Frack Off
{{short description |British anti-fracking campaign}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Frack Off
| logo =
| founded_date = 2011
| founder =
| location = British Isles
| focus = Environmental protection
| method = Direct action
| homepage = {{URL|frack-off.org.uk}}
}}
Frack Off is a grassroots direct action 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-14431512 |title=Anti-fracking protesters target Blackpool Tower |work=BBC News| publisher=BBC |date=6 August 2011 |accessdate=4 March 2012}}{{cite web|last=Melley |first=James |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15021328 |title=New groups protest at shale gas |work= BBC News| publisher=BBC |date=28 September 2011 |accessdate=4 March 2012}}
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.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/02/fracking-protesters-storm-shale-gas-site|title=Fracking protesters storm shale gas exploration site |publisher=guardian.co.uk |date=2 November 2011|accessdate=10 June 2012}} Fracking later resumed, after changes to reduce the risk.{{cite web|last=Harrabin |first=Roger |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20707574 |title=Gas fracking: Ministers approve shale gas extraction |work=BBC News|publisher=BBC |date=13 December 2012 |accessdate=13 December 2012}}
Frack Off jointly organised "Camp Frack" with Campaign against Climate Change in March 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.campaigncc.org/campfrack |title=Camp Frack |publisher=Campaign against Climate Change |date= 24 June 2011|accessdate=4 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. The Camp culminated in a march to the drilling site where Cuadrilla is currently drilling for shale gas.{{cite web|author=UK |url=http://www.newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2011/09/19/nick-harvey-fracking-protest/ |title=Fracking hell |work=New Internationalist |publisher= |date= 19 September 2011|accessdate=4 March 2012}}
Since then the campaign has broadened out to a campaign against coal bed methane and underground coal gasification too.{{Cite web|url=http://frack-off.org.uk/coal-bed-methane-the-evil-twin-of-shale-gas/|title = Coal Bed Methane: The Evil Twin of Shale Gas}}{{cite web|url=http://frack-off.org.uk/underground-coal-gasification-hellfire-and-damnation/|title=Underground Coal Gasification: Hellfire and Damnation|publisher=}}
In summer 2013, the organization was involved in the Balcombe drilling protest near Balcombe in the Weald Basin in Sussex where Cuadrilla was engaged in oil exploration.{{cite web|title=Fracking In Balcombe: A Community Says No|url=http://frack-off.org.uk/fracking-in-balcombe-a-community-says-no/|accessdate=17 August 2013|website=Frack Off|date=19 June 2013|author=radix}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Official website|frack-off.org.uk}}
{{Portal bar|Society|United Kingdom|Environment|Energy|Global warming}}
Category:Protests in the United Kingdom
Category:Anti-fracking movement