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Global Frackdown All Around

By Andy Gheorghiu

Join The Global Frackdown October 2016The movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground is gaining in success stories, and we should never underestimate our impact.

The fifth Global Frackdown, an international day of action, was held on October 15 to challenge the oil and gas industry and ban fracking worldwide. Groups from around the globe rallied in solidarity under the joint banner of “Ni ici, ni ailleurs”, or “Not here or anywhere!” Numerous creative actions were conducted, some big, some small, and each one of them chipped away another brick of the fossil wall that’s keeping us from a clean, renewable energy future.

People all over the world showed their commitment to a common future that is free of fossil fuels — from the presentation in Mexico City of the report Last Frontier: Public Policies, Impacts and Resistance Against Fracking in Latin America, to the travelling photography exhibit on Polish resistance in the German village of Quakenbrück, to the screening of the Australian documentary “Frackman” in Saint-Tropez, to the joint postcard action for the EU Parliament.

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Paris, je ne t’aime pas as much as LNG

By Andy Gheorghiu

No to LNG No to FrackingLast month the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change announced that the threshold for entry into force of the Paris Agreement was achieved, and the treaty takes effect today.

You might say hooray but there is always a wrinkle. This time, the wrinkle is natural gas. Gas has long been touted as a bridge fuel into a bright, clean, post-fossil fuel future. Now, though, climate science is clear: there’s simply no room for gas. It is too damaging for this place we call home.

Burning natural gas accounts for a huge amount of CO2 emissions. In the most recent look at the climate budget numbers, Oil Change International found that existing, developed, fossil fuel reserves put us past the 1.5 C target stated in Paris.

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Fossil Fuel Lock-in: Why Gas Is A False Solution

By Frida Kieninger

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PANO: Event in the EU Parliament: GAS – A Bridge Fuel to Global Warming? (part of the main conference)
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Event at the gas conference: “Fossil Fuel Lock-in: Why Gas Is a False Solution.”
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Food & Water Watch Board of Director member Prof. Robert Howarth speaking at the Gas conference.

Last month, about 40 activists, campaigners and researchers gathered for three days in Brussels to discuss the problem of gas being the false solution for climate change. The participants of the conference came mainly from different European states, but also from Argentina, North Africa and the United States. What brought all those different people together was the wish to confront the manifold problems that the extraction of natural gas and the construction of more and more gas infrastructure entail.

Resistance to Fracking in North Africa and Argentina

There is the case of Algeria, where a large protest movement opposes fracking projects from France, which ironically banned fracking on its own territory. There is the issue of Tunisians who have to buy gas extracted on their own land like a foreign commodity. And there is the threat that the development in shale gas production in the Maghreb countries could eventually lead to contamination of the Northwestern Sahara Aquifer System, forming the basis of livelihoods for local communities.

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Get In With the Global Frackdown: Send a Postcard to Parliament

Thank you for your interest, no further action on this issue is needed. Unfortunately, the report was approved on 25 October by 66% of MEPs.

By Frida Kieninger

foodandwatereuropeoct25votenolngFor the Global Frackdown of 2016, Food & Water Europe offers people around the globe the chance to send postcards to Members of the European Parliament with a clear message: “NO liquefied natural gas (LNG)”.

On October 25, the plenary of the EU-Parliament will vote on the report “on the EU strategy for liquefied natural gas and gas storage.” It will most likely call for a significant expansion of LNG infrastructure in Europe and for a reduction of all barriers to global trade in LNG.

We don’t want imported fracked gas in Europe and call for a rejection of the report if it does not clearly recognise the dangers of natural gas, particularly obtained by fracking, for communities, the environment and the climate.

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Hitting The Wall: How European Institutions Insist On Privatizing Greek Water

By David Sánchez

foodwatereuropegreekwaterrightsBrexit was a real shock here in Brussels. For the first time, a member state decided to leave the club. It was really tempting to expect a reaction, a debate about the role of EU policies in this collective failure. But this European Union captured by big companies and ruled by a dogmatic neoliberal elite keeps doing business as usual. What happened in the last few weeks in Greece was another brutal example.

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You Can NOT Frack Here

By Andy Gheorghiu

Food & Water Europe will organise the Global Frackdown.
Returning October 2016
Global Frackdown

The Global Frackdown 2016, an international day of action to challenge the oil and gas industry and ban fracking worldwide, will take place on October 15, 2016. Around the world, for the fifth year running, participants will be shouting “Ni ici, ni ailleurs” — “not here or anywhere!” — in support of a ban on fracking.

The joint demands are simple and mirror the need for critical change on our planet:

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