Transition Town Tooting

Tag: fossil fuels

  • My Fracking Opinion, What’s Yours?

    Quite amazing in the week where the IPCC tells us we have even less time than we thought to take action to avert the dangers posed by warming of 2°C, that fracking is underway today in Lancashire courtesy of the delightful Cuadrilla Resources.  What planet are these people on?  Thankfully there are some brave people from our own planet out there (including a Transition Network trustee!) taking direct action to try to stop them.

    IPCC Graph

    Fracking involves the high-pressure injection of ‘fracking fluid’ (water, sand and a cocktail of chemicals) into the ground to create cracks in deep rock formations with the goal of extracting fossil fuels that may lie there, in the Lancashire case natural gas. It’s bad enough that fossil fuels lead to climate change and the associated disasters for humanity and the planet, but this special type of extraction can also involve the risk of earthquakes, toxic chemicals, water pollution and poor air quality[3]. 

    Image result for fracking picture
    source: Friends of the Earth

    On the BBC’s Today programme the Chief Executive of this life affirming operation, Francis Egan, was asked whether he would be quite happy to have a house on the site with his children breathing the air there and he replies “yes of course” (podcast here about 5m 55s in). What a great idea!

    Surely this should be a mandatory condition of the granting of any fracking licence? Namely that the chief executive, indeed why not all senior executives of such a company, commit to raise their families beside fracking sites so that they too can benefit from the clean air abounding, discover new unusual chemicals and marvel at the array of visiting industrial vehicles, as well as anticipate the excitement of a potentially rumbling landscape plus aftershocks. I’m all for it but I wonder if Mr Egan and his ilk really would be?!  Methinks not, it is others who must take such risks for the sake of their profits.  But maybe I’m too cynical.  What’s your fracking opinion?

    Resources: 
    1. More on fracking from the Guardian
    2. Anti-fracking with Frack Off 
    3. Fracking facts from Friends of the Earth & Greenpeace. 
    4. In America meanwhile you can even light your own methane laced water

  • Seize Your Pension Power To Save The Planet

    Your pension can change the world! 
    Right now, it’s funding climate change…

    On December 9th we are running an event with Share Action looking at how the gazillions sloshing around in the UK’s pension funds are invested in fossil fuel companies and other high-carbon industries which are driving the world towards dangerous climate change.

    This is our money and we should have a say in how it is used shouldn’t we? 

    By taking back control over the cash invested in pensions, we can make sure it’s supporting a better future.

    This workshop will cover the basics of how your pension is invested and how pension savers can take action to effect change. Join us for the evening to learn about your pension power can save the planet!
    Tuesday 9th December 2014, 7-9pm at Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Rd, SW17 7EW [poster to download]