Fracking is far from natural

HYDRAULIC fracturing, better known as fracking, is a process in which high-powered machines drill holes into the earth to reach an oil reservoir.

Recently by a group of Greenpeace volunteers who were protesting the Cuadrilla Company drill site in Lancashire were arrested.

Local people have been protesting the new fracking site in Lancashire for years, but the project went ahead, ignoring the protests of the local people.

The charges against the peaceful protesters have been dropped but that is not going to slow them or other environmentally conscious people on their fight against dirty energy.

Fracking has going on in the North Sea for half a century. Not only is this process ugly, but it is linked to multiple earthquakes, reservoirs are at risk of being contaminated. It has been banned in several places because of the environmental impacts.

Fracking corporations have developed rhetoric to convince the global population that fracking is good. They call the oil they drill for “natural gas”.

Do not let the word natural fool you! It is a harmful, chemical-filled process.

Reading about the protests in Lancashire I could not help but think about our beloved coast here in the Newcastle area.

I couldn’t help but think of the ocean having an offshore fracking rig placed in the skyline and the surfers in Tynemouth having to worry about added chemicals in the water from the process.

I stand with the Greenpeace and other local protesters against fracking in Lancashire and I would not hesitate to do the same here. TALON Newcastle