Fracking Month: In Space No One Can Hear You Frack

If you were a Martian visiting Earth for the first time, you would find it abundantly clear that fracking poses a clear and immediate threat to anyone unfortunate to live anywhere near the sites designated for exploratory drilling.

How near is near? Well near enough to Alfreton and Ripley to be too close for comfort.

Imagine our intrepid green alien stepping gingerly from the shuttlecraft to be greeted by bright sunshine, a brisk breeze and an abundance of running water. Fortunate planet? Well, yes, until he or she discovers that our energy plans are going to include boring deep into the earth’s crust, injecting billions of gallons of clean drinking water to force out a lethal cocktail of methane gas, ozone and radioactive pollutants. Convoys of trucks clog the highways to dispose of polluted water where it can leak and poison valuable farmland. Properties in these areas become impossible to sell or mortgage and increasingly expensive to insure. And because each well swiftly declines in production, the process proliferates while our air and water supplies absorb more and more toxins. To paint a brief picture of how ludicrous the process is, each frack uses enough water to fill between 5-10 Olympic size swimming pools.

Who benefits? Well, I’m sure the shareholders of Ineos and Cuadrilla won’t be crying too much about the process.

Returning to the mothership, our visitor shakes his head, mutters ‘Just Plain nuts’ before setting course for another solar system.

Amber Valley Against Fracking Present Winter Wilson & Support. May 26^th

We have of course a major campaign on our hands and campaigns are rarely funded by lottery money.

Therefore, on Friday May 26^th, steer a course towards The Queens Head, Belper where as well as striking a blow for local democracy – local objections to fracking have all been quickly overruled – Winter Wilson, probably the finest acoustic duo in the realm and the first on the team sheet every year for Derby Folk Festival, headline a stellar line up.

Campaigning can also be fun !

Tickets are £8 and available at the venue or contact mjones572@hotmail.co.uk.