Frack-Off, an innovative, exciting group to work with

by Natalie Bennett

We had at our members’ meeting this week a great speaker from Frack-Off, the fast-growing campaign against “extreme energy”. They’re best-known for their work, as the name suggests, against fracking – yes that strange and destructive method of shale gas extraction that caused an earthquake in Blackpool, but also covering a whole range of other, possibly even worse, technologies, ranging from coal-bed methane and underground coal gasification (effectively setting fire to coal underground) -  and also including tar sands, mountain top removal and deep water drilling (of the type for which the UK has just provided a $1bn line-of-credit to the Brazilian state oil company).

This map shows the sites where activity is under way or with licences likely to be let  in the UK, but a map supplied on the night shows how a majority of the UK is under threat (the “under review” areas are where licences are being considered) ….

(Map by Paul Mobbs)

We did an interesting, if depressing, exercise, trying to rank the most significant negative impacts of fracking. These ranged from climate change to methane, heavy metals and other contaminants in underground water, to the industrialisation of the countryside and an average of 30,000 lorry movements for each well.

There is, however, a strong fightback going on, with Frack-Off providing help and support to strong local groups – and some of those who have been fighting back are now on trial (Follow #frackingontrial  on Twitter for the latest on that.) It’s pleasing to know that Caroline Lucas has made representations to the trial, saying non-violent protest should not be criminalised.

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How environmental behavioural changes affect women and men differently

by Natalie Bennett

At the Green Party women’s day in Cambridge yesterday, we heard a very interesting talk from Ro Randall, developer of the Carbon Conversations project, on “Feminism and the politics of pro-environmental behaviour change”.

She noted that there was a huge emphasis from government now on programmes to encourage behaviour change. “This is something to be quite cautious about. It removes attention from politics to personal situations.”

And speaking as a psychotherapist, she said the theories behind the government’s actions saw people in a rather mechanical way, and had a simplistic sense of behaviour change.

Participants at the Green Party women’s day in Cambridge (outside the lovely Trumptington Pavilion where the event was held)

Ro said the the average carbon emissions for each Briton are about 12 tonnes, while sustainability demanded 1.5-2 tonnes – the basis of the aim of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050. (In the US and Australia the individual average is around 24 tonnes, in India 1 tonne, Tanzania mayb e 100kg.) Acting individually, a single Briton was unlikely to get below 6 tonnes. “The rest has to come through decarbonisation of our energy supply.”

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