Now no one can believe what the fracking companies say
Now no one can believe what the fracking companies say
By Jamie Kelsey-Fry
Tim Evanson under a Creative Commons Licence
A few weeks ago, someone who works for a fracking industry told me that one fracking company is spending $800,000 a month on promoting the idea of fracking in Britain. He said that this was not a lot of money for the company.
Then the Sun newspaper again attacked those who are against fracking. They attacked Lord Cowdray, who has worked with Frack Free Fernhurst and Greenpeace to stop the company Celtique from drilling. He used the very good Wrongmove idea. You go to the Wrongmove website (http://www.wrongmove.org/) and type in your postcode to see if there is a possibility of drilling in your area. You can then sign a petition against fracking. You usually have to pay to read the Sun’s online articles but the article which says fracking is good is free! Then the Sun asked readers to sign a petition calling for Britain to ‘frack to the future’. The last time the Sun had a pro-fracking campaign, it called a vote. The result was 52 per cent against fracking in Britain, so the vote was quickly closed. And the Sun made the results seem positive.
What do public relations (PR) companies do when they are trying to find ways to make fracking seem a good idea to the public? They tried saying that fracking will create jobs and make fuel cheaper. But the fracking industry itself showed that both ideas are wrong. The fracking company said that fracking is safe and a proven technology but the Advertising Standards Authority told them they could not say that.
So what did PR companies do next? Money! They thought that one per cent of the money could go to the local communities. And they could give each community $160,000 and cut the business rates as well. But the British people and some local authorities saw these as bad ideas. There is also now the possibility that fracking will have an effect on on the value of people’s homes and the cost of their home insurance.
What we need to make the change to sustainable, green energy is strong politicians. We need leaders who look 5 years, 20 years, 50 years into the future. We need leaders who are not afraid to stop the power that fossil fuel companies have in the government. We need leaders who will forget old business models. We need leaders who will think about unpopular ideas like reducing energy use.
The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will soon need 300% more energy. If that continues around the world, it will be the end of our chance to survive climate change. It is obvious to everyone who agrees with the ideas of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that we must take action now. But this is something that an economic system based on continuing growth cannot agree with.
In 1961 US President John F Kennedy gave his famous speech promising that he would put a man on the moon by 1970. It was the beginning of space travel and, scientifically, this seemed impossible. But he was a man of vision, he had the nation behind him and he had the power to encourage new ideas and science to do something that would be good for the world and not for business profits.
With the right leaders and a change from old business ideas, we can survive. We can move away from fossil-fuel use and use energy systems that are green and clean. This will make a future for our children. But if we do nothing and believe the fracking companies and the Sun , we will leave a terrible situation for the future. It’s time to change the way we think.
Follow Jamie Kelsey-Fry on Twitter: @jamiekelseyfry
Jamie is also part of the Talk Fracking collective which can be followed at: @talkfracking
As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://newint.org/blog/2014/03/27/fracking-spin-machine/#sthash.Hcu