Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
On March 1st, almost 1,000 people, supported by over 100 community organizations, marched through the streets of LA Harbor to launch the coast-to-coast Great March for Climate Action. To demonstrate the political will for a healthy planet, SoCal Climate Action Coalition 350 prioritized six urgent climate-change-focused requests of local, state and global level elected legislative decision makers.
The latest target of the unconventional oil craze is California hydraulic fracturing (fracking) the Monterey Shale in the central and southern parts of the state. With wildly optimistic predictions of an economic bonanza, the oil is carbon-intensive, requires massive amounts of fresh water, creates industrial pollution and seismic risk, and is impossible to regulate effectively because of significant scientific unknowns.
Since June of 2013 the Elsipogtog First Nation community, in New Brunswick, Canada, has gathered on Highway 11 to protest the seismic testing being conducted by a subsidiary of Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. Since that time, several violent clashes between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and First Nation people have erupted. AlJazeera’s “Fault Lines” went to Mi’kmaq territory, to find out what happens when a First Nation says no to fracking.
The boom in North Dakota shale oil and the growth in Alberta tar sands, as well as the political costs of building pipelines has encouraged a move to ship more oil by rail. The move comes after high-profile disasters and the threat of massive climate disruption has caused heightened scrutiny of unconventional oil shipped by train to the global market.
Lauren Steiner writes on California’s insufficient move to regulate fracking with SB 4, sponsored by State Representative Fran Pavley: “Worse than having no regulations, weak regulations provide political cover to legislators who could otherwise be pressured to vote for a moratorium on the practice.” Tell Fran Pavley to withdraw her bad regulatory bill and fight for a fracking ban instead!
Despite what you’ve heard about natural gas being clean, fracking also contributes to climate change. Although the burning of the gas is clean, the process of fracking releases so much methane into the air, that if all the shale in California is fracked, it will delay the implementation of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, by 80 years.
The dirty water produced from fracking has triggered a gold rush among water-treatment companies, with the private water industry profiting while downplaying its environmental, public health and economic risks.