By: Jamie Peters
Fracking, the “new blue eyed boy”
In the UK there has been a climate change related story that has dominated headlines this month. The controversial method of obtaining gas from rocks has brought heartache to communities around the world and is now the pet project of the UK Government who have proudly announced that they will give fracking companies the ‘most generous tax breaks in world‘.
Fracking has been one of the ‘unconventional’ means of fossil fuel extraction (others include tar sands). In reality unconventional = incredibly destructive way to maintain an unhealthy addiction to fossil fuels.
Voices of reason….anyone??
Groups, organisations and individuals have come together to oppose fracking in Balcome in England, citing the devastating impacts that fracking brings. They are correct to cite these dangers as reasons not to frack. Another reason, is that fracking is simply another fossil fuel…
Wake up call…!!
The UK and the rest of the West must wake up to the fact that if we are serious about avoiding more than a 1.5 degree world and want to bring fairness and justice to climate action then we simply cannot use any more fossil fuels, conventional or otherwise.
The continual extraction of fossil fuels, and now the opening of even more dangerous routes for fossil fuel extraction, is either a sign of governments being unwilling to come to terms with what climate change and climate science shows we must do or wanton disregard for what continued fossil fuel extraction means. Either way, people are fighting it at all levels and the size of the movement is going to get bigger and stronger as time passes.
By Jamie Peters; COP18 International Policy Trainer| UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC)|
Focal Point to the UNFCCC Secretariat
YOUNGOs | Youth Constituency at the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change
Image Credit: qz.com
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