What will shale gas mean for the UK?
Public Meeting, Tuesday 19th July 6.45 pm in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square near Holborn, London WC1R 4RL.
By Campaign Against Climate Change and Supported by Artists Project Earth
With Professor Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Caroline Lucas MP (leader of the Green Party), Michael Meacher MP (ex Labour Minister for the Environment) and Phil Mitchell (Blackpool Green Party)
When energy company Cuadrilla was forced to suspend fracking operations near the resort of Blackpool following two earthquakes in the area, questions were finally raised about the environmental safety of drilling for shale gas in the UK.
Hydraulic fracturing is a process that injects millions of gallons of water, thousands of gallons of sand and an unregulated cocktail of chemicals (which companies are not required to disclose), at high pressure into oil or methane gas deposits.
In Pennsylvania, USA, some house holders can now set fire to their drinking water after methane gas leaked into wells. They are blaming shale gas extraction. Such stories are featured in the Oscar nominated documentary Gasland.
We Need the Facts About Fracks
Now the public are being invited to hear the arguments for themselves. Phil Thornhill National Co-ordinator of Campaign Against Climate Change, which is organising the debate, says “the real question that is raised by this effort to exploit yet another new source of fossil fuel is whether this is the direction we should be going in if we want to have any hope at all of arresting our precipitate slide towards a degree of climate destabilisation and consequent catastrophic impacts that will make last years Pakistan floods and this year’s East African famine look trivial by comparison.”
APE Development Director, Lorna Howarth says “our water, air, land and communities are sacrosanct. There must be a moratorium on shale gas extraction until allegations about the technology and its effects on drinking water, ecosystems and the climate can be thoroughly researched”.
Professor Kevin Anderson is Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research which has recently produced a report “Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts” which recommends a moratorium on drilling shale gas in the UK. Kevin Anderson has been outspoken on the need for scientists not to pull any punches in communicating the gravity of the climate crisis to policy makers.
Caroline Lucas MP is the UK’s first Green MP (Brighton Pavilion) and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She has supported the call for a moratorium on shale gas and condemned a report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee which concluded there was no need for a moratorium.
Michael Meacher MP, Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, was Minister of State for the Environment May 1997 to June 2003. He has long represented the environmental conscience of the Labour Party and has outlined in his blog the case against shale gas.
Phil Mitchell is chair of the Blackpool Greens and has headed the local campaign against the exploratory drilling for shale gas, that has already started in the area. Cuadrilla Resources has two drilling rigs in the area, the first in the UK. Operations were recently halted due to an earthquake attributed to the drilling operations.
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Artists Project Earth www.apeuk.org
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About APE Artists Project Earth created by award winning (UN 500 Global Award) environmentalist and music producer. Kenny Young, and was founded to combat Climate Change and raise funds for Natural Disaster Relief.
APE’s mission to create a better world through music has seen the release of three fund-raising albums, featuring musicians including Bob Dylan, U2, Coldplay and Gorillaz. Proceeds have funded nearly 300 environmental projects including the Inga Foundation.
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