Wednesday Women's Call for Calm

Addressing those impacted by Blackpool's fracking-induced earthquakes (fear, concern or damage) who are perhaps uncomfortable about becoming or joining "protesters". I have actively protested against fracking for years and know many feel unsure how to now join (as I did when I first got involved).

EVERYONE is welcome and every current protester - was just a resident somewhere, the day before too. I discovered a while back that women particularly found it more difficult to find their place in this and were not always comfortable joining demonstarations etc. so we set up Nanashire and on Wednesdays (107 of them so far!) - women gather and walk together to the Cuadrilla fracking site to hold a 15 minute silence, share concerns, share food, sing, dance and create a space each week that feels more calm and safe.

As 'Nanas' we take part in outreach events and meetings across the country as well as being at the site here regularly... if anyone would like to join us, please do message me or the page - or simply arrive at the fracking site on any Wednesday from around 10:45 am ...or better still, meet up at Maple Farm Community Hub (Nr. World of Water PR43PE & just 15 mn walk to site) at 10am and walk together.

Next Women's Call for Calm: https://www.facebook.com/events/708320446258021/

Repeating Patterns & Blueprints for: Causing Harm Without Consequence

(*spoiler: complicate public avenues for complaint, bury complaints, lose complaints... smother valid research with paid-for reports, manipulate perception by using those paid-for reports as standard reference in Press... belittle complainants, demonise protest... under-fund and under-resource Regulators so they are ineffective, put reporting responsibility in hands of industry itself, put more money into politics and legal cases than any residents can, instigate procedures that take time and succeed in nothing more than pacifying worried residents +++)

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Was reading about regulators etc and ended up in all sorts of places during the research... strange thing was though that so many of the research routes covered similar landscapes of process ...complete with repeating landmarks on all the horizons of an industry's journey into our communities.

Our world contains so many preventable harms we've not known or seen; it wasn't till I unravelled the processes involved in just one (fracking) that I come to realise it is essentially a replica and there's a sort-of blueprint for getting away with causing harm - and avoiding consequences.

Today I'm reading and seeing the basic pattern that is shared between just two stories - Fracking & Pig Manure (article ink at end). Take this snippet for example and spot the patterns with whatever environmentally damaging industry you're looking into:

[The Regulator told Mr Burdette that the images were inadequate proof. “They were basically saying, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’” he said. “They can’t stand behind evidence collected by somebody else.” Nor did they have funds to do their own surveys. For evidence, the Regulator said it could only review the company's self-reported logs. And in November when Burdette and others followed up, they say all public traces of their complaints had disappeared.

For years, residents say, regulators shielded the identities of polluters, burying public complaints against them and leaving those who lived nearby with few avenues for redress. The Industry Council, in a 2019 letter to the Regulator, said the “relatively minimal number of violations” in the state signalled “a robust and working regulatory system”.

As the industry grew, the state legislature protected it in numerous ways, even barring counties from restricting industry during the key expansion years. But lawmakers couldn’t ignore the mounting waste, particularly when it polluted waterways.

A study published by the Medical Journal concluded that families living nearby saw higher rates of infant mortality and deaths from anaemia, kidney disease, and tuberculosis.

The industry insists that health concerns are exaggerated. “We don’t think these types of symptoms or things are going on in the communities where we do business,” a Director said in a deposition in reference to an older study that had found increased depression, anger, and confusion among neighbours... “There are studies that can say almost anything,” he added.

In 2014 they passed a law keeping complaints filed with the state environmental agency confidential unless the department “determines that a violation has occurred”. A State representative said the provision was designed to protect industry from false accusations.

The Regulator interpreted the law to require disclosure of a complaint only when there’s a formal violation notice or penalty, which the agency has historically been loth to initiate. “We believe [that] if they find a violation of the permit, they just tell the operator, ‘Hey, this doesn’t look right. You need to address it” said the Managing Attorney.

Feeling unprotected by regulator, residents living nearby have turned to the courts, with more than two dozen lawsuits by more than 500 plaintiffs. Others looked to the machinery of government to hold the Regulator accountable. The Council described the complaints as part of a “coordinated, multi-pronged attack on the industry”.

Investigators visited and interviewed more than 60 neighbours. The residents described strong stenches that made them gag, vomit, and lock themselves indoors. Several also mentioned keeping silent, because “for more than 15 years, the government has been well aware of the conditions they have to live with, but has done nothing to help, so complaining would be futile,” Those who did complain reported “threats, intimidation, and harassment” by the industry.

The Regulator declined to comment when asked if it had adopted a more aggressive policy. Advocates describe a “bunker mentality” at the agency – a fear of appearing too proactive. For example, the Regulator missed its own deadline for creating the mapping tool. It then said the tool was “educational” and “not intended for regulatory purposes”.

“What the hell good is a community-mapping programme if it’s not going to slow down the degradation?”]
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Linkto Pig Farming piece that shows the similarities to fracking when dealing with harm to community and avoiding liability: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/27/it-smells-like-a-decomposing-body-north-carolinas-polluting-pig-farms

Choosing Battles...

In my head I hear my mum saying: "Choose your battles wisely..."

Since 2011 I have had one target...one red light in the distance that commands my attention and forces me to not waver or lose focus because when I do... I get lost in lesser things. There is quite literally a war on right here, right now – a war for reason, justice and truth: the very nature of the planet we rely on for every breath we take… is under attack and countless species extinctions forewarn that we too, are a fragile species and entirely dependent on the gifts of nature that sustains us.

Pollution, poisons and toxins are in our water, our oceans, our farmed fields and our air – nature’s ability to mitigate for the greed and industrialisation that’s at the root of this, is not going to be able to cope and maintain the balance needed for us to survive – if we don’t join her in the battle and force power to shift from the dangerous hands of those currently wielding it.

Right now, the ‘power’ is clearly with some greedy beast of a thing lying at the heart of the system of government and masquerading (quite badly) as 'democracy' - I can't describe it but it entertains industry/finance/business lobbyists ..like much-adored family and is deaf to 'we the people'.

It sells weapons to dangerous customers and turns its head when the collateral damage is counted in dead children.

It grips the controls of society and holds-fast to a fossilised past that fills its pockets and pleases its mates… favours, wealth and status pave over the cracks beneath their feet on a dying landscape.

It is old, blind, drunk on foolish pride and ignorant of reality… too puffed up to realise how small we all really are as a species.. in time.. in this beautiful, threatened place.

Deep inside me, a fermented, bubbling rage has been growing and I see it as precious and dangerous – not to be wasted on anything less than the intended target; I’m holding it back where I can – especially in the face of minor squabbles and tousles – this is vintage and for the bigger beasts that are fucking up a future for an entire planet's children ❤

Battles are a sad necessity in an unjust world ...but some battles are pointless and harmful in that they steal our energy/emotions/hearts and even our ability to then go on... the day-to-day calls to battle, to roll about with pigs or play fisticuffs with clowns… are beneath our honourable and urgent purpose. I do get my battle choices wrong… fail a lot and inadvertently drip-waste my rage on other matters and things but I’m learning little by little mum x

Fractured lives...

Unsettled, off-centre, unfocused and shaken... Cuadrilla and other frackers have abolutely no idea what happens to the humans where they drill. How our lives are impacted in a million ways at every stage of their destructive business. Lost time, joy consumed by worry... good times lost to research, online rebukes and challenges to obnoxious, uncaring, inhuman PR accounts that belittle and insult us.

Days spent trying to reason with police not to harm us, not to hinder us and begging (bloody on our knees) for some human right that would permit an outlet to this raging ball of venom building at the injustice and lunacy of this situation.

There's pollution/toxins/poisons threatening our very existence as a species - we've lost so many already to extinction and yet each day we rise to witness those with the power to stop the damage - drilling for more fossil fuels right here right now. Elsewhere a frozen north is on fire and the Amazon looks like hades... oceans are dying places of bleached coral and depleted marine life... our air in London is on the death certificate of an 8 year old girl.

THIS is an asylum and the dangerous ones are in charge - how does this change??? How do we wrestle control back into the hands of the wise?

Unnatural - it's all so bloody unnatural and positively murderous/suicidal.

Who is Protecting the Children?

Peaceful, non-violent protest - I had never imagined it would be defined down to standing with a banner and tying ribbons. With lives literally at stake... what next? What do those in authority think happens when you prevent parents protecting their children from a clear, obvious, proven danger?

In whose hands do we trust the lives of generations to come? We're not fools - we see the corruption of the powerful, the greed of industry, the abuse of power by authorities who use our resources to supress us and make us pay for our own demise...

Lancs police as always in abundance at the command of 'authority' to shut down the cries for help of a community at risk. Meanwhile - UNDER-policing puts their fellow officers at risk! Meanwhile the bill to our local council who can least afford it - runs to millions and our rates rise to cover it.

What now? The Climate Emergency is a bloody emergency and the government are fracking Lancashire - digging deep and scraping out more fossil fuel that we can never burn if we're to survive.

But hey - arrest that mother/father/grandpa because they swore in frustration at a protest or dared to attempt to protect their families/communities/species!

Who will save us when those in the position to - refuse to take this seriously?

The softer down of human kindness...

You know that place you go where it’s only when

someone then asks ‘how it goes’

...that all is lost in weeping and woes?

That place that teeters on the edge of tears

on the edge of fears

on the edge of where it’s safe to be

...that place inside,

ready to fall

deep and hard

into an abyss of the small

things that silently piled up in the corner

un-noticed, unseen, unacknowledged

till it towered to fall...

under the feathered touch of human kindness.

It's been harder than usual these past few weeks

where rage displaced so much else that would be more comfortably felt.

...

The human kindness of a dear friend – whose answer to my sobs and unclarity was
“I have no idea and don’t need to – stay there, I’m coming to get you. I’ll give you space and feed you.” And with that.. the silky landing of genuine, honest, well-intentioned words... I stopped falling.

I’m not back yet from the gloom of it all...
I’ve broken a bit ...and that bit's

still lost in the absolute despair

of knowing that what should be

-isn’t

what could be

-is so far out of reach

and what is

… is so far from good for us, it’s killing us.

Losers Win..

How do we change politics? We have to because those in the driving seat are taking us off a cliff and have us strapped out of the way and unable to have any impact or say on the route we're taking...

...but THEY have control and we can't just go on accepting this - especially at this crucial point in history.

Every election - nothing really changes because it's the faulty system that gives us the governments we end up with. First Past the Post voting (FPTP) is ridiculous and unrepresentative of the majority - the majority of the time. ie: if Conservatives win say 37% of vote and take government - that means 63% of us (and that's only those who actually voted) did NOT get what we chose. Ludicrous system.

There is another way - in fact a host of other ways. Ways that would see our votes matter and for the choice not to always end up being Red or Blue. FPTP is a 2-party system and neither of those parties will seek to change it - because they lose their 50/50 chance of winning. If either genuinely cared about actual democracy - they would make change for the best outcome for the people - not their Party.

Another shocker is how many or few votes it takes to get an MP into government - it all depends on Party/Seat!! The following:
[In the 2015 general election, it took 34,000 votes to elect a single Conservative MP, but 300,000 votes to elect a Liberal Democrat MP, 1.2 million votes to elect a Green MP, and 3.9 million votes to elect a single UKIP MP.]

This truly sucks as a way to get our views/concerns/wishes heard - but is ideal if you want to contain power in the hands of the few and not the many.

The following link takes you to an enlightening little video how a Citizens' Assembly can work to enhance the political system - and did in Ireland on the issue of abortion. The politicians there didn't want to deal with it at election time as they'd lose votes from one side or the other - so it was not dealt with but needed to be. A Citizens' Assembly was trialled and no-one expected it to work so well... but it did and could again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjpuDk9_BWI

And for further understanding of voting systems in the UK: https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/