Monday 26 January 2015

When I arrive at the anti-fracking demonstration the press asked me “Why are you here?”

To save the world and specifically to save the  human race from
mass extinction. And though I’m sure fracking won’t happen –
because it’s become clear to people that it can’t happen – It’s too
stupid; it’s actually impossible – we still have to deal with the fact
that it’s still being mooted.  We have to transfer to a green economy.

I have written out the speech I gave at the anti-fracking demo.

I want to begin by saying that anyone who still believes in fracking is completely ignorant. You probably know the statistics: Saudi Arabia extracts oil at a cost of $6 per barrel; US fracking costs £65 per barrel; today’s selling price is $50 per barrel.

Because of competition US fracked oil has been sold at less than it costs to extract. The big oil companies have got out and the others are lumbered with increasing debts and bankruptcy.

What fracking has done is release cash-flow and spending power into the financial system. It’s a perfect e.g. of the economies of capitalism: short term speculation based on borrowing leaving bankruptcies and debt behind.

All debt, all borrowing of money is based on using up the finite resources of the earth. Ultimately capitalism runs on fossil fuel.

Things are changing. Fracking won’t happen. The reasons against it are becoming so self-evident. If they did frack in our small country they would cause so much destruction and confusion and it would soon become clear to everyone that financially the country was grinding to a halt. They’d have to stop.

So why are the politicians bent on doing this to us? Because they’ve never stopped to think. They never bothered to get their heads round it. And why? Because they believe in the capitalist system. They’ve been trained up, educated to believe in it and they belong to the club of a small percentage of people who run the world and who benefit from it. They’re trained to automatically put business first – before people.

The drilling speculators are riff-raff –  thugs, who’re after short term profit – in and out, leaving others to clean up the mess.

There’s one thing we can do. It is vote Green. The difference between the other political parties (you can’t put a hair between them. I call them “the bloc”) and the Greens is: the bloc puts business first and the Greens put people first: they are against austerity, against fracking; pro community and human rights.

Britain is small but it has great credibility world wide. A high percentage of green votes would send shock waves world wide. It would be a wake-up call to all those who’re stuck in the past. We must transfer to a green economy.

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BBC news – 26/1/15

MPs have rejected a bid to suspend fracking for shale gas.

But the government agreed to Labour proposals for 13 new conditions to be met before shale gas extraction can take place.

During a Commons debate, ministers also pledged an “outright ban” on fracking in national parks.

Earlier, a committee of MPs called for a moratorium on the practice on the grounds that it could derail efforts to tackle climate change.

The Environmental Audit Committee also warned that there were “huge uncertainties” about the environmental impact of fracking.

Environmental assessment

Protests took place in Westminster as MPs gathered for a final Commons debate on fracking legislation in the government’s Infrastructure Bill.

In the Commons, committee chair Joan Walley backed an amendment tabled by a cross-party group of MPs calling for fracking to be suspended for up to 30 months while an assessment is carried out.

A Labour amendment was added to the bill, to loud cheers from opposition benches, which would impose 13 tests to be met before fracking.

These include the completion of an environmental assessment and the need to consult residents on an individual basis.

A ban on drilling in national parks was another of the suggestions in the Environmental Audit Committee’s report.

After Labour and other MPs tabled amendments to allow the change to be made, Energy Minister Amber Rudd told the House that the government would remove the provision that shale gas exploration would be allowed in such areas in “exceptional circumstances”.

She later said there would be an outright ban in “national parks, sites of special interest and areas of national beauty”.