Anti-fracking movement

An anti-fracking movement has emerged both internationally, with involvement of international environmental organizations and nation states such as France, and locally in affected areas such as Balcombe in Sussex,[1] Pungești in Romania and In Salah[2] in Algeria.

Europe

UK

The Frack Off campaign is a grassroots direct action against unconventional gas and oil extraction.

On 26 September 2018, three men became the first people in the UK to receive jail sentences for an anti-fracking protest, after they blocked a convoy of trucks carrying drilling equipment to a site near Blackpool. Two were sentenced to 16 months in prison and the third 15 months, after being convicted of causing a public nuisance. A fourth defendant was given a 12-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to the same offence. They were the first environmental activists to receive jail sentences for staging a protest in the UK since the Mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932.[3] On 5 October, a spokeswoman for Robert Lizar Solicitors, representing the men, confirmed they would be lodging an appeal against sentence on the grounds the sentences were “wrong in principle and manifestly excessive”.[4] On 17 October, all four men were released over the anti-fracking protest by Court of Appeal judges.[5]

North America
Main article: Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing

Environmental concerns about fracking began to take hold in the United States when Josh Fox released Gasland in 2010, a documentary on the social and environmental impacts of fracking.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, who lives in New York City, became a major opponent to fracking. Ruffalo laid out his full case against fracking in a piece co-authored with Phil Radford on CNN.com, where he argued solar and wind are here now, and using fracked natural gas instead of cleaner sources of energy will result in more faucets on fire, methane leaks that cause global warming, groundwater contamination, and cancer causing chemicals in communities.[6] In New York, more than 180 artists ( including Lady Gaga, Robert de Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Paul McCartney, Susan Sarandon ) are recognized as members of Artists Against Fracking, a group that opposes fracking in the Marcellus shale.[7]

In film
  • Split Estate (2009)
  • Gasland (2010)
  • Gasland: Part II (2013)
  • The Sky is Pink (2013)
  • Groundswell Rising (2014)
  • Frack Off (UK)
  • Frackman (Australia - 2015)
  • Water is Life (Australia - 2018)

See also

Notes and references
  1. Jan Goodey (1 August 2013). "The UK's anti fracking movement is growing". The Ecologist. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  2. Olivier Petitjean and Sophie Chapelle. "Shale gas: how Algerians rallied against the Regime and Foreign Oil Companies". multinationales.org. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  3. "Blackpool activists jailed for anti-fracking protest". Guardian. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  4. "Fracking protesters to appeal against prison sentences". Belfast Telegraph.co.uk.
  5. "Anti-fracking activists jailed after protest at Cuadrilla site freed by Court of Appeal judges". Sky News. 17 October 2018.
  6. Mark Ruffalo and Phil Radford. "Don't Let America Get Fracked". CNN.com. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  7. Navarro, Mireya. "Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon Organize Artists Against Fracking".
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