Dinner under a dinosaur

Not just any old dinosaur, the dinosaur! You know, the one in the National History Museum in London. At night.

And it wasn't just any old meal, it was a Michelin starred meal and it was bloomin' tasty! And a little bit surreal.

It's not often (read: ever) that I get to do anything like that but this was all due to the Paw Prints project we did last week. As I said in that post, it was part of a larger project by Synchronicity Earth to commemorate 50 years of the IUCN Red List. We were in the Natural History Museum for the Biophilia Ball. Have a look below to hear Jessica Sweiden's speech (clever organising lady).

Go Wild has gone international!

Muddy leaf art in Bristol

Go Wild has gone international! This week, we've been out in the woods EVERY DAY with a class of Year 5 pupils from Luckwell Primary School in Bristol taking part in the Paw Prints project. The cool thing about this project (apart from the amount of 'Wild Time' we've been getting) is that three other schools have been doing the same activities on the same day - and two of those schools were in DIFFERENT COUNTRIES!

Grassy leaf art in London

So while we've been messing about in the muddy woods in Bristol and another school in London has been carrying out activities in their local, grassy park, a group of students in Tampere, Finland have been braving the cold and the ice, while children in Mogan, Gran Canaria have been doing the same activities in shorts and T-shirts!

Chilly smelly cocktails in Finland

The less glamorous side of things is the weeks of planning that have gone into producing lesson plans that work in different seasons, climates and habitats while still teaching the children about ecosystems, using all of their senses. I love a challenge and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Activities included recording sound postcards in the dark, making mud faces on trees, creating ephemeral leaf art, meeting trees, making smelly cocktails... The children then uploaded photos that they had taken of the activities onto a website that had been created for the project and had a look at what the other schools had been doing.

Hot smelly cocktails in Gran Canaria

This project was run as a part of a larger initiative from Synchronicity Earth to mark 50 years of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The aim was to inspire the next generation of environmental custodians by getting them to explore and understand their local ecosystems.

If you would like to have a go yourself, whether you are a teacher or a parent, you can download the lesson plans from the Paw Prints Website.

Young Carers Go Wild

When we're running around the woods, playing and having fun it's easy to forget that many children do not have the opportunity to do so because they are a 'young carer'.

Young carers are children and young people who look after someone in their family who has a disability, a long term illness, or is affected by mental ill health or substance misuse. Young carers may look after parents, care for a brother or sister, or other relative. The average age of a young carer is 12 and they take on responsibilities normally only expected of an adult.

Research indicates that 1:12 young people in UK secondary schools are either impacted by family ill health or carry a caring responsibility. This means that their childhood is far from carefree.

This month we teamed up with Flamingo Foundation for a day of adventure for young carers in Bristol.

We spent the day in the woods, running around playing 'coo-ee', discovering hiding places and new trees, learning to light fires safely, cooking our lunch over an open fire and, of course, stuffing our faces with sausages, popcorn and marshmallows (although not all at the same time)
 
We had such a good time, more are planned for 2015 so watch this space!

A Little Book for Nature Investigators

This Summer I was invited to write the foreword for Canopy & Star's Little Book for Nature Investigators.

This lovely little booklet is for all budding Nature Investigators who enjoy exploring the wild outdoors. There are four packs full of amazing facts, games, puzzles and jokes plus the Nature Investigators Passport to keep track of your progress. What's more, if you post your finished passport to Canopy & Stars, they'll send you a Brilliant Certificate of Completion!

Here's how to get hold of the book and start investigating:  

1. Print out the whole book in landscape format. The pages ordered for fun foldy booklet making OR

2. Download the whole book to view on screen (take it with you on your tablet) OR

3. Print or download the Nature Investigators Passport for any budding Investigators who might want their own.

We don't have time to educate our children...

There' so much focus on connecting children with nature; school initiatives such as Eco-Schools, Natural Connections and small changes to the secondary National Curriculum, national campaigns such as Project Wild Thing, and a plethora of initiatives at local level such as the Bristol Festival of Nature, Forest Schools (including mine) and the work of the Wildlife Trusts.


That's not to say that all these wonderful ideas aren't worthwhile. Indeed, children nowadays are arguably more knowledgeable on issues of sustainability than their parents. And therein lies the problem.

We simply don't have the time to wait for our knowledgeable progeny to grow up and save our planet.

Bill Oddie, in last month's BBC Nature Magazine, argues that 'the health, protection and management of the environment is not kids' work. It is adults who make the laws, pollute the land and sea, inflict death and cruelty, and it is only adults who have the power to make things better. Providing environmental education for our children is clearly laudable, but relying on the next generation to save the planet is complacent, unfair, irresponsible and unwise.' And I couldn't agree more.



There are currently 4,554 species classed as 'critically endangered' on the IUCN list of Threatened Species and 6,807 classed as 'endangered'.

Endangered.

Meaning 'at risk of extinction'.

And as the saying goes, extinction is forever.


Almost all of these are due to human activity, especially habitat destruction, and it is not just the actions of a few illegal loggers in far-flung rainforests that threaten the survival of so many species. It is the everyday actions of you and me that produce the consumer demand that fuels the industries that are destroying out planet: the cars we drive, the flights we take, the electricity we consume, the toilet paper we choose to buy, the food we eat and the technology we use and discard the minute the latest model comes out.

Our desire for the latest mobile phone drives demand for coltan, a key mineral used in mobile phone technology, that is illegally mined in areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This results in the erosion of land, pollution of waterways and has a devastating effect on the ecology of the region, including destroying the habitat of the eastern mountain gorilla. This species is critically endangered. There are only 850 individual mountain gorillas left in the wild. It is adults who buy technology, so it is adults who need to be educated about the consequences of their actions.

an orangutan with nowhere to go

On the other side of the world, the number of Sumatran orangutans left in the wild is decreasing rapidly. It is estimated that they will disappear within the next five to ten years. That's at least ten years before any of my friends' children will have the skills, education or influence to change a thing. And by then it will be far too late.

But all is not lost. Yet. Simple actions, such as the choice of biscuits you buy, could prevent the extinction of the orangutan.

Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil, a high yield crop that is used in everything from biscuits and bread to shampoo and cleaning products, demanded by people like you and me. The average Westerner will consume ten kilos of palm oil in a single year. Yes, even if you buy organic. Palm oil plantations are destroying both primary and secondary rainforests at an alarming rate. All so that you and I can have cheap biscuits and shiny hair. Even 'sustainable' palm oil is questionable, but that's for another blog. The point is, that without knowing it, many of us are contributing to the permanent destruction of a keystone species and all the less exciting plants and animals that form part of the same ecosystem. All for a biscuit or a loaf of bread that we can't be bothered to make ourselves.

And those are just a couple of decisions that you and I get to make. I've not even touched upon the law-makers, heads of industry, all those with unfathomable power that choose to put profit before planet.


We need to be selfish. Stuff the kids. With increasing life expectancy and decreasing time-scales of extinction, unspeakable things are going to happen in our own lifetime. In fact, maybe even before you move to your next house, or change your current job. Education and learning is not just for children. We need to take an interest in our natural world and how our own consumption affects it. We need to be accountable for our own learning and seek out the facts about the state of our planet. We don't sit in classrooms all day and get fed information so we need to do it ourselves.

We need to question, take responsibility and change. The future of our planet is in our hands, not those of our children.

How to make a shoogler

If you want to be able to make popcorn in the woods, then you're going to need a shoogler. Here's how to make one...


You will need:

2 identical sieves
a long pole (I use hazel)
a sharp knife
pliers
the ring from an old keyring
wire cutters
2 pieces of wire (one long, one short)
pruning saw (I use a Laplander)

Use the pruning saw to make a stop cut, about half a centimetre deep, on one end of the pole, the same distance from the end of the stick as the length of one of the sieve handles.

Use the knife to split the pole down to the stop cut, taking off about half a centimetre, making the pole flat on one side.






On the opposite side of the pole, at the same end, use the knife to cut two small notches. These will stop the wire from slipping. Cut one as near to the end as you can, cut the other about a centimetre higher than the stop cut on the other side.

Twist one end of the wire onto the bottom of one of the sieve handles. Then attach the sieve to the flat side of the pole by wrapping the long piece of wire around both the handle and the pole as tightly as you can. Wind the wire upwards towards the end of the pole, using the notches, and secure.

Make sure there are no sharp bits sticking out.




Join the round ends of the two sieves together using the old keyring. You will have to force it through the mesh and an old piece of wire can be used to make the holes bigger before putting it on.

Make sure you have the sieves both facing upwards otherwise it won't work!






At the top of the handle of the second sieve, secure the short piece of wire.

Bend the free end over onto itself so that it isn't sharp.

Flip the second sieve towards the handle so that the shoogler is 'closed' and make sure the sieves line up. Wrap the short wire you've just added around both handles and the pole to keep it shut.


You now have your very own shoogler!


When you want to make popcorn, open the shoogler and add oiled popcorn kernals. Secure shut making sure the sieves are as close together as possible (if there are any gaps the popcorn flies out).

Hold the shoogler above the embers of a campfire or BBQ. If you're impatient and you hold it over flames, this will happen:

Allow the metal on the shoogler to cool before diving in and stuffing your face.

Happy shoogling!

10 incredible reasons you should get behind my crowdfunding project,with unbelievable pictures of cats. #7 is truly shocking.

Yes, that’s how you’re expected to write headlines nowadays. And apparently it works as you’re reading this now. So you may as well carry on and read the rest. And, yes, there will be pictures of cats. Well, one cat a number of times. But he is cute.

Back to my crowdfunding project.

1. It’s risk free. You make a pledge and the money is only taken if enough people do the same and the target is met. That way you won’t pay out on an idea that’s a dud. Which mine isn’t.

Risk free means you can sleep easy

2. You don’t have to pay a fortune. Pledges are tiered so that you can spend as much or as little as you want. Found some loose change down the back of the sofa? Great, pledge a fiver. Numbers come up on the premium bonds? - does anyone own them anymore? - Fab, splash out and make my day.

Told you he was cute

3. You get something back. Each pledge receives a reward. It might be just a great big thank you and a warm fuzzy feeling for a fiver, or a one of a kind hand-crafted work of art made by someone wonderful if you pledge more. Or anything in between. There are lots to choose from so have a look and make a pledge.

He was going to save the world but got stuck in a veg box

4. You can get things that money can’t buy. Like the aforementioned work of art, or DVDs signed by the director, books signed by the author, that sort of thing.

Money can't buy Cat Buckaroo

5. You can make a difference. And you can do this with not much money and without leaving the house, or even getting up. That’s the great thing about it.

You can even pledge from this position

6. You can help out the little guys. Great ideas rarely come from big companies. They come from inspired individuals, like me, who don’t have many options open to them in terms of financial support. I wonder how many more amazing things would be out there if more people crowdfunded?

Pledging feels this good

7. This cat likes knitting (told you it was socking). He’s not very good but he enjoys it. It relaxes him. He says he’ll pledge £10 if you do.

It's a scarf apparently

8. You can invest in people who are passionate about what they do. Crowdfunding isn’t the easy option. It’s lots of hard work even before the project is launched. And then some. Now it’s up and running it’s even more hard work so if I didn’t truly believe that my project was worth doing, I would never have got this far.

So, so passionate

 

9. You’ll have something exciting to talk about. The whole point of crowdfunding is to get people excited about the project. If you’ve pledged you have to talk about it and encourage others to do the same. You can share it on Facebook, tweet about it, email your friends. For 42 days you’ll have something really cool to talk about. I have friends who check my Crowdfunder total more than I do. They seem to be enjoying themselves.

He's so excited he's fallen asleep in a pizza box

 

And finally…

10. You can say ‘no!’ to borrowing. Ha! We're free! Now we don’t have to beg anyone to allow us to pay vast amounts of interest on money that doesn’t really exist. ‘Cos now we’ve got crowdfunding. So there.

If he had fingers he'd be sticking one up

Click here to make a pledge on my crowdfunder project. Go on. I showed you cute cat pictures. Do it.

What is crowdfunding?

On Tuesday 22nd April, at midday, I will be launching my crowdfunding campaign for Go Wild Nature Kits.

But what is crowdfunding?

In short, as the name suggests, crowdfunding involves raising a certain amount of money for a project through a large number of people pledging small amounts of cash within a given number of days (42 in my case). The 'crowd' pledge money in exchange for rewards, via the web. It's the exact opposite of going to a bank and asking for the whole lot from one investor.

A lot of crowdfunding initiatives are 'all or nothing' (such as mine) which means that if the project does not meet its target by the deadline, i.e. not enough people make pledges to meet the target, there will be no money and no one pays anything. If enough people make pledges and the target is met, everyone pays what they pledged. This means that only projects that have a lot of support from their community will be funded. It also means that both project owners and backers have to tell people they know that it's a great idea, via social media and word of mouth, so that the campaign gathers momentum and more people get to know about it.

All very straight forward, right? Yes, but if you're in my shoes right now, that doesn't stop it being, quite simply, really daunting.

The idea that I am about to stand up in front of all my family and friends, colleagues and clients, and tell them that I've had a great idea and that I need their help makes me feel a little bit wobbly. I need people to agree with me, to back me with a donation and to then tell everyone about it. If it works, then great, I don't mind everyone knowing. BUT, if I fail to meet my target then everyone I know will know that I've failed.

'lone nut'

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If you haven't seen Derek Sivers' TED talk about How to Start a Movement then I suggest you do. It's a short and amusing talk and in it he uses a clip of one man at a festival dancing wildly on his own in the middle of a field to demonstrate how ideas catch on. Until another festival goer joins him, the dancing man is just a lone nut doing something that no one else is. When the second person arrives and joins in, it validates the lone nut and people begin to think that maybe he's not so crazy/drunk after all. Once a couple more people start dancing, they begin to look pretty cool and eventually there is a whole group of people in that field dancing wildly. So much so that many of those who aren't dancing begin to feel like they should be and join in too.

This is a perfect example of the law of diffusion of innovation. Put very, very simply, new ideas spread through a small number of people adopting an idea early on and telling others how great the idea is. This makes others investigate, adopt and do the same. Eventually, if you're not doing it, you're not cool. Unsurprisingly, this is exactly how crowdfunding works too.

At the moment, I feel like a lone nut dancing wildly in a field. The music is great and my dance moves are like nothing you've ever seen before. I need some people to join me and start dancing too. Eventually, with enough people, we'll be so cool that everyone else will want to do it too.

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/gowild (live from midday on 22nd April)

Shoogling: the best way to make popcorn in the woods

If I'm making popcorn and it's not on a campfire, along with writing posts about how to make it on said campfire, it must mean that I'm avoiding doing some kind of boringsittingstill admin or something. And indeed I am, in fact, I'm writing the terms and conditions of my Easter Forest School Course. It's thrilling.

So how do you make popcorn on a campfire? Easy-peasy, you just need to make yourself a specialist piece of equipment known as a shoogler. Thank Lily for introducing us to that term (and it always has to be written in bold italics where possible). Shoogling means 'to shake, sway or rock back and forth'. Which is exactly how you make popcorn in a shoogler.


How to make a shoogler:
The first thing you need is a big stick, think 'fat broomstick stick', hazel is best as it's straight and likes being cut down, but ash or sycamore are good too.

Then you need two metal sieves. You also need some metal wire. The metal bit is very important.

Once you've realised how expensive metal sieves are nowadays, and that you've had to buy two, place them one on top of the other so that they create a sphere, with the handles lined up. This bit is really hard to describe so I'm just going to cheat and show you a picture of the finished article. That'll save me a lot of words.

This is the point at which I realise that I am always so busy in the woods that I rarely manage to take any decent photos of anything. So I've borrowed this very informative image from here.

Hinge the two sieves together using the wire. Use the wire again to attach ONE of the sieve handles to the big stick of hazel that you cut when I told you to earlier. Cutting a small notch in the stick will stop your wire from slipping off.

Use your imagination and ingenuity to create some kind of wire fastening to keep the second sieve handle attached to the big stick once the popcorn is inside.

And - ta da! - you've got your very own shoogler. All you need now are some popcorn kernels, a bit of oil (I usually put some kernels in a cup, pour a little oil over them and give them a good shake), and a fire that has burnt down to embers (try it on a high flame, it's fun, popcorn burns well and flaming shooglers look great!).

Hold the shoogler over the fire and shoogle, shoogle SHOOGLE until all the corn is popped. The popcorn will have a lovely smokey flavour and won't need salt, sugar or any other flavouring.

Plus, if you're in the woods, you won't think that melting a huge chunk of salted butter over the top is a great idea. And then do it and eat the lot.

Like I've just done...

What's wrong with fracking?

Hydraulic fracturing, known more commonly as fracking, is when natural gas, called shale gas, is extracted from deposits in sedimentary rock deep below the Earth’s surface.

Up until December 2012, fracking was banned in the UK but the government’s U-turn prompted promises of economic boom and fuel security from some corners, while others told of environmental crisis and false claims of prosperity.

So, what exactly is wrong with fracking and who is telling the truth?

Lots of big words

Now, just to be sure that we all know what we’re talking about, we need to get to grips with the terminology.

The first thing that is confusing is the term ‘natural’ gas. We live in a society where the word ‘natural’ is used to describe products and services that are generally deemed to be healthy, holistic and good for us. Natural gas is an exception. It is a fossil fuel that exists as a gas trapped between rocks formed millions of years ago. Fossil fuels exist in other, more familiar, states of matter such as liquid (oil) and solid (coal). When prehistoric plants and animals died, they were gradually buried under layers of rock and the energy that was within them was stored beneath the ground. The buried remains were put under pressure and over millions of years they turned into fossil fuels and the chemical energy from the plants and animals was stored inside them. Humans, being the apparently clever things that they are, figured out long ago that it was possible to release this energy and use it for useful things, such as warmth, powering machinery and generating electricity, primarily by burning them.

If you’ve been paying attention at all over the last couple of decades you will know that fossil fuels are considered unsustainable as they cannot be readily renewed: there is a finite amount and once it runs out, there will be no more. There is also the problem that when these fuels are burnt, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is carbon dioxide that is supposed to be stored deep below the Earth’s surface and has been proven time and again to be responsible for warming the temperature of our planet, resulting is all sorts of problems, collectively known as climate change. Because of these two factors, energy from fossil fuels is also known as non-renewable, or ‘dirty’ energy.

The opposite form of energy is known as renewable, ‘clean’, or ‘green’ energy such as solar, hydro and wind power, that (as the name suggests) continue for as long as there is sun, moving water or wind without running out. Which is forever really. It does not consume an energy source and it does not produce carbon emissions.

What is shale gas?

Shale gas is the name given to natural gas (mainly methane) that is trapped in a sedimentary rock, known as shale, a mile or so beneath the Earth’s surface. The shale gas is dispersed through the rock in small pockets, not dissimilar to the way that the CO₂ bubbles are dispersed through bread dough. In other words, there may be the odd big bubble but really there are lots and lots of very small amounts spread out over a large area. If you simply drilled a hole downwards, the amount of gas you would reach would be very small and the pressure, or lack of it, would mean that very little would reach the surface. By drilling down into the shale, turning ninety degrees and drilling across, more gas is reachable, but still not enough. What is required is the ability to join the dots. Water, containing all sorts of chemicals and bits and bobs to make it flow better, is forced into the hole under great pressure. This liquid creates hairline fractures (fracking, geddit?) that effectively join up the small pockets of gas and force it to the surface. The liquid even contains small particles of sand or ceramics to prop open the fractures so that the gas can flow more easily.

Amazing really.

Why do we need shale gas? 

In the past, natural gas deposits were relatively easy to access. Great Britain’s discovery of North Sea oil (which confusingly includes natural gas) in the 1970s meant fuel security for a nation that had struggled with massive power cuts at the start of the decade. Those gas reserves are almost finished. It estimated that the major part of the UK’s North Sea oil reserves has already been taken, with the remaining 30-40% predicted to disappear within the next 25 years, with production already in massive decline. Globally it’s acknowledged that we’re running out of oil and coal. Basically, if we want to carry on driving cars, heating homes and flying planes, as well as less obvious but arguably more important things such as producing and transporting food (amongst other things), then we need to find an alternative. Otherwise we’re buggered.

To some minds, the answer lies in the ‘new’ fuel - shale gas. It is so-called as it's only fairly recently that technological developments have allowed this gas to be extracted in an economically viable way.

Why is it good?

An ‘endless’ supply: Those in the ‘fracking-is-good’ camp, rejoice the fact that there is a lot of shale gas tucked away under the towns, cities and countryside of Great Britain. They’ve even found a few large pockets in various parts of the country and estimate that these gas reserves will be gone within the next fifty years. Yes, it’s ok, we can carry on as we have been for a little longer. We’ve found a way to push the problem along by another generation so we don’t have to think about the consequences just yet. It’s the energy equivalent of finding another bottle of booze tucked away at the back of the cupboard just at that point in the party when supplies are running out and it seems as if the merriment will have to stop. A cheer goes up, everyone gets excited and the environmental hangover is instantly forgotten to be dealt with in the morning. Except now it’s going to be an even bigger hangover than it was before that last bottle was found.

It works in America: Many proponents of fracking look to the USA as proof that fracking will provide a huge economic boost. Not only will it provide more fuel to keep industry going and give energy companies the fuel to burn so that they can charge us for electricity, it will also provide employment for clever engineers extracting the gas, lorry drivers who need to move various resources around to make the engineers’ job possible (by transporting millions of litres of water in vehicles, burning more non-renewable fuel) and various other jobs linked to the industry. The problem is, as with most things that compare the US and Great Britain, we’re similar, but different. For those of you that want a detailed analysis of why the perceived successes of the USA won’t be repeated over here, the New York Times published a very comprehensive article earlier this year. For those of you that can’t be bothered to read it, the argument is this: our geology is different. Our rock is different to their rock and we can’t get as much gas out as they did. We won’t make as much money as they did because they managed to get crude oil out at the same time. If you hear someone (i.e. David Cameron or another politician) say that it’s going to make us loads of money and save the economy, they’re lying. And even if they weren’t, it wouldn’t last very long, as we’ve already proved that it’s going to run out.

It’s cleaner than oil or coal: Natural gas does burn cleaner than either coal or oil. It produces less carbon dioxide and less sulphur dioxide. In the USA, due to a supply glut of natural gas in the winter of 2010-11, lower gas prices made the fuel more competitive with coal for electricity, so the energy companies burnt that instead and it helped the U.S. reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions. Which is fantastic, if coal, oil and gas were the only options in terms of energy. While less is definitely better, and a move in the right direction, the green technologies available today, with the right investment in infrastructure, could provide as much energy as we need, for as long as we need it.

Which leads on nicely to…

It will be a source of cheap energy: Hooray! Cheap electricity! Yay! Shale gas promises us a future of cheap electricity. Why? Because of the massive fossil fuel subsidies paid out by governments worldwide perpetuate the myth that fossil fuels provide cheap energy. Because of these subsidies, energy companies are able to keep their prices comparatively low for consumers, compared to their green equivalents.  Figures from the Overseas Development Institute suggest that globally, in 2011, for every $1 spent to support renewable energy, another $6 were spent on fossil fuel subsidies. Would ‘green’ energy costs change if it were afforded the same kind of subsidies? As with many ‘new’ technologies, it is the investment in infrastructure that is expensive. It’s not that the UK can’t produce enough power, we have more off-shore wind farms than all other countries combined. Without investment in an infrastructure that can cope with the less predictable nature of green energy, we end up with the ridiculous situation where wind farms were paid to switch off during Christmas 2013, while thousands of homes were left without power, because the grid couldn’t deal with the extra electricity produced. What a waste.

Why is it bad?

What, apart from being unsustainable, environmentally unfriendly and an economic illusion? Read on.

Water: given the scale of the recent floods, you may think that we have more than enough water to go around. In fact, we could do with getting rid of some. But if there is one thing those events prove, it is that we are far from able to manage our water table and have little or no control over where it ends up. This time last year, the Environment Agency was warning that both droughts and floods in Britain would become commonplace in the future. The events of the last 12 months have seen them proved right. We are in a position where management of a valuable resource is becoming impossible, yet we are encouraging the use of millions of litres of water to frack each well.

A chemical cocktail: notwithstanding the financial and environmental implications of such vast water use, the chemicals involved in the process mean that there are plenty opportunities for spillage of the wastewater, as well as the spillage of fracking chemicals like hydrochloric acid. At various stages, the list of chemical ingredients may include hydrochloric acid, petroleum distillates, ammonium persulphate, calcium chloride, boric acid, citric acid, borate salts, and many more additives. Exposure to high amounts of some common frack-fluid chemicals, like ethylene glycol (a key antifreeze ingredient), have been linked to serious health problems, such as kidney, heart, and nervous-system damage. Others, like sodium chloride (table salt) and guar gum (a common food thickener derived from beans) are generally benign.

Anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of the original fluid volume doesn’t come back out of the well right away and remains underground for years. Equipment failures and well blowouts can send wastewater flowing into nearby rivers and streams adding to the environmental impact and potentially doing untold damage. Fracking is new, the massive cock-ups are still to come, although there have been a few so far…

Flames and tremors: We’ve all heard the tales of flaming taps and radioactive cows in America, but problems are already occurring in the UK. A report published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) concludes that fracking experiments were responsible for earthquakes near Blackpool in early 2011. On 1 April and 27 May 2011, two earthquakes with magnitudes of 2.3 ML and 1.5 ML were detected in the Blackpool area. These earthquakes were immediately suspected to be linked to fracking in the area. As a result of the earthquakes, fracking operations were suspended and the company behind the operations, Cuadrilla Resources, commissioned a number of studies into the relationship between the earthquakes and their operations. Geologists have known for 50 years that injecting fluid underground can increase pressure on seismic faults and make them more likely to slip. The result is an "induced" quake. Given that shale gas deposits can be found under a large number of towns and cities in the UK, would you want fracking to happen under your house?

Burning natural gas, although it may be cheap in terms of money, it is not in terms of climate. When you look at the whole natural gas package, from production through use and waste disposal, it’s clear that natural gas exacts a steep environmental toll, particularly when it’s fracked. In addition to the amount of water involved, and the huge quantities of chemical-containing wastewater, there is air pollution from heavy machinery at the drill sites and hydrocarbons released by the wells, which scientists are just beginning to investigate.

Reliance on fossil fuels, and the associated subsidies, means that investment in sustainable green energies is being delayed. We are simply postponing the inevitable. We may get away with only minimal inconvenience in our lifetime, but our children will bear the consequences of our actions. And what about our grandchildren?

What you can do:

If everyone in the UK who was concerned about fracking did these next three simple steps, imagine the impact we would have. You don’t even need to leave your computer and it takes less time than brewing a cup of tea.

Register your opposition and protect your home: It is unlawful for fracking companies to drill under your home without your permission. Go to www.wrongmove.org to search your postcode and join the legal block today to protect your home and your community.

Check your energy company: The energy supplier that you use will likely be burning varying amounts of fossil fuels to provide you with electricity. Take a look at this information to determine the mix of fuel you energy company is using, then take action.

Change your energy supplier and do some good: one you’ve decided which is the energy supplier for you, it’s time to change. By using unfrack.me you will be showing both suppliers and the Government that you want a sustainable energy supply. And if you need more convincing, by using this route you will also be supporting a social enterprise committed to securing the future of our food system. 

Both energy AND food security? What could be better for a brighter future than that?