Drilling ‘high risk’ say EU’s scientists - Community - Blackpool Gazette

Drilling ‘high risk’ say EU’s scientists - Community - Blackpool Gazette

9/10

Change the nature of a day
Arc time the other way
Cease the reports
Rewind, retract, contort
The hands on the clock
Make them stop.
Hold the calendar on this page
Let 9/10 forever stay
All ghosts returned
To bodies unburned
All tears un-cried
None survived
A catastrophe that didn’t occur.
9/11’s not a word
We are still innocent
180,000 living souls still ignorant
Of the death that could have come
If some atrocity had been done
On some date not yet happened
That would have led us to attack them
And $437bn would not be allocated
For costs to the "war on terror” related
Instead Make Poverty History
Could have had $375bn maybe
That is needed to clear the debts
Of the world's poorest nations we have yet
To fulfil promises once made
In a once upon a time G8
Ali Abbas would be able to clap
At 12 years old he liked that
Along with the chance to throw a ball
Roll up his sleeves and see all
Of his arms that would no longer be
If the page turns to a day of misery
But on this day that will remain
Orphans unmade by parents sustained
Cindy Sheehan is ironing with a smile
Knowing that Casey will be home in a while
Women at work and kitchen sinks
Have never heard of Code Pink
Petitions unwritten, marches un-walked
Politicians on other subjects talk
People go to work at the towers
The skyline still has an awesome power
Its profile complete, no parts that gape
No holes in sight on familiar landscape
Twins, in tact, in sight, in view
Populated by so many who
Will be going home tonight
Everyday husbands, lovers, wives.
And all our soldiers are in training camps
Or deployed to familiar lands
Not statistics from Iraq
Or gone to Afghanistan without coming back
Our phone calls reach only one set of ears
Our media doesn’t spoon feed us on fear
Just hold on tight for a moment
And a moment more
So that now, can still be
…the day before.

...........................................

Written in 2006

EU study sparks regulation debate over ‘high-risk’ shale gas | EurActiv

EU study sparks regulation debate over ‘high-risk’ shale gas | EurActiv

Important study into shale gas by EU:
snip

"Tough new regulations could be slapped on the shale gas industry if the EU acts upon legislative and environmental failings identified in its most comprehensive analysis yet of the sector, due to be released today [7 September].

Shale gas drilling poses a ‘high risk’ to human health and the environment that is worse than that posed by other fossil fuels, according to a 300-page report prepared by the EU's environment directorate. It is also currently unregulated. "

Geocities-izer - Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996

Think I just discovered a new type of nostalgia - we have come so far, so fast and this feels like ancient history. Witnessing the birth of the internet and watching it evolve - makes this a great time to be alive:

Geocities-izer - Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996

A Scorecard For This Summer’s Bank Scandals - ProPublica

A Scorecard For This Summer’s Bank Scandals - ProPublica

Press Release - Fracking

Today's press release; written in response to a shale gas mining company's application to start horizontal drilling in our community.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

RAFF   

 www.stopfyldefracking.org.uk

Press Release

RESIDENTS ACTION ON FYLDE FRACKING
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   -   9am, August 23, 2012

Organising Opposition to

Fracking in the Fylde

Following this week’s announcement by shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources that it will be launching a planning application to begin drilling horizontally at its Westby site in Lancashire, local residents’ groups are planning further actions to raise awareness of risks and rally opposition. 

Tina Rothery of Residents Action on Fylde Fracking (RAFF) said: “At meetings across the region, we have heard the deep concern of residents over the risks this form of gas exploitation poses to communities. Horizontal drilling at Anna’s Road is another step in the wrong direction that is certain to fuel further (justifiable) fears.”

RAFF has set up an ‘Information Point’ in Ansdell in order to assist local residents with access to a broad range of anecdotal and research information and provide the opportunity for those affected to find out how they can engage in opposition activities.

Cuadrilla’s hydraulic fracturing of the Bowland Shale (‘fracking’) in order to extract shale gas remains suspended while the firm awaits the outcome of a Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) investigation.

Miss Rothery added: “The ‘fracking’ part of shale gas exploitation is still suspended and with good reason; the risks have not been adequately explored. The seismic danger already evident from last year’s earthquakes though, is just one risk aspect; the potential contamination of our water supplies, the change to an industrial landscape, the harm to human and animal health from methane emissions and the long-term effects are what residents talk about.”

Other opposition groups too have expressed concern about the application to drill horizontally with the Green Party, Friends of the Earth, Ribble Estuary Against Fracking, Frack Free Fylde and others reacting to the news this week.

Francis Egan, Cuadrilla’s CEO, said: “I don’t think drilling horizontally will affect people. We have chosen this site (to drill horizontally) because it is reasonably far from urban areas and it’s a good place to do it without causing too much fuss.”

Miss Rothery says: “Mr Egan’s statement that he ‘doesn’t THINK’ the horizontal drilling will affect people is ridiculous. Of course it will affect the community not only with the work itself but because it is clear that even though this industry is not properly regulated, it is going ahead.”

“We urge the LCC to consider this application and its implications very carefully and then reject it until risk assessments for health and environment are undertaken. We also urge all concerned residents to attend the public meeting about the new well on Tuesday, September 4 between 5pm and 8.30pm in the function room at Pipers Height Caravan Park, on Peel Road.”

Fylde Council’s Technical Adviser, Mike Hill also spoke this week and expressed his disappointment with shale gas drilling monitoring plans by government bodies. Mr Hill says he is worried by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) plans to split the duty and says neither body is carrying out sufficient on-site monitoring.

“The people I am talking to in London are very well paid by us to protect us, I expect them to do that and they are not. What is missing in the UK is monitoring and that has to be in place.”

DECC is the government body with overall responsibility for fracking and are set to decide whether to give Cuadrilla Resources the go-ahead to resume drilling. The HSE takes charge of workers’ safety, but Mr Hill claims neither body is carrying out sufficient on-site monitoring.

The RAFF Information Point is being held every Thursday between 12-2pm at:  29 Woodlands Road, FY8 4EP (next to Kelly’s Newsagent’s) .

ENDS
--x--

Scriptonite Daily - News and Views From Here, There and Everywhere: You Don’t Have To Be a Rape Apologist to Have Conc...

Scriptonite Daily - News and Views From Here, There and Everywhere: You Don’t Have To Be a Rape Apologist to Have Conc...: The recent days of the Julian Assange case have seen the biggest diplomatic incident since the Iraq War.

"The largest group I’ve encountered – though you won’t hear much from them over the hysterical screaming of the others - is a group who say simply this: These allegations are serious and need to be answered.  However, we do not trust the US government or our own not to a) have set up this whole thing, or b) to capitalise on it by extraditing him to US and taking out Wikileaks."