Here's my speech to the Frack Free Wales Demonstration at the Senedd 24th Sept. 2013
Prynhawn da/Good afternoon!
Hi I'm Nigel Baker from Greenpeace
Did you know we are the 'oxfam crowd' that's what
the senior civil servants say when we turn up to lobby or protest 'oh no' they say 'its the oxfam crowd again' not that there's anything wrong with oxfam especially the suits they stock!
Did you also know that the Welsh Assembly has got sustainabilty written into its constitution?
Can we be enlightened as to how fracking is in any way sustainable? Or opencast mining or building motorways or propping up airports that don't make any money?
I first heard about fracking around 5 years ago when I read the Greenpeace reports on tar sands: a once beautiful area of Canada that has been systematically destroyed by greedy governments and oil companies-aren't they the same things nowadays?
Anyone who advocates fracking needs to be reminded of what's happened there.
And cheap gas bills: really? The only reason fracking is taking place in the first place is because of the high gas price. If the price goes down any profits made from fracking will evaporate quicker than Arctic ice. And of course there are alternatives: Turbines, Solar Panels CHP & tidal lagoons.
Not only will these provide clean energy & alleviate climate change they will also provide us with a Green Collar Economy, a win/win situation if ever there was.
Not that you would know this from reading the papers. Every day the same tiny minority bombard the Western Mail 'the national newspaper of Wales' with lie after lie about renewable energy and climate change. If we wrote to the WM every day and told them that Elvis was alive and well and living in Newport or that lizard people are running the NHS would they print it? Yet without question windy nimbyism and climate change denial get pride of place in there-no wonder its circulation is falling when you consider that 68% support renewables.Now there are those who say they are only against fracking because it is controlled by England-I say to them: don't hide in nationalism fracking is wrong and has to be condemned regardless of who controls it. But let's not be despondent. Balcombe has shown that they can't frack with impunity. Round one has been won by us and with strong protests and strong arguments we can achieve a frack free Wales and a frack free world. Diolch Yn Fawr/Thank You!!'
For more information on fracking: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/search/node/fracking
Comments