Protesters clashed with police on the streets of Hong Kong while a sit-in at the international airport remained peaceful as the city endured its 10th straight weekend of anti-China demonstrations. Police fired tear gas at protesters in the Tai Wai neighborhood in the northern part of the city after they refused to disperse. The activists took to the street after being denied a permit to demonstrate in the nearby Tai Po area. On the opposite side of the city, thousands of demonstrators occupied the arrivals hall of the Hong Kong airport for a second day, greeting passengers with “Free Hong Kong” chants. Only departing passengers with tickets or boarding passes and valid travel documents were being allowed to enter the check-in area at Terminal 1 until Sunday night, the last of the three-day demonstration there. Security personnel have been deployed. The Saturday demonstrations are part of a flurry of planned weekend protests across the city -- most of which have been denied permission by authorities. It also follows China’s civil aviation authority ordering Cathay Pacific Airways to ban all employees who supported or joined the recent protests from flying to the mainland, one of the strongest signs yet that Beijing is losing its patience with the demonstrations. The sit-in also affects one of the world’s busiest airports. The Hong Kong Cabin Crew Federation said in a statement it deeply regrets the decisions made by China’s civil aviation authority, adding that the authority should respect the Hong Kong citizens’ rights. Cathay Pacific’s Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hogg told staff in a memo that the airline would comply with the Chinese aviation authority’s directive, the South China Morning Post reported.<br/>
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Campaigning by climate activist Greta Thunberg and filmmaker-naturalist David Attenborough is persuading pollution-conscious fliers to try and mitigate the environmental damage caused by their flights. Sales of so-called carbon offsets are soaring: Myclimate, a Swiss nonprofit whose clients include Lufthansa, reported a five-fold uptake in its credits in a year. At Ryanair the number of customers making voluntary offset payments has almost doubled in 18 months. This summer’s heatwaves have boosted sales. Europe has seen rivers dry, temperature records fall and sporting events cancelled in heat scientists blame on man-made global warming. The offsets may offer a salve to the emerging “flight shame” anti-flying movement spreading from Sweden, home of 16-year-old Thunberg, who recently said she’s crossing the Atlantic by sailboat to attend a United Nations climate summit in New York. Carbon offsets are certificates that mitigate a passenger’s flight emissions by reducing greenhouse gases elsewhere in the world. The money passengers pay on top of their ticket goes to low-carbon or clean energy projects such as planting trees, installing solar panels or handing out cleaner cooking stoves. Travellers face a dizzying array of options. Some airlines offer offsets directly when you pay for your ticket, while dozens of online companies advertise personal certificates tailored to your flight. Prices vary widely, too, ranging from 10 cents per ton of carbon dioxide to more than $70, depending on the offset provider and the project being funded, according to Forest Trends Association, which provides data on voluntary carbon markets.<br/>