One story in today’s news has shocked me! According to the latest reports, David Cameron is now offering a tax break incentive to UK council’s who approve Fracking projects in their area.
As an environmentalist who does not support Fracking, this is nothing short of a cash bribe! Everyone knows that the recession has caused local councils all over the country to suffer and cut back but why would anyone want to accept dirty money in exchange for the destruction of our environment?
The English countryside has already been under copious amounts of threat in the last few years due to new road projects and housing developments but the government obviously doesn’t want to stop there.
Environmental and conservation groups working across the UK have been warning us of the dangers that come with Fracking activity, yet it is still being promoted by the people in power, it’s absolute madness!
In my opinion, there are reasons why it has been banned in other European countries, such as France. Fracking activity has been proven to cause earth tremors and has been reported to cause water contamination in the United States. I could go on to list over 20 facts that are just a danger to humans and even more that are destructive to the environment but I don’t want to steer away from the debate! Yes, I agree that we do need to secure our energy sources but why does it seem to be that Fracking comes out on top despite all these warnings?
The high amount of Fracking activity across the United States is not something that the UK should look up to, research has shown that this has not been a positive thing for American citizens living in close proximity to the drilling wells or the environment around them.
What did the government honestly think was going to happen when they were discussing this, not so, genius plan? I wonder if they thought that environmental groups weren’t going to see through their motives and just go along with it?
This really has given the national media and environmentalists an opportunity to show what is going wrong with today’s concern about our planet, the government can’t even seem to appreciate how absurd this really is!
I can only hope that councils across the UK look beyond the cash incentives that are being offered and think about the long-term future of the environment. Even by offering this, it puts local councils in a really difficult position because they could potentially lose support from residents in their areas, whichever way they decide to go.
The incentive boasts the potential to guarantee energy supplies, this is not a factual statement, it is built upon predictions. I really do not think that David Cameron has seriously thought about the public reaction he is going to get from today onwards concerning this announcement.
In my mind, he is blatantly ignoring the facts and trying to put a price on our safety and the environment, something which I don’t think will prove too popular. We are already losing ancient woodlands and precious parts of natural land in this country but this announcement makes me worry even more for what we have left! If councils were to go ahead and approve Fracking sites, we would see a trail of destruction everywhere we went.
I would love to know what you readers think of this.
Do you agree with what David Cameron is offering? Comment below.
