On the same day that an on Wednesday anti-fracking protesters held a “frack mob” outside the Shale Gas Environmental Summit’, two of the more intrepid anti-fra scaled a fracking shale gas rig in Lancashire, shutting it down.

Around 50 people showed up for the Frack Mob, most in costumes ranging from smart suits to chem suits. Naming and shaming the greenwash hawkers’ conference. Fracking/shale gas is being promoted as a green energy source, possibly because that’s the colour of  the flames that come out of the water supply in fracked areas.

The actions coincided with the release of a report into the consequences of shale oil extraction. Yes, the industry’s own report, commissioned by Cuadrilla, came to the same conclusion as the rest of us- that fracking is the ‘probable cause’ of the 50 seismic tremors in the area around their rigs. Mark Miller, Cuadrilla’s chief executive, tried desperately to put some spin on the report, claiming that 2.1 on the ricter scale isnt all that bad. Yeah, like, the 50 earthquakes we caused were only small, so what’s the big deal? “There’s a certain level of seismic activity that can occur even with a truck going past a house,” he said. Er, thanks Mike.

Colin Eastman, one of the climbers, said: “Conventional fossil fuels have begun to run out and the system is moving towards more extreme forms of energy like fracking, tar sands, and deep water drilling. The move towards ‘extreme energy’ is literally scrapping the bottom of the barrel, sucking the last most difficult to reach fossil fuels from the planet at a time when we should be rapidly reducing our consumption altogether and looking for sustainable alternatives. In the UK fracking for shale gas is planned alongside, not instead of, extraction of conventional fossil fuels like coal.”

There are plans afoot for another 800 fracking rigs in the UK. Plenty of work for Frack Off to be getting on with.

www.frack-off.org.uk