The explosive topic of fracking, or should I say anti-fracking, has been getting under my skin this past few weeks and alongside a resurrected passion for Twitter, I’ve been actively seeking out petitions to sign that support communities who sit in the ‘No Thanks’ camp.
Why? Lots of reasons actually; I’m quite keen on unpolluted water, I don’t want the earth to move for me and I truly believe that if our Government were to point its purse strings in the right direction, the UK could not only be self-sufficient with sustainable energy, but also quite a player in the export market too.
David Cameron’s financial proposals to boost the coffers of local councils with a slice of the revenue raised from shale gas fracking, is highly disturbing. I’m guessing he’d turn his palms to the sky and declare that any ensuing disasters weren’t his problem, leaving blighted communities to mop up their own wet mess with the money they’d pocketed.
On the subject of finances, I’m delighted to hear recent limp claims that shale gas will reduce our energy costs being downgraded by George Osborne yesterday, who said, ‘It has the potential to reduce energy bills.’ That’s one step closer to a truth I believe, if tested, would show it not making a jot of difference at all.
This thinking is backed up by a startlingly straightforward statement from Lord Brown, the chairman of Cuadrilla, the UK’s leading shale gas company. He was recently reported in the Guardian as saying, ‘We are part of a well-connected European gas market and unless it is a gigantic amount of gas, it is not going to have a material impact on price’.
Public opposition to fracking is growing with ferocious intensity, as reported in stylish and statistical detail by Adam Vaughan in last week’s Guardian, where environment secretary Owen Paterson, told the Lords committee that anti-fracking activists were indeed winning the battle. ‘There is a large problem with public opinion. Those who are opposed have made all the running. We are behind the curve. These opponents have been getting a lot of media coverage, they get a lot of television coverage. 
They wear exciting clothes, they have exciting banners, they have easy quick slogans. A lot of the stuff has been misleading, but they have made the running.’
…don’t you love the bit about the exciting clothes…
Following discussions about fracking with my friends and family, I’d say they had a complete mix of knowledge and understanding about the process and potential environmental dangers. It stretches from knowing absolutely nothing at all, through to awareness of those earthquakes up North and there’s a smattering of understanding about potential water pollution, but it’s pretty vague if I’m honest and nowhere more disturbingly so than in our schools.
I have four children at home who go to a switched on, eco-accredited school of some 1,800 pupils in Dorset and I’m not aware of any visiting speakers or teachers either explaining or debating the topic of fracking; from what I understand nobody’s talking about it at school, at all and I’d love to receive a phone call that stands me corrected! (Note to self: when I get a pocket of time, try to develop a school pack that delivers the facts to our leaders of the future and circulate it).
So whilst my local and domestic search didn’t inspire me greatly, I have discovered a great many globally fragmented pockets of people who are getting hot under the collar about fracking and its proven and potentially destructive effects worldwide. Having attended my local Greenpeace meeting last night with their strong core of around a dozen people, I concur there is a great deal of positive energy in the UK trying to fight the little frackers, but it’s an uphill struggle even for them to lace together all the good will and action.
Greenpeace are, however, making a very clever noise under the umbrella of their Wrong Move campaign. Their lawyers exposed the fact that it’s unlawful for anyone to drill underneath your home without permission and invite visitors to do a search on their postcode to find out if there are any agreed or proposed fracking sites nearby. Visitors are then encouraged to sign their petition for the Not for Shale legal block, a campaign that supports residents in affected communities to challenge the Government and the companies trying to drill in their immediate area. Their map uses data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showing the 14th licencing round of land under consideration for onshore oil and gas drilling in Britain; as I write, 26,335 people have added their names to the petition.
Of course, the issue of drilling under property raises another matter that I haven’t seen explored in any depth. If you’re planning to move house and sign up with estate agents to explore an area, should they be morally/ethically bound to alert you of any planning applications for fracking sites in that vicinity? If there is one sitting under the radar of public attention, you might only pick it up after you’ve paid a deposit and your solicitor is undertaking searches. To that end, I wonder whether planning applications for fracking sites come under their remit to investigate at all.
There are protests taking place right now around the UK of varying magnitudes and I am sure you’re probably aware of the burgeoning mass of campaigners at Barton Moss in Manchester. For the past three months they’ve been protesting and raising awareness of the exploratory drilling by iGas seeking reserves of shale gas. There are websites popping up as quickly as little wet gremlins for people who want to find out what’s going on and how they can help, just like this one for Frack Free Manchester. Visit Frack Off for details of live UK sites and others with active planning applications and contact details for local groups and websites supporting the cause.
Internationally, there is much dissent for fracking too and a swift search in the US uncovered the Earth Justice website with their active map of proposed and active sites and ‘frackcidents’ which makes for enlightening reading.
Whilst I could witter on about the enormous concerns of fracking on a global scale, I thought I might try to do something a little more useful that didn’t leave me feeling quite so impotent. Firstly, I hope my thoughts on the topic have inspired you to find our more about what fracking is and the facts about the damage it has done already. More importantly, you should consider the irreparable damage it could do under our feet if we don’t unite in a positive and peaceful fashion and yell our protest against it.
Whether fracking takes place under your feet, in a neighbouring county, at the other end of your country or across the border in another country altogether, it’s irrelevant; fracking could have a negative knock on environmental effect that could be disturbingly and uncontrollably widespread.
Dorset is my home. Ireland is my back garden, America is the sports field down the road, Australia is a stone’s throw across a tiny pond. The concerned, common folks of these countries and more need to plait their strands of energy together and speak with a united voice that tells their Governments to stop squeezing the last drops of blood from the stones and start investing more in sustainable solutions to keeping the planet’s lights on.
To that end, I’ve created a list of several anti-fracking petitions from around the world and invite you to pick up your virtual pens, read, sign and share them on your websites and social media networks. I’ll add new ones as I find them and would be grateful if you could drop me a line with details of any others you come across.
Click here for my global anti-fracking petition list.
Thank you for anything you can do.
Tracey West
Anti-fracker, author, mum
