What The Frack!

There I was, just about to watch a Youtube video, of an astrology reading by Kelley Rosano, when a pop up ad appeared for the effing Shale Gas World conference happening this week, 13^th and 14^th May, in Birmingham.

Now, it’s very unlikely that ANYONE into astrology is likely to be FOR FRACKING, surely, or wanting to go to the biggest propaganda event of the year, intent on selling the destruction of our ecosystems and health, in the name of profit for the few. But it reminded me that I needed to write a blog about it.

So – FRACKING – a way worse dirty word than the other F-word, which just means making love, in a more Anglo-Saxon kind of way. Just because America’s let fracking happen in certain states – although it’s now clearly apparent how destructive and harmful this is for people and planet – doesn’t mean that we should do it here, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. Not wanting fracking to happen is not NIMBYism, I don't want it happening AT ALL, ANYWHERE, not just in my back yard, thank you very much.

To me, it is a complete NO BRAINER that it is complete MADNESS getting another fossil fuel industry going full pelt, adding to the pollution and destruction already rife on the earth, for the sake of a few more burps of gas. This industry is ENTIRELY ABOUT THE MONEY, for those invested in it, at the expense of public health, countryside, water safety and so on. I’m pretty sure anyone else into this wonderful Wave of Action agrees, seeing as we’re all about making a better world, one with clean water and air, I expect - which it won’t be if fracking gets going - but could be is renewable energy takes over. So I won’t keep going on about why it’s so bad – although you’re welcome to read this blog on Why We Don't Need Fracking from the Centre for Alternative Technology which explains it nicely - so much as show you some ways to protest against it.

Most important, right now, if you’re in the Birmingham area at all, get along to the event to join Occupy London protesting there. http://occupylondon.org.uk/events/shale-gas-world-exhibition-fracking-madness-birmingham/

Included in this shout out, was the link to the list of attendees, which has been taken down now and just says ‘contact us now’. Running scared? Let’s hope so. I wish I’d printed a copy of the long list of banks, councils and companies exhibiting at this event when the list was on the site a week or so ago. Fortunately, you can still see the sponsors logos, so they can be researched and bombarded with letters, emails and phone calls of objection. Note that the 'gold sponsor' is the lovely Halliburton, the main players in the Pennsylvanian shale industry, re-builders of bomb-wrecked Iraq after the war, once led by the delightful Ex US VP Dick Cheney, who exempted the fracking industry from various environmental and clean water laws in the US. See this article from Truthout http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/21828-time-to-end-the-cheney-halliburton-loophole DR EVIL!

So, what can we do the rest of the time? There are many frack free UK facebook pages, for the UK as a whole - try BIFF: Britain and Ireland Frack Free  , the Anti-fracking Network and FRACK OFF or search anti-fracking groups in your area, if it’s one under threat. So join those and get campaigning locally and nationally by protesting, flyering, raising awareness.

I love this group – The Warrior’s Call, Pagans United Against Fracking - for spells, magic and meetings to send fracking packing, plus a specially designed and activated shield to wear to protect yourself and the land against fracking, and send out with your intentions to put a stop to this abhorrent industry.

Why not set up a screening of Gasland, The Dash for Gas: Independence at a Price or other fracking documentary, in your local community centre, to make people aware of what it’s all about and the real dangers in presents. You could also get an informed speaker from an anti-fracking organisation, Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth to talk at your event. 

Incredibly, many people still don’t even know about it but once they find out, they are shocked and don’t want it to happen, especially nearby - unless they have invested in it, because (surprise!) a lot of money could be made out of fracking. It could be the next coal or oil boom, according to investment analysts, such as this one http://moneyweek.com/how-to-invest-in-fracking/ which actually made me cry, to think that some people want the money, so badly, they don’t give a shit if it wrecks the world. Shale gas will eventually run out, of course, by which time the water undrinkable, or plundered to a ridiculous level, because, don’t forget, it can take MILLIONS OF GALLONS of fresh water to frack a single well FFS! 

Oops, off I go again, ranting about the evils of fracking! Hey, if money’s your thing though, at the cost of humanity and our precious environment, remember the government is trying to change the law so the shale industry can frack under your home, without you knowing or having any say in the matter. So, that’s the value of your home decreased (and probably shuddering and shaking now and then) so why not write to the government asking them if they really think this is the right thing to do:

FREEPOST RSBB-XRZT-ZTXE

The Conservative Party

30 Millbank

London

SW1P 4DP

Liberal Democrats

FREEPOST RHSA-AKBC-UXTU


Manchester 


M20 5NF

Ultimately, we need to really do all we can to come off fossil fuels altogether. Not an easy thing, but do-able if communities pull together to work out a plan of transition. Another article from the Centre for Alternative Technology shares how Balcombe, scene of last summer’s anti-fracking protests, is becoming a Zero Carbon village: 

“The goal: build enough community-owned solar power to match the electricity needs of all 760 homes in the village within 2 years.”

Find out more how to go about this for your area, there is enough information online at http://www.repowerbalcombe.com/ and via the Transition Movement http://www.transitionnetwork.org/ which may already be burgeoning in your area, and if it isn’t, get it started! I'll report more from my own mission soon.