Three women including two Green Party councillors took direct action yesterday outside Cuadrilla’s fracking site on Preston New Road near Little Plumpton in Lancashire.
The women are all members of the Green Party and were peacefully protesting against increasing extraction of fossil fuels. Three of the women locked themselves together outside the entrance to the fracking site and were later arrested and charged with obstruction of the highway.
Caroline Jackson is a Lancaster City Councillor and a retired headteacher. She said:
“We have brought a boat to the fracking site to highlight the fact that fracking will make climate change worse by emitting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Fracking will therefore contribute to rising sea levels. Around half a billion people around the world are at risk from rising sea levels.”
Emily Heath is a university lecturer in Earth Sciences. She said:
“Continuing to develop new sources of fossil fuels is utter madness. We have abundant renewable energy all around us, and yet the Government is hell-bent on undermining the renewable energy industry, because they have vested interests in the fossil fuel industry and seem to be incapable of thinking beyond the short term.”
Mollie Foxall is a retired NHS manager. She said:
“I am taking direct action because the Government has left me no choice. They overturned the local democratic decision to not allow fracking in this area. We are calling on the Government to put people’s lives ahead of corporate profits, and stop backing fracking.”