View allAll Photos Tagged Fracking,
For an article in the Dallas Observer about residents in a neighborhood that were divided over the prospect of fracking in the area.
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver, Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Photo credit: Roger Smith
Ten activists from the Shale Must Fall network, Gastivists Collective, and Climate Camp Scotland beamed a series of unpermitted 40-meter “guerrilla projections” onto the iconic COP26 Climate Summit venue in Glasgow. This action came just days after leaked European Commission documents revealed plans to fast-track approval to 30 new fossil gas infrastructure projects through the “Projects of Common Interest” (PCI) list. The images – which included scandalous infrared images of methane leakage from British and European fossil gas infrastructure – were aimed at drawing attention to the “Methane Gap” between what was promised in the Global Methane Pledge and the construction of new methane infrastructure in Europe.
“The European Commission’s likely decision to support up to 30 new fossil gas infrastructure projects shows the huge gap between political rhetoric at COP26 and policy back in Brussels. Fossil gas production leaks methane every step of the way: from fracking to freezing to shipping to piping, reducing those super-charged emissions is the low-hanging fruit for climate action, but those emissions need to be treated holistically,” said Neal Huddon-Cossar of the Gastivists Collective. “Putting a few bandaids over the leaks isn’t getting to the root of the problem – our governments need to stop importing methane and commit to leaving greenhouse gases where they belong – underground.”
The European Commission's 5th proposed “Projects of Common Interest" include the contentious EastMed deep-sea gas pipeline that would bring fossil gas into Europe from the disputed waters of Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. The PCI list gives projects fast-tracked priority for funding, permitting, and support at the EU level. Infrared monitoring technologies, such as those projected during the action, have raised the profile and awareness about the role of methane leaks from fracking and fossil gas infrastructure in contributing to global warming. Methane, conventionally sold as “natural gas,” is both a fossil fuel and a greenhouse gas more than 100 times more potent than CO2 while in the atmosphere. Europe is responsible for nearly half of global gas imports, and in Europe, fossil gas is already responsible for more CO2 emissions than coal.
“We are in Glasgow to denounce the genocide and ethnic cleansing being committed by extractivist European corporations that have already taken the life of activists like Samir Flores,” said Miriam Vargas of the Futuros Indigenas network in Mexico. “We denounce that corporations keep extracting land, water, lives, and peace from our territories. We demand an immediate stop to this nonconsensual extraction in our territory.”
The action sought to strengthen the international push to force governments to abandon the construction of new methane infrastructure globally and declare a global fracking ban.
“This is not terribly complicated: methane is a super-charged greenhouse gas that is already underground – all we have to do is leave it there. The fact that Scotland deems it dangerous to frack here and yet continues to allow Ineos to import fracked gas is simply immoral – if it's not okay to frack here, it's not okay to pay someone else to do it,” said Jemma Kettlewell of Climate Camp Scotland. “Europe tries to hide the true emissions of fossil gas imports, but methane doesn’t stop at our borders. Whether we import it to burn, or to make plastics, or to make petrochemicals, imported methane comes with a heavy price tag for the climate, not to mention the impacts of such industries on local communities like Mossmorran. Any European energy strategy that continues to rely on leaky, immoral, expensive, and imported fossil gas simply has no place in our clean energy future.”
Connie Harris has been involved with activism in Columbus for many years. Presently working with Occupy Mansfield, she came to the State Capital on Jan 10 to protest for a moratorium on fracking.
“We had a great turnout. If people keep pushing hard enough, maybe they (politicians) will listen. In Mansfield, the Occupy group was able to work with the city government, Republicans and Democrats. They’re building a so-called war chest to build a fund to keep fighting for laws for better oversight (of fracking).”
Harris said the moratorium would allow time for properly assessing the risks and possible benefits of fracking.
“ A lot of these communities, they’re losing all their factory work and other jobs. They’re treating some of these communities like wastelands. People have to live there and work and send their children to school. This is some real dangerous stuff. They (government officials and industry) don’t know enough about it. We don’t know enough about it.
She said her recent involvement with fracking ties into other activism she has done over the years. The common theme is that politicians are not in tune with the will of the people.
“Government agencies are doing what they want to do. They’re definitely more interested in mulah than the safety of our communities. I just happen to be living in a town where they want to build two (fracking) wells. They want to give the underground an enema.”
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos taken at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver at the Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Credit: Thomas Jefferson
Photos at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver, Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Photo credit: Roger Smith
Photo credit: Roger Smith @rjsphoto
Stop the Frack Attack National Summit at Holiday Inn - Stapleton in Denver, Oct 3-5
Paul at the Pre-protest meeting
AGL Energy, it's staff and subsidiaries are forbidden from using these images for any reason. Others may use freely crediting "Photo: Peter Firminger - WAGE"
Photos at the 2015 Stop the Frack Attack National Summit in Denver, Holiday Inn - Stapleton
Photo credit: Roger Smith