact it’s just a way of tricking people into thinking they can be ‘carbon neutral’ or whatever other catchy phrase they’ve come up with so that the big polluters can keep polluting.”Even if individual passengers’ emissions were to marginally reduce, which won’t happen because some trees were planted, the effects of Air New Zealand’s greenwash would encourage so many more people into taking unnecessary flights that these reductions would be insignificant in comparison.

Aviation is the world’s fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions. In 2007, nearly 2.2 billion people flew on the world’s scheduled air carriers, with predictions of 9 billion passengers by 2025. If you want to help stop climate chaos, change your personal behavior, change the way you perceive polluting companies’ claims of environmental improvement and support or get involved with campaigns to actually stop fossil fuels from being mined in the first place.Companies like Air New Zealand would have us believe that we can escape climate change with techno-fixes, market mechanisms and offset schemes - all technocratic acrobatics that distract us from the truth: the only real solution to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.Today, thousands of people around the world have taken action against the fossil fuel industry in all its forms.