Frack Off is a grassroots
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
campaign aimed at stopping the extraction of
unconventional resources in the UK, specifically concentrating on
unconventional gas extraction.
History
Frack Off began with a campaign against the use of hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as
fracking for
shale gas extraction with a banner drop from
Blackpool Tower on 6 August 2011, which also launched the website www.frack-off.org.uk.
On 2 November 2011, the Frack Off activists stormed
Cuadrilla Resources' drilling site at Banks in Lancashire at 5:30am and four activists scaled the drilling rig and dropped banners. The action was timed to coincide with an industry conference, the Shale Gas Environmental Summit, in London and the release of an independent report commissioned by Cuadrilla Resources which said that its fracking in Lancashire may have triggered two small earthquakes. Fracking later resumed, after changes to reduce the risk.
Frack Off jointly organised "Camp Frack" with
Campaign against Climate Change in March 2012. The camp was a weekend event with anti-fracking activists from around the UK coming together with local people from around
Lancashire where test drilling for
fracking is most advanced in the UK. Camp Frack was attended by around 150 people and consisted of workshops around education, sustainable living, movement building and
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
.
The Camp culminated in a march to the drilling site where Cuadrilla is currently drilling for
shale gas.
Since then the campaign has broadened out to a campaign against
coal bed methane
Coalbed methane (CBM or coal-bed methane), coalbed gas, coal seam gas (CSG), or coal-mine methane (CMM) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Au ...
and
underground coal gasification too.
In summer 2013, the organization was involved in the
Balcombe drilling protest
The Balcombe drilling protest occurred when test drilling and possible fracking for petroleum were proposed in 2012 near Balcombe, a village in West Sussex England. Local residents protested and anti-fracking environmentalists in the UK made ...
near
Balcombe
Balcombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east north east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the north west and H ...
in the
Weald Basin in
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
where Cuadrilla was engaged in oil exploration.
See also
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Anti-fracking movement
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Environmental direct action in the United Kingdom
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Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
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Extinction Rebellion
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Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
Fracking in the United Kingdom started in the late 1970s with fracturing of the conventional oil and gas fields near the North Sea. It was used in about 200 British onshore oil and gas wells from the early 1980s. The technique attracted ...
References
External links
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{{Portal bar, Society, United Kingdom, Environment, Energy, Global warming
Protests in the United Kingdom
Anti-fracking movement
Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
Direct action
Environmental protests in the United Kingdom