Don't Frack our future

[Tracy Riddle]

A new cartoon made by an internet friend of mine, who is obviously a skilled animator.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Frack 'em.

Tracy - thanks for posting your friend's excellent film.

The focking frackers are getting massive tax breaks in the UK, and all political parties are attempting to frame the debate in terms of "Energy Security".

I have no doubt that anyone protesting about fracking will soon be labelled as a terrorist endangering Volkland Security.

And therefore subject to the whole gamut of tactics ranging from infiltration by Mark "shagger" Kennedy, false flag Judi Bari bombing, constant monitoring of every keystroke and journey, and demonisation by energy industry psyops.

[Peter Lemkin]

The deep injection into the ground of wastewater byproducts from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has caused a significant increase in U.S. earthquakes since the practice has recently become more widespread.The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that there were more than 300 earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 from 2010 to 2012, which is a five-fold increase from the average number of 21 tremors per year measured from 1967 to 2000.


There are now more than 30,000 deep disposal wells in the country, typically injecting leftover fluids from fracking wells used for natural gas extraction.


And while the actual practice of fracking has not been found to cause any significant seismic events, the far deeper injecting of wastewater from the practice has.


Sometimes the water is blasted into deep, dormant faults. USGS geologist William Ellsworth says that even faults that have not moved for millions of years can be made to slip if conditions are right.


But he points out that only a few of the approximately 30,000 wastewater wells appear to have caused the increase in tremors.


Columbia University scientists caution that powerful earthquakes thousands of miles away can trigger swarms of minor quakes near injection wells as the arriving seismic waves help release the local built-up pressure.i

[Peter Lemkin]

[URL="http://www.dangersoffracking.com/"]http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

a[/URL]nd

Fracking: The Dangers

Fracking uses a toxic chemical cocktail known as fracking fluid.

• Companies using fracking fluid have resisted disclosing the contents of fracking fluid, claiming the information is proprietary. However, samples from well sites indicate that the fluid contains: formaldehyde, acetic acids, citric acids, and boric acids, among hundreds of other contaminants.
  
• It has recently come to light that, despite the illegality of the action, companies have been caught using diesel fuel in the fracking fluid.
  

Fracking removes millions of gallons of precious freshwater from the water cycle.

• Each well uses between two and five million gallons of locally-sourced freshwater which will be permanently contaminated by ground contaminants and toxic chemicals contained in the fracking fluid.
  
• About half of this water returns to the surface, where it is stored in steel containers until it can be injected deep underground in oil and gas waste wells.
  
• No one is entirely sure what happens to the other half of the water used in the process. Our best guess is that the water remains underground, though there are indications that at least some of this toxic cocktail makes its way back into the water supply.
  

Fracking causes a range of environmental problems.

• At least eight other states have reported surface, ground, and drinking water contamination due to fracking.
  
• In Pennsylvania, over 1,400 environmental violations have been attributed to deep gas wells utilizing fracking practices.
  
• Pollution from truck traffic, chemical contamination around storage tanks, and habitat fragmentation and damage from drilling to environmentally sensitive areas have are all related to fracking.
  

[Magda Hassan]

Wonderful animation by your frind there Tracy! I hope it is spread far and wide to teach people about fracking. It is a horrible toxic community and planet destroying monster just as she made it look in the animation. How this has ever been permitted I have no idea. A place like the UK is an island and all those tidal waves could be harnessed. As long as there is a moon in the sky there will be tides. Clean. Constant. Why would you ever consider fracking?

[Peter Lemkin]

Yes, great film Tracy! Tell your friend to do one for the USA, as well....pardon the pun....where fracking, while it does have some opposition, is much further 'ahead' in some regions, than in the UK. Its all about money and a total disregard for People and Nature. Its Big Energy trying to deal with the dwindling 'easy' oil and gas - as they turn to tar sands and fracking and off-shore wells - all highly dangerous and destructive. We don't need any more fossil fuels, anyway, even if it were not so dangerous....we need clean energy, renewable energy, non-polluting energy....

[Jan Klimkowski]

U-turn on plain packaging for cigarettes.

Winner? Big Tobacco.

U-turn on minimum price for alcohol.

Winner? Big Alcohol.

Now this:

David Cameron under attack over fracking firm links to Lynton Crosby

George Osborne announces tax breaks for shale gas as prime minister accused of evasion over top election adviser

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 19 July 2013 20.51 BST
Jump to comments (247)

Lynton Crosby
The firm of David Cameron's head strategist, Lynton Crosby, has advised the fracking industry in Australia. Photograph: Stuart Clarke/Rex Features

David Cameron was accused on Friday of giving evasive answers about the Tories' chief election strategist as the Labour party highlighted Lynton Crosby's role in promoting shale gas companies in his native Australia.

As a cross-party committee of MPs accused the government of "utterly unacceptable" behaviour over the preparation of a new bill on lobbyists, Labour warned of a "lobbying scandal" in Downing Street after George Osborne unveiled tax breaks for the fracking industry championed by Crosby.

Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, pointed out that the lobbyist's firm Crosby Textor represents the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association. One of its members, Dart Energy, has a UK subsidiary, Dart Europe Limited, which has an interest in the Bowland Shale site in Lancashire and Yorkshire, which contains 1,300tn cubic feet of gas.

The chancellor announced on Friday that the government would set a 30% tax rate for onshore shale gas production, compared with the top rate of 62% for North Sea oil operations. Andrew Pendleton, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said it was a "disgrace" to offer tax breaks to "polluting energy firms that threaten our communities and environment".

The fracking industry association in Australia, which has been advised by Crosby's firm, has been highly critical of environmentalists. Stedman Ellis, the chief operating officer for the Western Region of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, told the Australian newspaper last month: "The opportunity provided by shale gas is too important to be jeopardised by political scare campaigns run by activist groups."

Trickett said that Crosby's role in advising the fracking industry raised further questions about the man who will run the Tories' 2015 general election campaign. Cameron is already facing pressure after refusing to say on at least 12 occasions, according to Trickett, whether he discussed government plans to abandon plain cigarette packaging with Crosby, whose firm has advised the tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Trickett said: "David Cameron's failure to come clean over his relationship with Lynton Crosby has created a situation where his decisions are open to question. Whether it's tobacco, alcohol, lobbying and now fracking, we need to know what role lobbying has played in deciding what our prime minister does.

"David Cameron must make clear exactly what sort of conversations he has had with Lynton Crosby on government policy. He must force Lynton Crosby to name his clients and the prime minister must be clear about them and their influence.

"We need answers but all we get is evasion from the prime minister. Politics needs to be above suspicion and work for everyone, but what we've got is a prime minister who continually stands up for the wrong people and either can't or won't clean up what is looking more and more like a lobbying scandal at the heart of No 10."

The Commons political and constitutional reform committee was highly critical of the government and suggested that ministers rush out a new bill to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists after a series of recent scandals. In a report the committee condemned the government for failing to respond properly to a document it published last year on lobbying.

The committee said: "It is utterly unacceptable that the government took more than a year to respond to our report on introducing a statutory register of lobbyists and that when it finally responded it did so in the form of a letter of a page and a half that does not engage with any of the detailed points made in the report. We consider that this shows a lack of respect for parliament and for the many people who contributed to our inquiry. We urge the government to provide us with a revised response that addresses our original report."

[Magda Hassan]

So, Petraeus is teaching counter insurgency techniques and psychological warfare to the frackers. Anti-frackers environmentalists and people who support viable life on our planet (which I think is most of us) are now the terrorists.

July 19, 2013 08:30 AM

Petraeus' Course Syllabus Features 'Frackademia' Readings

By Steve Horn

Revealed: Gen. David Petraeus' Course Syllabus Features "Frackademia" Readings



Records obtained by DeSmogBlog pertaining to City University of New York (CUNY) Macaulay Honors College's hiring of former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus to teach a seminar this coming fall reveal that his syllabus features two of the most well-known "frackademia" studies. "Frackademia" is shorthand for oil and gas industry-funded research costumed as independent economics or science covering the topic ofhydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the controversial horizontal drilling process via which oil and gas is obtained deep within shale rock basins.According to the syllabus, Petraeus will devote two weeks to energy alone, naming those weeks "The Energy Revolution I" and "The Energy Revolution II." The two "frackademia" studies Petraeus will have his students read for his course titled "The Coming North American Decade(s)? are both seminal industry-funded works.One of them is a study written by industry-funded National Economic Research Associates (NERA) concluding liquified natural gas (LNG) exports are beneficial to the U.S. economy, despite the fact that exporting fracked gas will raise domestic home-heating and manufacturing prices. NERA was founded by "father of deregulation" Alfred E. Kahn. The study Petraeus will have his students read was contracted out by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to NERA.The other, a study written by then-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research professor Ernest Moniz - now the head of the DOE - is titled "The Future of Natural Gas" and also covers LNG exports. DOE oversees the permitting process for LNG exports. That study was funded by the Clean Skies Foundation, a front group for Chesapeake Energy and covered in-depth in the Public Accountability Initiative's report titled, "Industry Partner or Industry Puppet?"Noticeably absent from the reading list: studies tackling the climate impacts, air quality impacts, over-arching ecological impacts such as water contamination, wastewater impacts and supply issues (aka diminishing supply). Together, the two crucial studies on the syllabus reading list - and the lack of critical readings on the topic of fracking - offers a gimpse into the stamp of legitimacy industry-funded studies get when they have the logo of elite research universities on them. It's also another portrayal of the ascendancy of the corporate university. From "Petraeusgate" to "Frackademia"-gate

In the case of Petraeus, the original "Petraeusgate" scandal centered around the $200,000 fee the Honors College planned on paying him for his role as an adjunct professor set to teach one course. A normal CUNY Honors College adjunct receives $3,000 per course.Recently, Petraeus - who the late Rolling Stone investigative journalist Michael Hastings pejoratively referred to as "King David" in reference to the role he played in implementing counterinsurgency doctrine in U.S.-occupied Iraq - took a pay cut down to $1 to teach the course. That doesn't include the money he'll still get from an unidentified "private donor" referred to in other documents. That scandal sat on top of the scandal that led to his resignation from the CIA in the first place: an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, who at the time of the affair was writing a biography about him titled, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."Petraeus Teaches Frackers Counterinsurgency, Psychological Warfare

Petraeus has also taught the shale gas industry some important things, as well.Namely, Petraeus was one of the co-authors of the "Counterinsurgency (COIN) Field Manual" that Anadarko Petroleum PR hand Matt Carmichael said he has employees read at the "Media & Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011" conference in Houston, TX in 2011. "Download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual because we are dealing with an insurgency," said Carmichael at the conference. "There's a lot of good lessons in there, and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable."One of the key COIN tactics covered in the Field Manual is psychological operations (PSYOPs), also discussed at the Houston conference by Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella."We have several former PSYOPs folks that work for us at Range because they're very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments," Pitzarella said to the audience in Houston. "Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of PSYOPs in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania." As Hastings covered in another Rolling Stone investigation, the U.S. military employed PSYOPs tactics on members of Congress. That's illegal within U.S. borders under the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, though it seems rather unlikely the co-author of the COIN Manual - "King David" himself - will cover these details in his course. Petraeus' Wall Street Job Description Mirrors His Course Description

Petraus also has a teaching gig at University of Southern California (USC) and a day job working at the Wall Street firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). "He is expected to advise on economic trends, issues with foreign governments and other matters that could affect transactions," The Wall Street Journal explained of his hiring at KKR. "He will advise firms owned by KKR in an effort to improve management and leadership and help them confront economic and geopolitical forces that affect them.""King David's" job description mirrors the course description he will teach, lending insight into what type of jobs the students taking his course may obtain in the future if Petraeus' class is a pedagogical success."Petraeus and others at the firm [will have] discussions over macroeconomic and geopolitical forces that could influence KKR's investment decisions. These issues include the heightened role of central banks following the financial crisis, and what KKR views as 'revolutions' in energy, manufacturing and technology, among other areas," The Wall Street Journal further spelled out. The course description, as seen below, sings a similar tune:

Students taking Petraeus' course will go above and beyond passive stoic discussion of the burning public policy issues of the day. Indeed, they will dive into the sphere of role-playing the positions of high-ranking U.S. officialdom, all in the context of the readings - such as the "frackademia" ones - they must complete and discuss in seminar on a weekly basis that will inform the role-play.An example below:

Re-Conceptualizing the "Revolving Door"

The government-industry revolving door commonly refers to governmental officials leaving taxpayer-funded government gigs for jobs as corporate lobbyists, public relations spin-doctors and other related iterations. The evolution and corporatization of research unversities - in many ways research factories on behalf of multinational corporations - has seen the revolving door extend into higher education. Petraeus is one example and Moniz is another, but so too is former CIA-head Robert Gates. After leaving the CIA, Gates became the Chancellor of University of Texas A&M and then became Secretary of Defense.Another example is Janet Napolitano, former head of the Department of Homeland Security who recently secured a job to head the University of California System. And yet another example is John Deutch, former head of the CIA who is now on the Board of Directors of Cheniere, served on President Obama's DOE Fracking Subcommittee and is a professor at MIT, where he co-wrote the "The Future of Natural Gas" with Moniz that Petraeus will have his students read. "Petraeusgate," then, is just the tip of the iceberg of a problem with much deeper roots.

http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/...LiPcP.dpbs

[Peter Lemkin]

It has been about 15 years [or more] that although not publicly 'advertised' or talked about openly, those who dare to ACT to protect the environment in the US [which pits them against the profits of those raping Mother Earth (Gaia) and her offspring] have been officially declared as terrorists.....there have been FBI bombings of environmental activists, harsh trials and draconian sentences, agent provocateurs, spying, and infiltration of environmental groups, many prominent environmentalists who are on no-fly lists, and one could go on and on.....

Below is a typical MSM article on this......sorry to place it here....but it needs to be seen.

FBI: Eco-Terrorism Remains No. 1 Domestic Terror Threat

Published March 31, 2008
FoxNews.com

• 
  March 3: Firefighters battle a blaze in Woodinville, Wash.
  
  
• 
  March 3: A multimillion-dollar show home burns in a suburb north of Seattle.
  
  

Next Slide Previous Slide



RELATED STORIESFour Suspects With Alleged ELF Ties Indicted in Eco-Terror BurningJury Convicts Woman of Arson in Eco-Terror Firebombing at CollegeFederal Jury Deadlocks in Eco-Terror Firebombing TrialOfficials: No Explosive Devices Found at Scene of Seattle-Area House FiresFrom the Brainroom: The Earth Liberation Front
For nearly seven years, the nation has turned its terror focus on Al Qaeda and the hunt for Usama bin Laden. But there is a domestic terror threat that federal officials still consider priority No. 1 eco-terrorism.
The torching of luxury homes in the swank Seattle suburb of Woodinville earlier this month served as a reminder that the decades-long war with militant environmentalists on American soil has not ended.
"It remains what we would probably consider the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat, because they have successfully continued to conduct different types of attacks in and around the country," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko.
The FBI defines eco-terrorism "as the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature."
For years, officials have battled against members of shadowy groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and its brother-in-arms, the Animal Liberation Front. Law enforcement has made strides prosecuting cells, but it's been unable to end the arsons that have plagued developments encroaching on rural lands in the West.
FBI estimates place damages from these attacks at well over $100 million. So far, no one has been killed.
It's a problem that's unlikely to go away.
"Every time a fire breaks out and somebody takes a spray can and writes 'ELF' or 'ALF' on there, then everybody gets all excited that 'Oh this movement has started back up,'" said Bob Holland, a retired arson investigator. "The movement never really left."
Fighting for Nature
The Earth Liberation Front rose to infamy in the late 1990s for a series of arsons in the Pacific Northwest targeting industries, such as logging, that the eco-terrorists perceived as a threat to nature.
"Generally speaking, the Earth Liberation folks are motivated by a deep kind of affective connection to nature that many of them would characterize as spiritual or religious," said Bron Taylor, a professor of religion and nature at the University of Florida. "They believe that the human species is perpetrating a war on nature and that those who are connected to nature and belong to it have a right to defend themselves."
Members who carry out attacks in the name of nature tend to be of college age and well educated, and typically have an out-of-town recruiter who lures them into the act of crime, said Ron Arnold, the executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.
There are exceptions to the rule, Kolko said. Some members are in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
These eco-terrorists often operate alone or in small groups, making them extremely difficult to penetrate. They target structures they feel are infringing on nature, leaving low-tech detonators that allow the fires to start after they've left.
In 2006, a nine-year federal sting dubbed "Operation Backfire" was able to dissolve a cell responsible for 20 acts of arson in five Western states over five years.
That cell, dubbed "The Family," caused more than $40 million in damage and included attacks on a meat company in Eugene, Ore., a ski resort in Vail, Colo., and the torching of SUVs in Oregon.
The latest Family member convicted, Briana Waters, was found guilty of arson on March 6 in Tacoma, Wash., for her role as a lookout in a 2001 fire that destroyed the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle, causing more than $2 million in damages.
"It's a leaderless ideology that can exist for a long time," said Holland, who worked on Operation Backfire. "You take out a cell like we did in Backfire that doesn't stop like-minded individuals around the country from perpetuating the ideology of the ELF and ALF movement."
Elves in the Night
The perpetrators of the March 3 fires on the Seattle Street of Dreams left their mark, investigators said, with signs that read, "ELF" and "McMansions in RCDs r not green," a reference to rural cluster developments or residential subdivisions, along with an estimated $7 million in damages.
The homes had been built near the headwaters of Bear Creek, which is home to endangered chinook salmon. Opponents of the development had questioned whether the luxury homes could pollute the creek and an aquifer that is a source of drinking water, and whether enough was done to protect nearby wetlands.
In the past, ELF members have used everything from milk jugs to electrical ignition devices to set their blazes, Holland said.
Officials for the fire earlier this month said no explosive devices were found amid the remains of the houses. The Building Industry Association of Washington and the FBI were offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
Finding the culprit in eco-terrorism often requires someone within the organization turning against his or her fellow elves.
"In Operation Backfire, we saw a sophistication that we've never seen in any type of a radical organization, and frankly, if somebody hadn't turned, we wouldn't have enjoyed the success we've had with that," Holland said.
Trying to predict where or when they'll strike next becomes a guessing game, experts said.
"You don't know what's the hot topic in the minds of the potential perpetrators today you can look on the Web and find out all kinds of things," Arnold said, noting that "it's very difficult to generalize because there are so many threads in the tapestry of environmentally inspired crimes."
The FBI currently has 180 ongoing eco-terror investigations and over the last several years has tied them to some 1,800 criminal acts, Kolko said.
Despite the gains law enforcement has made, it just takes one person to reignite the movement, Holland said.
"There's no way to know or gauge how many people are actually sympathetic to that ideology and will continue to perpetuate it through acts of arson and other violence," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,3437...z2ZeVWTc4c

[Jan Klimkowski]

So, Petraeus is teaching counter insurgency techniques and psychological warfare to the frackers. Anti-frackers environmentalists and people who support viable life on our planet (which I think is most of us) are now the terrorists.

Magda - just great isn't it?

I wrote in post #2:

I have no doubt that anyone protesting about fracking will soon be labelled as a terrorist endangering Volkland Security.

And therefore subject to the whole gamut of tactics ranging from infiltration by Mark "shagger" Kennedy, false flag Judi Bari bombing, constant monitoring of every keystroke and journey, and demonisation by energy industry psyops.

And it has already come to pass...

Petraeus Teaches Frackers Counterinsurgency, Psychological Warfare

Petraeus has also taught the shale gas industry some important things, as well.Namely, Petraeus was one of the co-authors of the "Counterinsurgency (COIN) Field Manual" that Anadarko Petroleum PR hand Matt Carmichael said he has employees read at the "Media & Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011" conference in Houston, TX in 2011. "Download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual because we are dealing with an insurgency," said Carmichael at the conference. "There's a lot of good lessons in there, and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable."One of the key COIN tactics covered in the Field Manual is psychological operations (PSYOPs), also discussed at the Houston conference by Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella."We have several former PSYOPs folks that work for us at Range because they're very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments," Pitzarella said to the audience in Houston. "Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of PSYOPs in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania." As Hastings covered in another Rolling Stone investigation, the U.S. military employed PSYOPs tactics on members of Congress. That's illegal within U.S. borders under the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, though it seems rather unlikely the co-author of the COIN Manual - "King David" himself - will cover these details in his course. Petraeus' Wall Street Job Description Mirrors His Course Description

Petraus also has a teaching gig at University of Southern California (USC) and a day job working at the Wall Street firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). "He is expected to advise on economic trends, issues with foreign governments and other matters that could affect transactions," The Wall Street Journal explained of his hiring at KKR. "He will advise firms owned by KKR in an effort to improve management and leadership and help them confront economic and geopolitical forces that affect them.""King David's" job description mirrors the course description he will teach, lending insight into what type of jobs the students taking his course may obtain in the future if Petraeus' class is a pedagogical success."Petraeus and others at the firm [will have] discussions over macroeconomic and geopolitical forces that could influence KKR's investment decisions. These issues include the heightened role of central banks following the financial crisis, and what KKR views as 'revolutions' in energy, manufacturing and technology, among other areas," The Wall Street Journal further spelled out. The course description, as seen below, sings a similar tune:

Students taking Petraeus' course will go above and beyond passive stoic discussion of the burning public policy issues of the day. Indeed, they will dive into the sphere of role-playing the positions of high-ranking U.S. officialdom, all in the context of the readings - such as the "frackademia" ones - they must complete and discuss in seminar on a weekly basis that will inform the role-play.An example below:

Re-Conceptualizing the "Revolving Door"

The government-industry revolving door commonly refers to governmental officials leaving taxpayer-funded government gigs for jobs as corporate lobbyists, public relations spin-doctors and other related iterations. The evolution and corporatization of research unversities - in many ways research factories on behalf of multinational corporations - has seen the revolving door extend into higher education. Petraeus is one example and Moniz is another, but so too is former CIA-head Robert Gates. After leaving the CIA, Gates became the Chancellor of University of Texas A&M and then became Secretary of Defense.Another example is Janet Napolitano, former head of the Department of Homeland Security who recently secured a job to head the University of California System. And yet another example is John Deutch, former head of the CIA who is now on the Board of Directors of Cheniere, served on President Obama's DOE Fracking Subcommittee and is a professor at MIT, where he co-wrote the "The Future of Natural Gas" with Moniz that Petraeus will have his students read. "Petraeusgate," then, is just the tip of the iceberg of a problem with much deeper roots.