Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

100 Anti-Fracking Activists Overwhelm Injection Well Site in Ohio

BQXb9Q-CQAAoaKQ.jpg-large29 July 2013 Over 100 anti-frack­ing activists have tak­en over the entrance to an injec­tion well site in Ohio.

BQXb9Q-CQAAoaKQ.jpg-large29 July 2013 Over 100 anti-frack­ing activists have tak­en over the entrance to an injec­tion well site in Ohio. The action comes at the end of the week­end-long Don’t Frack Ohio event, which was full of train­ings and activ­i­ties.

The ral­ly is spear­head­ed by “con­cerned cit­i­zen” groups and 350.org as part of the nation­al Sum­mer Heat cam­paign. It is being labeled “Don’t Frack Ohio 2.0,” in ref­er­ence to last year’s action involv­ing more than a thou­sand par­tic­i­pants.

Don’t Frack Ohio states on their web­page: “Remem­ber Don’t Frack Ohio from last sum­mer when over a thou­sand of us marched in Colum­bus, took over the state­house rotun­da and held a People’s Assem­bly? We are doing it again this year, with a bold­er action and with more grass­roots Ohio lead­er­ship. We are focus­ing on Class 2 injec­tion wells and the infu­sion of tox­ic radioac­tive frack­ing waste brought in from oth­er states and also being gen­er­at­ed in Ohio. Last year the Oil & Gas indus­try inject­ed almost 600 mil­lion gal­lons of tox­ic waste in our state, with lit­tle regard for our com­mu­ni­ties health and wel­fare.”

The goal of this and oth­er actions are to get the gov­er­nor to ban injec­tion wells, in par­tic­u­lar, which would effec­tive­ly end frack­ing in the state.

Myanmar Activist Jailed 10 years For Anti-Mine Protest

Security forces move in to stop protesters plowing fields near the copper mine at Letpadaung Mountain in northern Burma's Sagaing division on April 25, 2013.28 July 2013 A court in cen­tral Myan­mar has s

Security forces move in to stop protesters plowing fields near the copper mine at Letpadaung Mountain in northern Burma's Sagaing division on April 25, 2013.28 July 2013 A court in cen­tral Myan­mar has sen­tenced an activist to a decade in prison for “threat­en­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty” after he led a protest against a con­tro­ver­sial Chi­na-backed cop­per mine which led to clash­es with author­i­ties, accord­ing to a fel­low cam­paign­er.

Judge Kaythi Hlaing of the Shwe­bo city court hand­ed Aung Soe, an activist with Myanmar’s People’s Sup­port Net­work, the 10-year sen­tence on Mon­day after con­vict­ing him on eight charges linked to the vio­lence on April 25, Moe Moe, also of the activist’s group, told RFA’s Myan­mar Ser­vice.   

The group had backed hun­dreds of farm­ers protest­ing the alleged seizure of their land by Wan Bao Com­pa­ny, which runs the cop­per mine near Mount Let­padaung in north­ern Burma’s Sagaing divi­sion.

The clash­es broke out after secu­ri­ty forces moved in to stop the farm­ers from plow­ing their fields on the con­test­ed land. At least ten protest­ing farm­ers were injured, some of them report­ed­ly with gun­shot wounds, while 15 police­men were also wound­ed.

Aung Soe “was sen­tenced under eight charges, includ­ing for threat­en­ing reli­gious puri­ty and nation­al secu­ri­ty, and for ille­gal assem­bly,” Moe Moe said Tues­day.

“He was sen­tenced at the Shwe­bo court by the judge, Daw Kaythi Hlaing,” he said, using an hon­orif­ic title.

Two res­i­dents of Setae vil­lage, near the Let­padaung cop­per mine, named Soe Thu and Maung San, were also sen­tenced for “vio­lat­ing orders” and “incit­ing riots,” Moe Moe added.

He did not say how long the two vil­lagers were sen­tenced to prison.

Moe Moe said that Aung Soe’s lawyer will appeal his con­vic­tion.

Sus­pend­ed oper­a­tions

An inquiry com­mis­sion in Myan­mar ruled in March that the cop­per mine should be allowed to con­tin­ue despite wide­spread objec­tions.

But near­ly four months lat­er, oper­a­tions at the facil­i­ty remain sus­pend­ed with protest­ing vil­lagers refus­ing to accept com­pen­sa­tion offers.

Oper­a­tions at the mine have been sus­pend­ed since Novem­ber, when a bru­tal crack­down on protests against the mine prompt­ed the gov­ern­ment to set up the com­mis­sion to look into the project’s via­bil­i­ty.

The com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed that the project should be allowed to move ahead despite con­ced­ing that it brought only “slight” ben­e­fits to the nation.

Since then, vil­lagers who are most­ly farm­ers have staged reg­u­lar protest against the mine, com­plain­ing that the com­pen­sa­tion was not enough and call­ing for a com­plete halt to the project.

Some 15 protesters—both local res­i­dents and activists from Yangon—are want­ed by the author­i­ties over demon­stra­tions against the mine in recent months.

Vil­lagers have said that they do not want pol­lu­tion from the mine to destroy the area and that author­i­ties have con­fis­cat­ed some 8,000 acres (3,000 hectares) of farm­land from 26 vil­lages to make way for the mine.

Hundreds Protest Nickel Mine In Russia, Previous Clashes Resulted in Torched Equipment

28 July 2013 VORONEZH — Hun­dreds of peo­ple gath­ered in a small town in Voronezh region on Sun­day for a new protest in their year-lon

28 July 2013 VORONEZH — Hun­dreds of peo­ple gath­ered in a small town in Voronezh region on Sun­day for a new protest in their year-long cam­paign against plans to open a nick­el and cop­per mine in the area, police offi­cials said.

The demon­stra­tion was orga­nized by the local anti-mine move­ment and res­i­dents of Novokhop­er­sk who called for halt­ing the min­ing project. The ral­ly orga­niz­ers said that about 3,000 peo­ple took part in the demon­stra­tion, includ­ing those from neigh­bor­ing provinces, while the police put the num­ber at 900.

It is the first mass gath­er­ing of the cam­paign­ers after the 13-month stand­off explod­ed last month with a crowd of sev­er­al hun­dred storm­ing the premis­es of a geo­log­i­cal explo­ration par­ty and torch­ing cars, con­struc­tion trail­ers and drilling rigs.

The min­er, pri­vate­ly owned Ural Min­ing and Met­al­lur­gi­cal Com­pa­ny (UMMC), has denied that its mine would harm the envi­ron­ment.

Myanmar Activist Jailed 10 years For Anti-Mine Protest

Security forces move in to stop protesters plowing fields near the copper mine at Letpadaung Mountain in northern Burma's Sagaing division on April 25, 2013.

Security forces move in to stop protesters plowing fields near the copper mine at Letpadaung Mountain in northern Burma's Sagaing division on April 25, 2013.

Secu­ri­ty forces move in to stop pro­test­ers plough­ing fields near the cop­per mine at Let­padaung Moun­tain in north­ern Burma’s Sagaing divi­sion on April 25, 2013.

28th July 2013

A court in cen­tral Myan­mar has sen­tenced an activist to a decade in prison for “threat­en­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty” after he led a protest against a con­tro­ver­sial Chi­na-backed cop­per mine which led to clash­es with author­i­ties, accord­ing to a fel­low cam­paign­er.

Judge Kaythi Hlaing of the Shwe­bo city court hand­ed Aung Soe, an activist with Myanmar’s People’s Sup­port Net­work, the 10-year sen­tence on Mon­day after con­vict­ing him on eight charges linked to the vio­lence on April 25, Moe Moe, also of the activist’s group, told RFA’s Myan­mar Ser­vice.   

The group had backed hun­dreds of farm­ers protest­ing the alleged seizure of their land by Wan Bao Com­pa­ny, which runs the cop­per mine near Mount Let­padaung in north­ern Burma’s Sagaing divi­sion.

The clash­es broke out after secu­ri­ty forces moved in to stop the farm­ers from plow­ing their fields on the con­test­ed land. At least ten protest­ing farm­ers were injured, some of them report­ed­ly with gun­shot wounds, while 15 police­men were also wound­ed.

Aung Soe “was sen­tenced under eight charges, includ­ing for threat­en­ing reli­gious puri­ty and nation­al secu­ri­ty, and for ille­gal assem­bly,” Moe Moe said Tues­day.

“He was sen­tenced at the Shwe­bo court by the judge, Daw Kaythi Hlaing,” he said, using an hon­orif­ic title.

Two res­i­dents of Setae vil­lage, near the Let­padaung cop­per mine, named Soe Thu and Maung San, were also sen­tenced for “vio­lat­ing orders” and “incit­ing riots,” Moe Moe added.

He did not say how long the two vil­lagers were sen­tenced to prison.

Moe Moe said that Aung Soe’s lawyer will appeal his con­vic­tion.

Sus­pend­ed oper­a­tions

An inquiry com­mis­sion in Myan­mar ruled in March that the cop­per mine should be allowed to con­tin­ue despite wide­spread objec­tions.

But near­ly four months lat­er, oper­a­tions at the facil­i­ty remain sus­pend­ed with protest­ing vil­lagers refus­ing to accept com­pen­sa­tion offers.

Oper­a­tions at the mine have been sus­pend­ed since Novem­ber, when a bru­tal crack­down on protests against the mine prompt­ed the gov­ern­ment to set up the com­mis­sion to look into the project’s via­bil­i­ty.

The com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed that the project should be allowed to move ahead despite con­ced­ing that it brought only “slight” ben­e­fits to the nation.

Since then, vil­lagers who are most­ly farm­ers have staged reg­u­lar protest against the mine, com­plain­ing that the com­pen­sa­tion was not enough and call­ing for a com­plete halt to the project.

Some 15 protesters—both local res­i­dents and activists from Yangon—are want­ed by the author­i­ties over demon­stra­tions against the mine in recent months.

Vil­lagers have said that they do not want pol­lu­tion from the mine to destroy the area and that author­i­ties have con­fis­cat­ed some 8,000 acres (3,000 hectares) of farm­land from 26 vil­lages to make way for the mine.

Report­ed by Yada­nar Oo for RFA’s Myan­mar Ser­vice.

Rebel Clowns Target Fracking in Scotland

Clown Pyramids say NO to Fracking27 July 2013 Yes­ter­day morn­ing a hoard of clowns descend­ed on the gov­ern­ment Direc­torate for Plan­ning and Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs to deliv­er a spe­cial anti-frack­ing mes­sage to the pow­ers that be.

Clown Pyramids say NO to Fracking27 July 2013 Yes­ter­day morn­ing a hoard of clowns descend­ed on the gov­ern­ment Direc­torate for Plan­ning and Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs to deliv­er a spe­cial anti-frack­ing mes­sage to the pow­ers that be.

Frack your own back garden
Frack your own back gar­den

Dirty Dangerous Disastor
Dirty Dan­ger­ous Dis­as­tor

At 8.30am yes­ter­day morn­ing, anti-frack­ing activists gath­ered for a clown­ing action at the Direc­torate for Plan­ning and Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs (DPEA) in Falkirk. Dressed in colour­ful clown cos­tumes a group of 17 activists mocked the dan­gers of frack­ing with ridicu­lous play. Clowns burst in to the car park with music, ban­ners and a frack­ing tow­er as bemused work­ers looked on. Games con­tin­ued to the to town cen­tre to raise aware­ness among the pub­lic.

A spokesper­son for the actions said “we are here today to high­light the absur­di­ty of going down yet anoth­er route of non-renew­able ener­gy that is a short term and dan­ger­ous solu­tion to a long term energy/carbon prob­lem with it’s own set of poten­tial­ly dev­as­tat­ing envi­ron­men­tal con­se­quences.

“Despite mount­ing evi­dence of the dan­gers of frack­ing con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing local water sup­plies releas­ing high car­bon methane gas and risk of cat­a­stroph­ic explo­sions, the gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to giv­ing frack­ing mul­ti-nation­als the green light, plac­ing prof­it over local oppo­si­tion and the poten­tial for envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion.

“We are here to show those mak­ing the deci­sion about DART Energy’s appli­ca­tion to frack in the Falkirk and oth­er areas, that oppo­si­tion to these irre­spon­si­ble oper­a­tions is mount­ing. We are here in sup­port of local oppo­si­tion to the plans and ongo­ing inter­na­tion­al oppo­si­tion to frack­ing else­where.” (1)

The DPEA was tar­get­ed as clown inves­ti­ga­tions uncov­ered evi­dence that the deci­sion on what hap­pens next with the frack­ing plans in Scotland’s cen­tral belt will be tak­en there by gov­ern­ment civ­il servants(2). This fol­lows DART Energy’s appeal to the Scot­tish gov­ern­ment when Falkirk and Stir­ling coun­cils failed to make the deci­sion due to resis­tance from local com­mu­ni­ties, and a lack of cred­i­ble infor­ma­tion on health and envi­ron­men­tal concerns(3).

The action hap­pened amid grow­ing con­cerns over both the West­min­ster and Holy­rood gov­ern­ments’ cur­rent favour­ing of short sight­ed, lucra­tive non-renew­able ener­gy plans, despite their alleged com­mit­ments to cut­ting car­bon and pur­su­ing renew­able ener­gy resources. Last week George Osbourne announced tax breaks for frack­ing firms oper­at­ing with­in the UK (of 50% more than oth­er ener­gy companies(4). This break was cham­pi­oned by Lyn­ton Cros­by, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty Chief Strate­gist and the man respon­si­ble for pro­mot­ing shale gas frack­ing in Aus­tralia. Cros­by’s PR firm “Cros­by Tex­tor” also rep­re­sents the Aus­tralian Petro­le­um Explo­ration Asso­ci­a­tion, of which DART is a sub­sidiary.

This action was organ­ised by Reclaim the Fields and con­ti­nu­ity fac­tions of the Clan­des­tine Insur­gent Rebel Clown Army. Anti-frack­i­li­cious!

NOTES

1. http://frack-off.org.uk/

2. http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/cgc/pnas2011.pdf

3. http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=qA355856

4.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/19/david-cameron-fracking-lynton-crosby

Hundreds Halt Fracking Operations in Susex

In the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing, anti-frack­ing activists and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in Bal­combe, Sus­sex, UK, suc­cess­ful­ly halt­ed the first day of explo­rations for a new shale gas devel­op­ment by famed (infa­mous, rather) frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla. Over 250 peo­ple unit­ed in a pow­er­ful, peace­ful, joy­ful block­ade—that even­tu­al­ly con­vinced the trucks con­tain­ing the ini­tial frack­ing equip­ment to aban­don the site.

This is com­mu­ni­ty pow­er at its best. Cam­paign­ers in Bal­combe, just like those in front­line com­mu­ni­ties around the world (in the U.S., Indone­sia, Argenti­na and else­where) had been call­ing atten­tion to the dan­gers of frack­ing for over a year. This week, when Cuadrilla’s license for explo­ration and devel­op­ment was approved, activists quick­ly mobi­lized to orga­nize a Great Gas Gala, invit­ing peo­ple in Sus­sex and neigh­bor­ing areas to con­verge on Bal­combe and oppose Cuadrilla’s efforts.

Yesterday’s protests are set in the con­text of a recent announce­ment by the UK gov­ern­ment propos­ing a 50 per­cent tax cut for com­pa­nies involved in shale gas extrac­tion, the most gen­er­ous tax regime for frack­ing in the whole world. The pro­pos­al is very much in line with the dread­ed “dash for gas” that Chan­cel­lor George Osborne announced at last year’s unveil­ing of the bud­get.

It is in oppo­si­tion to these efforts that groups like Frack Off, No Dash for Gas and many of our part­ners and allies around the coun­try, are mobi­liz­ing pub­lic aware­ness and oppo­si­tion, in a gen­uine effort to shift the pow­er in our ener­gy sys­tems and put our com­mu­ni­ties and their peo­ple back in charge. The Glob­al Pow­er Shift UK team will be work­ing in the upcom­ing months on help­ing build that large, inclu­sive movement—one that rep­re­sents com­mu­ni­ty inter­ests, lever­ages our diver­si­ty and builds on our shared vision of a peo­ple-pow­ered future that solves the cli­mate cri­sis once and for all.

The fight in Bal­combe is not over yet. Yesterday’s explorato­ry frack­ing attempt was the clos­est to Lon­don to date, where a lot of the finance for these oper­a­tions comes from and where the tan­gled webs of pow­er and influ­ence are care­ful­ly thread­ed between con­sent­ing politi­cians and short-term prof­it ori­ent­ed fos­sil fuel cor­po­rate exec­u­tives. Impuni­ty for them and their cli­mate-wreck­ing efforts? No longer. Real resis­tance is brew­ing in their back­yard.

Mayo farmer to face criminal damage charge over Shell protest

File photo of a caravan painted by campaigners from a 2011 protest 26 July 2013 Ger­ry Bourke – a farmer from Augh­oose in Coun­ty Mayo – is insist­ing he has no case to answer after being hit with a crim­i­nal dam­age and tres­pass charge in

File photo of a caravan painted by campaigners from a 2011 protest 26 July 2013 Ger­ry Bourke – a farmer from Augh­oose in Coun­ty Mayo – is insist­ing he has no case to answer after being hit with a crim­i­nal dam­age and tres­pass charge in rela­tion an inci­dent at Shell Ireland’s tun­nelling site in the vil­lage.

Gar­daí con­firmed to TheJournal.ie that a man was ques­tioned in rela­tion to an inci­dent at the site in Augh­oose on 22 June last by offi­cers at Bel­mul­let Sta­tion. The 48-year-old was arrest­ed and ques­tioned for around six hours yes­ter­day, before being released.

Bourke – who is a sup­port­er of the ‘Shell to Sea’ cam­paign – says he was engag­ing in a peace­ful protest with sev­er­al oth­ers on the date in ques­tion, and that he “couldn’t guess” as to why he was being charged with crim­i­nal dam­age. He told TheJournal.ie:

I was protest­ing at the site… I will keep protest­ing what’s going on as long as there’s life in my body.

He said the Shell to Sea cam­paign would con­tin­ue in order to draw atten­tion to the “unfair­ness” of what was hap­pen­ing in Mayo, adding:

Own­er­ship of oil and gas should belong to the peo­ple. You can­not have a sit­u­a­tion where­by peo­ple don’t own nat­ur­al resources. There has to be a fair deal done for the coun­try.

Ger­ry Bourke is due to appear in court in Bel­mul­let on 11 Sep­tem­ber.

A spokesper­son for Shell said that some dam­age had been caused at the site on the date in ques­tion, but declined to com­ment fur­ther as the case is now before the courts.

The Cor­rib Gas Project – which involves the extrac­tion of nat­ur­al gas from the north­west coast of the coun­try – has been the sub­ject of long-run­ning oppo­si­tion from ‘Shell to Sea’. Most recent­ly, the group erect­ed a series of signs close to a loca­tion where drilling was tak­ing place, warn­ing locals of the dan­ger posed by ‘sink holes’.

10 Arrests At The Great Gas Gala – Day 2

26 July 2013 Frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla Resources are try­ing to start drilling in Bal­combe, West Sus­sex and the com­mu­ni­ty is try­ing to stop them.

26 July 2013 Frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla Resources are try­ing to start drilling in Bal­combe, West Sus­sex and the com­mu­ni­ty is try­ing to stop them. Over 250 peo­ple stopped 15 trucks bring on equip­ment yes­ter­day.  See Frack­ing In Bal­combe: A Com­mu­ni­ty Says No for back­ground to issues involved. Scroll down for pho­tos.

Update (3:30pm): Camp out­side site still going strong. Peo­ple stream­ing in but more need­ed. Come down and stay the night if you can!

Update (2:30pm): Meet­ing at camp decid­ed they weren’t going to be intim­i­dat­ed by police thug­gery.

Update (1:50pm): Arrests alleged­ly under Trade Union and Labour Rela­tions Act 1992 – Sec. 241. Appar­ent­ly the frack­ers were being “beset and intim­i­dat­ed” by the com­mu­ni­ty! The peo­ple of Bal­combe would say it was the was the oth­er way round!

Update (1:30pm): Police have to escort tanker past incensed com­mu­ni­ty. Cuadrilla are not wel­come!

Update (1:10pm): Arrest­ed Sus­sex res­i­dents alleged­ly being tak­en to Craw­ley police sta­tion.

Update (12:55pm): Cuadrilla and Police Try­ing Break Block­ade With Heavy Machi­nary

Update (12:50pm): 10 Com­mu­ni­ty Defend­ers Arrest­ed!

Update (12:40pm): Peo­ple are being arrest­ed for pro­tect­ing Sus­sex from frack­ing!

Update (12:30pm): Police try­ing to break com­mu­ni­ty block­ade in Bal­combe. Chil­dren cry­ing! More peo­ple need­ed!

Update (11:30am): Camp is grow­ing and atmos­phere is great. Come on down if you can!

Update (9:45am): Increase in police num­bers at site. More peo­ple here would be use­ful.

Update (9:00am): Com­mu­ni­ty block­ade of site going strong. Camp up and run­ning. Come on down!

Cuadrilla Tanker With Escort; Not Wel­come In Bal­combe

Cuadrilla Machin­ery Try­ing To Smash Up Block­ade

Res­i­dents Arrest­ed For Defend­ing Sus­sex From Frack­ing

 

 

 

 

   

 
 

Com­mu­ni­ty Block­ade Of Frack­ing Site Entrance

Police Try­ing To Break Com­mu­ni­ty Block­ade For Cuadrilla

Camp Is Grow­ing Out­side Frack­ing Site

Local Res­i­dents Block Entrance To Cuadrilla’s Frack­ing Site

Camp Up And Run­ning; Peo­ple Tired But Hap­py

The Great Gas Gala!

From 7am on Thurs­day (25th) Cuadrilla Resource’s site has been closed by a com­mu­ni­ty block­ade. We will be con­verg­ing again in Bal­combe in Sus­sex for The Great Gas Gala!

From 7am on Thurs­day (25th) Cuadrilla Resource’s site has been closed by a com­mu­ni­ty block­ade. We will be con­verg­ing again in Bal­combe in Sus­sex for The Great Gas Gala! DAY TWO tomor­row (Fri 26th). Come along and shield the Weald at a com­mu­ni­ty-led car­ni­val of anti-frack­ing rev­el­ry!

All are warm­ly invit­ed to join Bal­combe Vil­lage in a clear demon­stra­tion of front-line pro­tec­tion against those that threat­en us and our envi­ron­ment.

You’ll be want­i­ng to pack a par­ty-bag in advance so you’ll be ready when the time comes. Imag­ine being the only one at the par­ty with­out a cos­tume. Only jok­ing, you won’t be allowed in if you’re not in fan­cy dress. No that’s not true either. This is a com­mu­ni­ty-led event and is open to all!

Bal­combe is only a 25 min­utes train-ride north of Brighton, and 39 min­utes south from Lon­don. Some but not all trains on the Brighton – Lon­don line stop at Bal­combe. Trains run every hour from Brighton and Lon­don Bridge and it is also pos­si­ble to catch trains from Lon­don Vic­to­ria, usu­al­ly chang­ing at East Croy­don. See the map page for direc­tions to the site, which is a 5 minute walk from Bal­combe Sta­tion.

Free Bus from Brighton to Bal­combe – 7am (Fri 26th) Old Steine bus stop (near RBS). Space for 50+

If you’re dri­ving and have space, please con­tact info@greatgasgala.org.uk to offer a lift!

Things to bring:

Essen­tial – water, food and warm/waterproof clothes, sun pro­tec­tion.

Rec­om­mend­ed –
Pic­nics, cakes, water, tea-mak­ing facil­i­ties, warm/waterproof clothes, friends, ban­ners, games, music, instru­ments, Knit­ting (yel­low and black – gas­field free com­mu­ni­ty colours!), blan­kets, chairs, tables, Gaze­bos, small tents, plas­tic cutlery/plates. You get the pic­ture.

Things not to bring:

Alco­hol, drugs, any­thing which could be con­strued as a weapon, glass etc.

Take Note!:

The Great Gas Gala! will be a clear demon­stra­tion of com­mu­ni­ty pro­tec­tion against the threat of harm to our health and envi­ron­ment posed by the frack­ing indus­try. The indus­try is sup­port­ed by the state and there­fore there will almost cer­tain­ly be a police-pres­ence. Know your rights and don’t be intim­i­dat­ed. The Gala will be an inclu­sive, friend­ly space. We won’t be bul­lied.

See you at the Gala, it’ll be a gas!

 

Ongoing Blockade Of Fracking Site In Sussex

Entance Of Fracking Site Blocked

Frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla Resources are try­ing to start drilling in Bal­combe, West Sus­sex and the com­mu­ni­ty is try­ing to stop them.

Entance Of Fracking Site Blocked

Frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla Resources are try­ing to start drilling in Bal­combe, West Sus­sex and the com­mu­ni­ty is try­ing to stop them.

Update (2:45pm): Begin­ning to look like Bal­combe 1 – Cuadrilla 0. Thoughts are turn­ing to Day 2 of block­ade!

Update (12:45pm): Now over 250 peo­ple at site. Come down and join the par­ty!

Update (10:45am): Large crowd. Truck isn’t going any­where. Come on down!

Update (9:45am): Gaze­bos are up. Gala set­tling in for long haul. Come on down!

Update (9:00am): Great Gas Gala going strong. Trucks now backed up all through the vil­lage.

Update (8:30am): Great Gas Gala is well under­way. A truck tring to deliv­er equip­ment is being blocked from enter­ing the frack­ing site. Num­bers are grow­ing.

Pho­tos of evolv­ing block­ade at Cuadrilla Resources frack­ing site in Bal­combe, Sus­sex. Around 250 peo­ple, truck immo­bilised out­side site, seems to have mys­te­ri­ous­ly devel­oped fault with brakes. Gaze­bos up, legal brief­ing for locals, anoth­er truck stopped in vil­lage. Anoth­er 15 more trucks were due today. Now seems unlike­ly any will get on. Cuadrilla had want­ed to be up and drilling by week­end.

 

Large Number Of People Blockng Entrance
Large Num­ber Of Peo­ple Block­ng Entrance

Atmosphere Relaxed At Present
Atmos­phere Relaxed At Present

Camp Being Set Up
Camp Being Set Up

Faulty Brakes On Truck
Faulty Brakes On Truck

Police Hanging Back For Now
Police Hang­ing Back For Now


Cuadrilla have tem­po­rary plan­ning per­mis­sion to drill at site in Bal­combe. Per­mis­sion expires in Sep­tem­ber and drilling will take at least 6 weeks so any sig­nif­i­cant delays could scup­per their plans. They are explor­ing for tight (shale) oil, and the Kim­mer­age Clay shale lay­er they are tar­get­ing is sim­i­lar to the Bakken Shale in North Dako­ta. Full scale pro­duc­tion would involve thou­sands of wells, pipelines and com­pres­sor sta­tions coat­ing the Sus­sex coun­try­side. This is before you get to water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, air pol­lu­tion and accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change. See  http://frack-off.org.uk/latest-news-from-the-great-gas-gala/ for updates