Why Everyone Should Be Talking About Fracking

This past weekend, the LUSH store in Meadowhall managed to raise a massive £200 from the sales of their gorgeous Charity Pot hand and body lotion, with 100% of the proceeds going towards a frack-free future.

This feat was achieved with the help of the Misson Springs Protection Camp, an anti-fracking group set up to protest against fracking within my home county of Nottinghamshire.

Anti-fracking is a big thing in my house, with my dad regularly going along to protests, meetings and demonstrations, so it's often a topic of discussion at the dinner table.

I can sense my fellow bloggers reading this are feeling a bit confused about the purpose of this post, so here's exactly why everyone should be talking about fracking.

Firstly, what is fracking?

Fracking is a new, more extreme form of fossil fuel exploitation, targeting much less permeable rock formations than previous conventional oil and gas extraction.

- Frack Off

In it's simplest form, fracking is the process of drilling deep underground, before water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure. The purpose of fracking is to extract oil and natural gas in order to use as sources of 'energy' (it's like year 7 science all over again!)

But... this isn't a beauty 'thing', so why am I writing about it? Well, that takes me to my next point.

How does it effect me?

It is well documented in over 1200 peer supported reports that fracking is
experimental and creates health risks such as cancer, respiratory disease, still births and miscarriages. Nobody knows how it will continue to effect our health or our planet in the long run, however proven links have already been found between fracking and earthquakes.

There is also the huge risk to our water. The fracking process involves potentially toxic chemicals at almost every stage. If things go wrong on the drilling site (or in transit) then contaminated water from fracking could spread into the environment, polluting ecosystems, and even end up back in our own water supply.

Call me cynical, but speaking as a beauty blogger I feel polluted water would totally wreck our carefully curated skincare routines. Can you imagine anything worse than washing your face in water containing chemicals including hydrochloric acid, chloride, and even traces of lead?

Who else is talking about it?

In short, not as many people as there should be, however I have noticed references to anti-fracking sneaking into pop culture recently. 

A main story arc in the second series of Santa Clarita Diet (released on Netflix this past March) revolved around the teen characters fighting against a fracking site which has been erected in their town. A pretty poignant storyline for a show based around Drew Barrymore becoming a zombie.

As mentioned at the start of this post, a huge supporter of anti-fracking is LUSH.
They have some great articles about it on their website, with a few of my favourites being Anti-fracking Nanas warn, “The oven gloves are off!” and Campaigners get on their bikes to break the fracking cycle. They're incredibly interesting articles that are well worth a read.

If this post has intrigued you, I would highly recommend reading more into the dangers of fracking, and searching Facebook for your local Anti Fracking groups to join the fight.

What causes do you support?