HELP! – Part 3

Everything the government tells us is part true or a lie. They select the information.

LIES 1 – 4:

1) “Fracking is a BRIDGE from dirty coal to” – Where? Where does the bridge land? There is no plan for renewable energy.
NO, it’s more a gangplank to a warmer world. It will lock us into fossil fuels. We will miss our chance to have cheap, clean energy from renewables.

2) “Fracking is CLEANER than coal.”
NO, high volume fracking is a new technique. It has been in place for only 8 years. But we already know that methane leaks from fracking add more to pollution and global warming than does CO2 from the burning of coal.
Coal burning is deadly, so is fracking. Fracking pumps gallons of toxic chemical into the ground and also releases radioactive materials which were once embedded in the underground rocks which fracking shatters. These then escape into the atmosphere, the water supply and the soil.  To add to the problem, each fracking well requires several million gallons of water, ¾ of which is lost forever. In the hot climates of America this has been self-destructive.
Eight years on, the world has only begun to assess the swell of information with regard to health and poisoning of the environment which is accumulating.

3) “We need ENERGY SECURITY.”
THE BEST PROPAGANDA is based on fear and there are now many people in the privileged world who have to choose between eating or keeping warm. The government pretended at first that fracking would produce cheaper energy and, even though they had to admit this is not true, the lie still circulates.
The term “Energy Security” is very effective propanda; it reminds us that we are insecure by informing us that the government can protect us and keep us safe. HA!
It also plays on our emotions by appealing to our patriotism; implicit in the phrase is the idea that this energy will be ours, belong to all of us in our country and keep us all safe! NO. It will belong to the energy companies and they will sell it on the open market to the highest bidder.

Fracking is the enemy of energy security. Let’s stop a moment to see what would happen.

• 60% of the UK would be licensed to fracking operations, each on a well pad the size of Trafalgar Square.
• It would take 10 – 15 years to get enough gas supply to make it worthwhile.

meanwhile:

Even businesses (e.g. Walmart) see the need to transfer to renewable energy as a means to stop Climate Change because if people are living in straightened circumstances (too much water or not enough water, too much heat) then they can’t grow food and raw materials to make our clothes.
As the last IPCC report shows, if we are serious about tackling climate change, we cannot afford to burn the fossil fuels we have, let alone search for new ones.  If we burn more than 20% we tip over into runaway Climate Change. Irreversible.

Has the government thought this out? Have they any idea what it will look like? Will our small country be covered as in the aerial view of America we see in Part 1? – With flashing lights, methane burn off lighting up the sky, a noise like the power of jet engines from high pressure drilling! Of course they haven’t. Do they care that small businesses will go to the wall?

We think, they’re too stupid to think. They just rely on the idea that helping Business is the only thing they can do – even if the business is obviously crazy. They have stopped thinking about People.

4) “The UK has a ‘GOLD STANDARD’ for SAFETY which will apply to fracking”.
THAT’S A JOKE!
Floods! They’ve cut jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency. They didn’t protect us from bankers. The UK has blocked EU attempts to set legally binding regulations on fracking.
Our government is still blind to the idea that fracking in the US is now viewed as a calamity and the famous dream they had of Energy Security hasn’t happened. And how about its being 400 times more dangerous to frack here than in the US? – because we have 400 times more fault lines – They’re not interested.
The reality is that the danger from fracking is impossible to prevent or control. The number of wells needed is not known but 30,000 is quoted as possible. 5% of wells fail immediately; all wells fail eventually. It’s just not good enough to put a cap on the well and walk away, but what else can you do? – Nothing, except don’t do it in the first place. You can’t stop the leakage.

Blackpool
Cuadrilla (Boss, Lord Brown who advises the government) obtained licences to drill in the Blackpool area. They caused an earthquake, 2.3ml on the Richter scale on 1^st April, 2011, 12 hours after they began to frack. They continued to frack that well for a further 6 weeks, denying that they had caused the first earthquake, and causing approximately 50 more minor tremors. Then the second earthquake appeared on 17^th May, measuring 1.7ml. One man’s house was cracked.

During the fracking process 2.7 million gallons of water were used of which approximately 900,000 gallons was recovered as “flowback”; 884,000 gallons of this was sent to the United Utilities treatment plant at DavyHulme, Manchester. The Davyhulme plant was unable to cope with the radioactivity and toxicity of the flowback so it was diluted and dumped into the Manchester Ship Canal. As far as we are aware there are still no firm plans in place for the disposal of this flowback which contains:

Uranium, Radium 226, Lead, Radon (2^nd biggest cause of lung cancer worldwide), Ethane, Naphtha and a whole host of other nasty substances.

Cuadrilla had to stop fracking and a moratorium was put in place until the tremors had been investigated.
The earthquakes caused damage to the steel casing and we are concerned that this may have compromised the integrity of the cement seal which is in place to prevent chemicals, gas and radioactive substances from the depths of the shale (which do not belong in the human environment), migrating up through the cement and into the environment.
Cuadrilla just put a cap on top of the well and left it. They moved on to Balcombe, Tory heartland, and the real protests started and the media attention that this attracted raised public awareness through the country, something that Cuadrilla and the operators did not want as they like to sneak around beneath the radar until they get to the production stage by which time it is too late to stop them devastating the environment.

We just heard that they are now back fracking around Blackpool.

Fracking is Evil – THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO DO IT:

Once THEY start, the disruption and distress it will bring to people will become unbearable. THEY will have to stop. Something will happen to stop THEM.

BLUFF:

So why do the drilling companies want to start this thing? They are speculators: as long as they have a licence they can raise investment; they can sell the licence on, like a bond, to other speculators; and if they do succeed in producing their white elephant then the government will have to sponsor them.

So if fracking is so crazy that it won’t happen beyond a certain point, why should we bother to fight it? Find out in Part 4.

Click to Help!