Published on Aug 1, 2013
The industry is drilling an exploratory well in Balcombe, and is planning to drill inside the South Downs National Park near Fernhurst. The initial plans are for conventional drilling, but it is clear that shale gas prospects are being closely examined during this activity.

This video looks at some of the risks of gas exploration and fracking, and their likely impact on local communities and the environment.

It also takes the industry assessment of the size of the prospects, and extrapolates what exploitation of these resources would mean for the South Downs National Park and Sussex, based on US Government figures for the average and optimum performing shale gas plays across the US.
Millie Thedog

Andy Chyba is going to Balcombe next weekend, but exact details depend on who wants to come too!

PROPOSED ITINERARY:

Leave Saturday morning at crack of dawn to get to Sussex between 9 and 10 am.

Get back to South Wales sometime Sunday pm/evening.

TRANSPORT: depends on numbers – anything from three in a Ford Ka to 17 seater minibus(es) depending on demand.
COST – I hope to have travel costs covered, one way or another, but worst case scenario might be £30 a head.

ACCOMMODATION: this is up to you. Looks like camping (for free) is an option, but may have potential issues with ‘the law’ (but I doubt they would dare after recent events). For those that need a proper bed, you may be able to crash with someone (I can ask some contacts down there) or there are hotel/b&b options (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/AllLocations-g790306-c1-Hotels-Balcombe_West_Sussex_England.html) (I will probably spend the night at my father’s house 45 mins away)

Even if you cannot come, have you any banners/posters/flags/t shirts we could borrow for the trip to make us more conspicuous?

I am going to try and secure a 6-seater combo minibus Monday morning. It looks like 4 seats are taken, with two up for grabs. I hope I will have to cancel this for something bigger, if I get a good response.

Contact me asap to express interest:

fracking
078 1066 3241
01656 647314
https://www.facebook.com/andrew.chyba
Or comment on the blog

RESPONSE FROM FRACK OFF:
Andy!

Thats great news and a great idea. We can help with cost of hire and fuel. As soon as you book it give us a number for you or whoever wants to be a contact and a rough time of arrival and we’ll make it big. Sure you can fill it via your contacts and the FFW coalition – but we can advertise it – maybe you put on two!

Camping and being there is safe as houses. It’s only those bravely refusing to move that got arrested. All those walking in front of trucks earlier in the week etc didnt get hassle. The verge and site are public land and those areas are peaceful as you like. You’ve seen the photos – it’s like a fete!

Kate, FO x

It looks like non-stop rain most of the day, so I think it best we postpone today’s event on Ogmore beach.

We will try and find a date in September at our next meeting on 29th August.

Incidentally, if anyone fancies coming to Balcombe to support the fracking protests I am thinking of going next weekend. Let me know.

Regards,

Andy

This short clip shows graphically the impact of a supposedly simple little test drilling operation. This is without any of the the fracking rigmarole that will involve massive amounts of extra equipment and huge numbers of tankers ferrying frack fluids in and out of the site.

Imagine this, and then imagine it every couple of miles or so across vast tracks of the country – including much of South Wales. And for what?

http://frack-off.org.uk/latest-news-from-the-great-gas-gala-day-10/

The carnival atmosphere continues as Balcombe becomes the focus of international media attention.

I feel the desperate need to get down there to be part of the this historic vent in the war against the frackers and to show solidarity.

I am looking at getting down there possibly next weekend. Anybody care to join me?

Andy

Blimey! The Bridgend Green party blog has gone viral in the last couple of days smashing it best ‘hits’ day bt a no less than 500%. For the cynics among you that doesn’t mean achieving double figures, but well into 4 figures a day. The fracking issue is really beginning to get through to people as they begin to realise just how cynical and corrupt the frackers and their supporters truly are.

Todays hits:

Country	Views
United Kingdom	1,335
United States	91
Australia	19
France	15
Ireland	13
Germany	13
India	10
Norway	9
Italy	7
Spain	7
Republic of Korea	7
Hong Kong	6
Canada	5
New Zealand	4
South Africa	4
Thailand	4
Philippines	3
Finland	3
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Hungary	1
Belgium	1

Published on Jul 30, 2013
Green MEP candidate Andy Chyba joins @WorldViewShow to discuss the UK Government’s rush to frack EVERYWHERE and the weekend arrests of the Balcombe 16.

If you liked this clip of World View Show, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends… and hit that “like” button!

Hi friends,
Is your money contributing to climate change? Right now, the answer is almost certainly yes — but from California to Australia, grassroots campaigns are springing up around the world to change that. We’re calling for an end to fossil fuel investments, and we need your help to grow our campaign here in Europe!
Last Thursday, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development — one of the world’s largest development banks — released a draft of its energy strategy. Despite lots of talk about a “low-carbon economy”, their strategy still includes plenty of support for projects like coal plants and fracked gas. The EBRD is run by a Board of Directors from shareholder countries across Europe, and we want to show them that people at home are watching. Will you tell the EBRD Board that it’s time stop investing in fossil fuels?
Click here (http://act.350.org/sign/EBRD/?akid=3399.539813.1nhoJS&rd=1&t=1) to sign the petition demanding that EBRD stop funding dirty fossil fuels.
The climate is changing before our eyes. If we want to keep climate change below 2° C — and have a chance at avoiding catastrophic feedback cycles and a planet potentially incompatible with human civilization — then we must keep 80% of known fossil fuel reserves under ground.
Yet pension funds continue to invest our savings in risky fossil fuel stocks, betting that we can keep burning those reserves; universities continue to accept funding (and influence) from rogue fossil fuel companies; and development banks like the EBRD keep funding new dirty energy plants, which are set to lock us into decades of emissions. Clearly we have a lot of work to do.
Will you take the first step and help us end EBRD’s support for fossil fuels?
This campaign is just the beginning. Across Europe, we’re gearing up to launch grassroots divestment campaigns targeting universities and other big institutions — because our public funds should be invested in a livable future, not an industry bent on ensuring our planet’s destruction.
I hope you’ll join us,
Tim

350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/frack_the_desolate_north_east_says_tory_peer_30072013.html

Commenting on reports today (Tuesday 30 July 2013) that Lord Howell has called for fracking to be concentrated in the North East because of its “large, desolate and uninhabited areas”, Friends of the Earth Energy Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

“Lord Howell’s suggestion that fracking should be concentrated in the ‘desolate’ North East is jaw-dropping.”
“But the Government’s ill-conceived fracking plans aren’t something that can be quietly brushed under the carpet ‘up north’ – as the villages resisting the drillers in the Tory heartlands of England’s south show.”
“It’s time to pull the plug on the UK’s dirty fossil fuel addiction and develop clean energy that won’t cost people all over England their green and pleasant land.”

And of course, the Tories see Wales as a bit of a wasteland too!!!

Published on Jul 29, 2013
Frack-Free Wales founder Frances Jenkins and 15 others were arrested for blocking access to Cuadrilla’s Balcombe Sussex drilling site last week. She talks about the police’s brutal over-reaction and her arrest experience exclusively on @WorldViewShow.