Act now!

We can act now to stop more fracking in East Yorkshire. Time is running out for Crawberry Hill planning extension.

Anyone can add their comments to this process. If you care about your environment then you can add your thoughts to this important process.

From Frack Free East Yorkshire:

Rathlin was granted Planning Permission for exploratory work at Crawberry Hill for 2 years, rather than the usual 3 years, due to the sensitive nature of the site.  This runs out on 5th November 2014.

However Rathlin have failed to complete their 3 tests, and have applied for another 2 years.

This Planning Application is NOW OPEN FOR CONSULTATION until Thurs 11th Sept.

Summary

• Read the Planning Statement (the application) and make your own notes on issues

Planning Application Summary 14/02622/STVAR  >  Associated Documents  >  Planning Statement

• Check the guidance on how to send in your views – don’t undermine your impact by straying from “material considerations”.
• It may be wise to wait awhile to gauge the outcome of current serious issues after the mini-frac at West Newton; East Riding will need to demonstrate they have learned any lessons.
• You don’t need to cover all the concerns highlighted in this guidance which identifies most but not all the relevant issues; you may have important concerns of your own and should share them with the Council.
• The oil industry refers to “social license”. In other words if you decide it is not worth writing in it will be assumed you support the proposal. Even if it is only a short letter it is worth making your views known.
• The proposed extension is a key move in the national drive to exploit oil and gas at a time when the rest of the world, notably China, Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain are making rapid moves towards renewables. It is hard to see how we can move towards a low carbon economy by investing in exploration for more oil and gas.
• Please do register your concerns and encourage other residents and businesses in the East Riding and Hull to do so – we will all suffer, and have to pay, if our water supplies are compromised.

Go now and register your feelings with the planning office.

Save UK Park lands

Britain’s treasured national parks could become drilling sites in a recent move by the government to open them up to fracking by big oil companies. It’s part of a wider government plan inviting oil companies to apply for licenses to drill for oil all across the UK — and about half the country is up for grabs.

The current process to get a licence to drill for oil in the UK is long and relatively robust, but Minister for Energy Matthew Hancock wants to speed up the process so companies can start drilling with six months of making an application.

And we all know what that means: cut corners and bad decisions.Unfortunately, once our national parks have been desecrated by fracking, there’s no coming back.

An Ohio disaster coming to the UK?

Save Our Parkland From Fracking Devastation.

Ohio firefighters battled this blaze for an entire week. Before they managed to fully extinguish it, the fire caused some 30 explosions that rained shrapnel over the surrounding area; 20 trucks on the site caught fire; and tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals — including a toxic soup of diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid, and ethylene glycol — mixed with runoff into the nearby creek, killing an estimated 70,000 fish as far as five miles downstream. State officials physically removed the decomposing remains of more than 11,000 fish and other aquatic life in their efforts to reduce the damage to the waterway.

This could happen here: From Ecocidealert

Drinking Water Threatened
Severe damage to a local creek is troubling enough, but this particular waterway feeds into the Ohio River roughly five miles away where, just another 1.7 miles downstream, a public water intake on the West Virginia side of the river serves local residents.

Tell the government to immediately remove national parks from the list of areas open to fracking operations.

http://action.sumofus.org/a/national-parks-fracking/mtl

Fracking Protest at Cameron’s

From Upstream Online:

UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s country house has been turned into a mock fracturing site as Greenpeace steps up its anti-fracking campaign ahead of the Queen’s speech to Parliament on Wednesday.

Fracking protest at Cameron’s home

Fracking  comes home to roost

The environmental watchdog is protesting against a reform measure set to be brought in by the Queen, as she opens Parliament, that will allow fracking firms to drill under people’s homes without gaining prior permission.

Early on Wednesday morning, a group of protesters descended on Cameron’s constituency home in Oxfordshire, a period cottage in the Cotswold hamlet of Dean, to cordon it off for presumably imaginary drilling operations.

Fracking payoff of £50 per household – A cheap bribe

The protesters in hard hats and high-visability jackets sealed off the properties front gate and erected a sign reading, “We apologise for any inconvenience we may cause while we frack under your home”.

Another group of campaigners is also attempting to deliver a “lottery-style over-sized cheque for £50 [$83] – the maximum compensation ministers are willing to pay to individual home and landowners for allowing companies to drill under their property,” Greenpeace said.

Fracking protest seals off Cameron’s home

REASONS FOR NOT FRACKING IN THE UK

BBC article:

Drilling blamed for Java mud leak

A mud leak that has displaced thousands of Indonesians was most probably caused by drilling for gas, a scientific study into the disaster concludes.

The British-based scientists believe the drilling in East Java ruptured pressurised limestone rock, allowing water and mud to rise to the surface.

They warn thousands of cubic metres of mud a day could continue to spew out for months, if not years, to come.

FRACKING KILLS

From Intellihub:

Colorado Fracking mudslide Kills 3

The recent images of a giant 4-mile long mudslide shown to you on CNN, were not really of a mudslide, says Youtuber
By Staff Writer

WESTERN COLORADO (INTELLIHUB) — “There is no mud in the whole damn thing, there is not even a puddle”, said dutchsinse, a popular environmental investigative Youtuber, referring to a secretive fracking operation that was recently botched.

“I went and verified the area […] ran by DCP […] which they basically have fracked the hell out of the area”, dutchsinse said, continuing to explain how the U.S. government teamed up with Exxon Mobil in the area.

What you have actually been seeing on the news, sold as a 4-mile long mudslide, is not a mudslide, it’s a massive fracking eruption as they have been pumping high amounts of high pressure CO2 into the ground for an extended period of time.

Talks of evacuation have been promoted on CNN, said dutchsinse, despite the fact that there has been no rain or snow pack in the area.

Colorado mudslide caused by fracking

STOP THE MADNESS – Write to your MP

No shale gas potential in Weald

From the Guardian:

Government hopes that Britain can emulate the US by starting a shale-gas revolution have been knocked back after a long-awaited report unexpectedly concluded there was no potential in fracking for gas in the Weald region of southern England.

Anti-Fracking Protest Photograph: Tony Kershaw/Rex

Announcement timed to help Tory votes

The shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex told the Telegraph: “The timing of these announcements will strike many people as cynically and deliberately driven for a day when focus will be on election performance, and ahead of the count of the European elections.”

Friends of the Earth agreed. Its south-east England campaigner Brenda Pollack said: “These latest estimates will set alarm bells ringing across the south-east of England where fracking firms seem intent on punching holes in some of Britain’s most beautiful countryside in the search for profits.

Fracking is a flawed policy

The government’s enthusiasm for fracking sits in stark contrast to its erratic rhetoric and actions on solar energy. The solar industry has recently been ambushed by a fourth review in less than three years. Constant policy upheaval makes investment to reduce costs difficult, and the latest review is particularly ill considered. Usually governments offer a grace period to investors if they are going to change financial arrangements, but this one offers almost none – which means many emerging solar companies that invested in good faith are set for a financial hit. For all the rhetoric about a shift to rooftop solar, the government’s own policy framework actually limits this important market.

Anti-Frackers are many – Cameron needs to listen to the people not his friends in the oil industry. Photograph: David Ellison/Demotix/Corbis

Solar farms can be installed in weeks and then nothing really happens for decades: no noise, no smell, no waste. Yet benign solar farms have been labeled “monstrous” by ministers who have nothing to say about fracking’s “whiff of diesel” or its “thump of compressors that can be sensed up to two miles away” (Lord Howell again). Not to mention the regular heavy truck traffic or intensive water consumption, or the strict regulatory controls needed to prevent methane leaks on which its carbon-saving case depends.

The double standards here are rather extraordinary. The bias is hard to fathom when solar has delivered beyond the expectations of even its greatest advocates. Costs in the UK have dropped 30% in 18 months and large-scale solar is now our second cheapest major renewable energy source. But ministers must understand that they can’t wait for solar energy costs to fall, because most of the costs are not the technology – they are grid connections, infrastructure, planning, skilled staff and other “soft” costs.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

It is time politicians listened a lot less to big polluting international energy companies, and a lot more to British entrepreneurs who are creating real competition and delivering a clean energy revolution through this extraordinarily benign and accessible technology.

They should also listen to the public. The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s own opinion poll tracker shows solar enjoys its highest approval ratings ever at 85%. It seems the country is firmly behind solar. Westminster must catch up.

Write to you MP now and stop this insanity!

350.org is a Movement, You in?

What is 350? From their website:

350.org is building a global climate movement. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are coordinated by a global network active in over 188 countries.

logo

The number 350 means climate safety: to preserve a livable planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm.

Why 350?

Why use the number 350? From their site:

Ready For Renewables NOW!

“Since the beginning of human civilization, our atmosphere contained about 275 ppm of carbon dioxide. That is the planet “on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”

Our Global Target Miss It And We All Die

That’s Dr. James Hansen talking, former head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Hansen is one of the most respected climatologists in the world, and when he says that climate change is incompatible with human civilization, we think human civilization ought to sit up and take notice.

That “350 ppm” is where 350.org gets its name. “PPM” stands for “parts per million,” which is simply a way of measuring the ratio of carbon dioxide molecules to all of the other molecules in the atmosphere. Many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments agree with Dr. Hansen that 350 ppm is the “safe” level of carbon dioxide.

Use the 350.org Map

click on this map to find your local actions

Beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal, gas, and oil to produce energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly. Many of the activities we do every day like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating our homes rely on energy sources that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. We’re taking millions of years worth of carbon, once stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere.

YOU CAN HELP NOW

Find local activities near to you. Start a 350 movement yourself. Use the Map to see whats going on near you.

Do It Today Tomorrow May Be To Late

Building the energy future we need Today

I have posted many blogs in the past about building a renewable energy future today. Today I will show you some of the many places where you can help to support the cause.

Your support is needed to help create our renewable energy future. There is a company called Good Energy here in the UK that is working on renewable energy today.

Good Energy Solar Farm And Wild Flower Meadow

You can help support Good Energy in several ways. Buying your energy from this company can help them gain the money they need to carry on further projects. If your run a business then they can help there too.

Always help support efforts to create new renewable energy projects near you. Here is a link to the Good Energy public consultation schedule. Go to these meetings and support your right to a green and pleasant future.

 The Future is Hydrogen Powered

Right now we have the parts of a renewable energy system. We can put the pieces of the renewable energy puzzle together and make a brighter and cleaner future for all of us.

Building the renewable energy future we need today is as simple as taking the right peices of the puzzle and placing them together.

Solar Energy To Hydrogen

If this is the future, why do we delay and look to outdated ideas? This is where the problem lies.

Corruption and greed are keeping us tied to dirty and dangerous energy

The current power system we have is run by corrupt governments and corporations. This corruptness is used to keep old ideas that are killing us and our planet.

Kurt Cobain On Corruption

Nuclear energy is old and dangerous. Oil is destroying our climate and killing life on earth. Fracking is polluting our water and our land and killing us.

The Wind is free and clean.

The sun is free and clean.

Hydrogen when burned creates water! hydrogen when used to make electricity makes . . . water.

Lets start using our heads and get the corrupt corporations and governments out of the process. Let us take back control of the decisions that matter in energy production and use.

Write to your MP now!

Write to your local council

Write to your representative in Congress and the Senate.

Write to your party Member in Begiing.

Send this blog link to your friends and get them to join the movement!

How to Beat the Blackmailer

It is now clear that putin* is an energy blackmailer. putin* has tried to blackmail the Ukraine into submission. putin* is now trying to blackmail the EU into submission as well.

It is clear that putin* will hold a gun to the head of the EU and Ukraine.

Blackmailer with a GUN

putin* thinks that he can get away with murder. He holds the gas and oil that the EU and Ukraine need to survive.

Renewable energy would take away all putin’s power.

The blackmailer putin* can be neutered by taking away his power. When we the people own the renewable energy systems that drive our economies we own the power.

Using solar power, wind energy, hydro-electric, hydrogen fuel, and the power of the sun, we can neuter putin*. When we take control of the energy we have true democracy. In a democracy there are no bullies like putin*. Bullies who blackmail others are evil and must be put in a corner to chill out.

Desertec is part of the solution – fuel equality from fuel poverty

A Blackmailer wold have a hard time holding all these different power generators.

Desertec Design for our renewable future

The large red square in the lower left of this picture is all the area needed to power the whole world. We do not need the KGB bully putin*. We don’t need his oil or his gas.

When we the people take control of our energy systems we can design a renewable future for us all. We can create a world wide system that helps the people. The blackmailer will wither and die from a lack of power and control of energy.

Write to your MP now and tell them to support the Desertec non-profit energy program today. Join with Desertec today and help them change the world.

*Please note: I have left putin’s name in lower case as a way of showing my contempt for a KGB bully. putin uses his ill gotten oil power to oppress the Russian people and Blackmail the EU and Ukraine. putin is nothing but a petty punk.

Putin’s Crimean Oil Grab

As usual the conflict over the Crimea is about oil. Putin could care less for the  Russian nationals living there.

Putin is an oil oligarch. He takes the Crimea and gains more money and power for his oil empire.

Putin has his own Oil Monopoly in Europe

From Euractiv:

The most startling part of Washington’s sanctions on Russian businessmen loyal to President Vladimir Putin: A single sentence containing an explosive allegation.

‘ Putin himself profits from the world’s No. 4 oil trading company, Gunvor.’ Greedy oil oligarchs and oil barons are killing our planet and getting more powerful every day.

Public ownership is the only way to freedom & Democracy

If the people of Russia owned their oil gas and electricity there would be no Putin! If the People of the Ukraine owned their oil gas and electricity then there would have been no Viktor Yanukovych

When we own the energy systems then there is no corporation or oligarch to dictate how things will be. If we the people have control of these energy resources then we will make the rules.

People choose green renewable energy every time.

We must have new renewable energy systems  to stem the tides of climate change now.

New Jersey Shore Heavily Damaged

Putin and his ilk are the reason that we cannot change from our fossil fuel addiction to green energy.

The people want this change. The people would change if they had the power to do so.

Take back our energy services and let the people create our future.

We can rid ourselves of greedy oligarchs and save our planet with the green energy methods available today. We must take back the energy services everywhere so that we have the power to choose our own path.

We’re led by climate deniers

Excerpts from The Huffington Post:

More than 5,000 properties have been flooded – The army has had to be deployed – clean-up costs could hit £1billion – most exceptional period of rainfall for nearly 250 years AND . . .

The environment secretary is a climate change denier. Yes, Owen Paterson, who was appointed as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs in the “greenest government ever” in September 2012, thinks “we should just accept that the climate has been changing for centuries”. He has said that “the temperature has not changed in the last seventeen years” – despite the fact that 2010 was the hottest year on record, tied with 2005. He once claimed climate change could be positive, too, telling party activities that it “would also lead to longer growing seasons and you could extend growing a little further north into some of the colder areas”.

Our leader is pals with Frackers & Nuclear

David Cameron Likes fracking more than the environment

David Cameron wants to frack here and we are saying NO!

Like Californians, we can see the environmental damage fracking will cause. Earthquakes have already been linked to fracking in the UK. Protests have popped up every where that fracking is considered in England. The Barton-Moss protesters just won a court ruling allowing them to stay and continue their struggle to keep our country free from fracking.

The BBC has published an article which reveals a growing concern over the damage fracking causes to our wildlife:

Fracking has the potential to devastate wildlife habitats across the UK, says research commissioned by leading wildlife and countryside groups.

Which bit of the world are you prepared to lose?

Examination of the IPCC report in The Guardian:

To understand what is happening to the living planet, the great conservationist Aldo Leopold remarked, is to live “in a world of wounds … An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

The rime to act is NOW!

Write to you MP and tell them to switch to a renewable, green, non-nuclear energy policy Now!

Overwhelming climate change

BBC Today: See the Video

There is overwhelming evidence that humans are experiencing the effects of climate change, says a new report.

Unless serious action is taken, this is likely to get worse, with growing risks of floods, food shortages, and threats to human health, warns the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),

BBC News outlines the report’s key points – in 60 seconds.

The human influence on climate change is clear

BBC Article:

The atmosphere and oceans are warming, the snow cover is shrinking, the Arctic sea-ice is melting, sea levels are rising, the oceans are acidifying, some extreme weather events are on the rise, ecosystems and natural habitats will be upset. Climate change threatens food security and world economies.

We need rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions and a move away from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change below two degrees and mitigate these impacts.

Global Warming Can Be Stopped

National Geographic:

In order to stabilize the climate, the transition from fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

All the Technology is here NOW! Lets make the change Today!

Mexico To Replace Coal Plant: With Solar Farm

In La Paz, where pollution from a dirty thermoelectric plant creates noxious air impacting resident’s lifestyles and well being, the solar plant is a welcomed clean development. The $100 million project, which includes 132,000 solar panel-modules, is the first Mexican private enterprise of such a size to get a development bank loan and an agreement to sell its electricity to the grid. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, gave the project a $25 million credit line and also helped set up another $50 million in loans from the Mexican development bank Nacional Financiera (Nafin).

Texas wind is challenging gas power as the new top producer:

Wind power set a new record in Texas last Friday, heralding wind’s growing competitiveness with natural gas.

As CleanTechnica reports, instantaneous output from wind hit an all-time high of 10,296 megawatts for Texas’ main grid operator — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) — at 8:48pm on March 26, 2014. Wind energy generation fluctuates over time, so instantaneous output marks the peaks of the fluctuations rather than the average amount of output that can be expected. As ERCOT’s press release pointed out, at the moment of Friday’s peak, wind energy was contributing almost 29 percent of the 35,768 megawatts being used at the time.

UK needs to step it Up!

Write to your MP now and request a change in policy