Do YOU want your national parks messed up by oil and gas prospectors?
Snouts in the trough: Martin Rowson’s Guardian cartoon goes straight to the heart of the matter – fat cats and pigs fouling up the landscape in the name of GREED.
Britain’s treasured national parks could be spoiled by oil and gas companies using them as drilling sites, if our treacherous Coalition government has its way.
People are already angry because the Coalition intends to open up about half the country – presumably those parts not owned or inhabited by members of the Coalition – for fracking by oil and gas companies. The plan is to allow drilling even if it takes place under citizens’ houses.
With less than a year until a general election that they know they are likely to lose, it seems that David Cameron’s Conservatives are determined to strip the whole country to the bone in the name of naked greed.
Perhaps they consider this to be poetic justice after we stopped them selling off publicly-owned parks and common land, back in the early days of the current Parliament; the logic seems to be, “If we can’t sell them, we’ll ruin them so nobody can enjoy them anyway”.
The plan is being handled by business minister Matthew Hancock – who specialises in energy, it seems. What does Ed Davey do, then? Hancock came to the attention of this blog yesterday when it was revealed that he had complained to the UK Statistics Authority about figures that Labour leader Ed Miliband didn’t use in a speech on jobs.
That can only bode ill for his plan to speed up the process of licensing companies to drill, so they can start within six months of making an application. He’ll cut corners and he’ll make even more bad decisions.
He’ll ruin our national parks. These are our designated areas of natural beauty, intended to be there for us to enjoy in perpetuity. Once the drills go in, there will be no way to restore them.
Fracking is an especially destructive form of oil and gas drilling that uses pressurised water to break up rock to get to oil supplies. Ground water can be contaminated by the gases and toxic chemicals used in the fracking process, and it is understood that waste from the fracking process is commonly mishandled.
Not only will our areas of outstanding natural beauty become ugly industrial pits but our health will be put at risk, while the big oil companies take the profits.
The Coalition is defending its decision by saying that people living in or around national parks will be protected by tougher rules for fracking. Hancock was interviewed about this on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week, and it should be no surprise whatsoever that he made a complete twit of himself. He claimed that there was broad support for fracking (in the name of “better energy security”) so the presenter asked him to name a village in the UK that supported fracking. He could not; instead, he changed the subject.
At the same time, the Coalition has removed the ability for millions of homeowners to stop companies from drilling directly under their properties.
The Coalition is touting the potential temporary benefits of a new oil or gas discovery. But is the potential permanent loss of our natural beauty really worth it?
Of course not – and you can tell the government to remove national parks from the list of areas open to fracking operations, simply by signing this petition.
An outright ban would protect our national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty in Britain.
Send your message to the government: The oil and gas companies can frack off and mess up their own backyard.
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This government ignore petitions and other requests to stop, and direct action gets one arrested. What can one do about it?
All the direct action arrests at Barton Moss, including the Lock On’s, have been thrown out of court…
The test drillhead has been removed:
Lose a few days behind bars and few restless nights before a judge profusely apologises and tears a strip off GMP – seems a small price to pay for success.
nestles wants to sell that water to one adter cams allowed them to contaminate the water courses through fracking yet theres not many out telling him no yes i wonder is it why that boss said that water was his right to sell i wonder
I live in a National Park but I don’t want ANYWHERE despoiled by oil & gas and fracking. We’re a very small island, not the USA, and even there fracking has reached close to the homes & lives of millions, despoiling and degrading the environment, in ways that will not be reversible.
One shuddered at the description of the NE England as a “desolate” place where fracking could be despatched to.. It’s just obvious now they regard the whole of the UK a “desolate” and dreary place fit only for exploitation. We know that truth from the way they treat our disabled, ill, unemployed, public servants, and of course, political opponents, etc.
Looking at he fracking in the USA, when it was declared profitable it was with the massive state subsidy driven by almost hysterical fears about oil supply and the failure of the USA foreign adventures to “fix” their control of it. In reality it’s been a massive waste of money, the supplies run out more quickly than predicted, and the damage is more extensive.
In short, we should oppose fracking anywhere. Salami slicing the opposition into “well, if we protect the National Parks” falls into the trap of conceding it will be done somewhere else. My response is a big, fat, NO! NOWHERE!
Florence: hear, hear :-)
Right on Florence! Well said!
xx
Totally agree with Florence – no fracking – anywhere!