On Sunday 18th September 2011, I joined a group of activists and local people to march up to the drilling site set up by Caudrilla Resources. The March started at Camp Frack, where activists from all over the UK had gathered together to organise this protest.
The drilling rig in question was originally located at Singleton near Blackpool, but drilling was suspended following a British Geological Survey investigation into links with earthquake activity in the area caused by the fracking process.
Hydraulic Fracturing or fracking as it has become commonly known was highlighted by the film Gasland, which has documented the effects of fracking operations in the USA. The process which involves pumping a high pressure liquid consisting of water and a cocktail of toxic chemicals into shale rock in order to fracture it, releasing methane gas, has blighted the lives of thousands of people.
This insidious process needs to be stopped in its tracks. The drilling operations in Lancashire are the thin end of the wedge. This industry will spread like wildfire around the world. Action needs to be taken before fracking becomes an even bigger environmental issue than tar sands. This should be a wakeup call for Greenpeace. This article from Greenpeace USA sums up the situation nicely.
A short film called Fracking Hell is available on youtube, which shows the effects of fracking.
Here in Scotland we're not immune either. There was a proposal to set up a drilling site near Falkirk, But it's not certain if this will go ahead.
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As well as the huge concerns and empirical evidence from the United States (see: Gasland documentary) over groundwater pollution, air pollution, impact on climate change and excessive use of water, we are now told by the lovely people at Cuadrilla Resources that, oh, there may be the odd earthquake!!
Have words simply lost all meaning? Has rhetoric taken over completely? Have we now accepted this bizarre, Orwellian world as the norm?
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/11/fracking-firm-admits-caused-earthqua...
http://nofrackinguk.com/
http://www.foe.co.uk/news/news_fracking_probably_causes_tremors_33166.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-14431512
To say that Cuadrilla, Lancashire County Council, Tim Yeo MP, Lord Lawson et al are rather blase would be an understatement. I assumed that clones of the dispicable Dick Cheney (2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act exempting 'fracking' from the Safe Drinking Water Act) were not present on these shores, but alas it appears that I am wrong.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fracking
Sources talk of:
"...energy security. The British
Geological Survey estimates that onshore shale gas can supply 1.5 years
of the UK's total gas needs."
One and a half years?!!! Well, what a cracking trade off against a healthy existence even if 1.5 years equates to many more given the %age contribution to UK energy supplies!
Is there now a moratorium in place? It would appear not.
http://www.co-operative.coop/fracking?act=sup
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/12-09-2011-moratorium-on-fracking.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8869801/Lords-of-the-Manor-to...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/aug/31/fracking...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mp-backs-gas-fracking-de...
Fracking locations: http://frack-off.org.uk/bad-guys/locations/
Allow me to end with the complacent and quite fatuous words of Tim Yeo:
'Britain's recently discovered, apparently vast, reserves of shale gas "have the potential to be a game-changer."'
A "game-changer" it certainly will be - blighting the lives of millions of UK citizens if this industry is to take off in the manner it did in the US. Is short-termism the new black? Do MPs need blindfolding, bundling in a large van and driving to/off.....[answers please]