Quebec citizens' movement against shale gas

Marchers from all across Quebec arrive in Montreal, 18 June: (c) Greenpeace

For two months, protesters marched from Rimouski to Montreal, through 33 municipalities threatened by shale gas drilling. (See these videos of the start and finish of the 500-mile march). They call for a 20 year Moratoire d'une génération on shale and oil exploration, and on nuclear power. Provincial government officials have tried to duck the issue, with self-contradictory claims that “experimental” drilling can continue, that no drilling will be done while the “expert review” proceeds (excluding environmental and citizen groups), and that the BAPE review is as effective as a moratorium.

A former premier, Lucien Bouchard, now spokesman for the gas lobby, threatens lawsuits and “loss of confidence” by international investors. He is only one of a number of insiders, PQ as well as Liberal, who have taken the revolving door out of government into lucrative positions in the industry. Quebec's Liberal Environment Minister accuses the rapidly growing citizen movement of spreading “falsehoods” (citation in English, en français). But a similar protest movement is mushrooming in France. According to Cornell University's Robert Howarth and Canadian geologist David Hughes of PCI, shale gas -- far from its ballyhoo of “clean” energy -- over its lifecycle is dirtier than coal.

The spin battle pits speculators against citizens. To soothe the market, gas company CEO Michael Binnion avers Quebec's environmental assessment is “more a political and education exercise to ease Quebec into shale gas acceptance than a scientific inquiry.” Exactly what protesters fear. A "shocked" Premier Charest says Binnion's statement has dropped “a match in the powderkeg" of la belle province.

In New York state, the draft of a similar 900-page environmental impact study has just been just released. The industry claims it shows fracking is “safe”. According to the Republican-appointed commissioner, it must be separated 4000 feet from city water supply areas and major aquifers. But environmentalists remain unconvinced. New York's moratorium and review process will drag on into 2012.

Citizen fears of contamination and coverups have not been eased by a July 1 fire in Blackfalds AB, where fireballs and explosions occurred in barrels of “drilling mud” from oil and gas companies  (videos). That's some strange kind of mud! A pillar of black smoke could be seen 20 miles away. Vacuum trucks are sucking up the polluted water. Officials refuse to reveal the chemicals involved. 

An official Quebec report Dec 2010 found over half of the"fracks" studied are leaking methane --  a greenhouse gas 72 times worse than CO2. Since then, Ministers offer nothing but delays and spin. Le Devoir Jul 20 says the government fears to crack down, lest it find itself, instead of the companies, responsible for a costly and perhaps impossible tech fix.

Single mom brings farms to the Bronx - one of the Changents

Tanya Fields is one of hundreds of young Americans in Changents.com, where her story first appeared.

I am a single mom in the South Bronx who quit her day job to become a full time activist. I am now seeking to create the first Hunt's Point Urban Farm and creating a nonprofit that would create a network of urban farms in the Boogie Down!

I have always been a big mouth and growing up on in the city of New York I had to be resourceful. So it is no wonder that my work in the community now depends on my resourcefulness and big mouth. I am an environmental justice activist, mom of three burgeoning revolutionaries and an upcoming urban farmer.

By day I am the Operations Manager at the Majora Carter Group, the original South Bronx environmental justice trailblazer. By night -- and weekends and holidays to boot -- I am working to create community programs to address food justice and remediate public health issues that I know affect all too many folks of color in the ‘hood.

3 years ago when I realized that I was unhappy in the corporate sector. I worked while raising my family to put myself through school only to find myself in an high demand, unfulfilling job on the lower rungs of the corporate latter and in the evening I myself coming home to a community frauught with [garbage] transfer stations, smells from water treatment facilities and an asthmatic child. I knew there had to be a way to help myself, my children and my community. I started volunteering with a local community group, Mothers on the Move where I excelled as a fearless speaker, a capable leader and an effective organizer and quickly caught the eye of the local press and other activists including Majora Carter.

Suddenly the big mouth that my mother warned would get me in trouble was stirring up trouble, but in the best way possible. I became known to community members and local elected officials as candid (sometimes to a fault), witty, relatable and articulate.

In the three years that I have dedicated myself to environmental work, I have started an organization called The BLK Projek which focuses on food justice particularly as it relates to public and mental health for underserved women of color. It includes using yoga to improve women's health and sex lives with sustainability, organic food and nutrition. My latest challenge has been rallying the cause to place an urban farm on a piece of underdeveloped NYC Parks Dept land...

About 7 years ago, I was a burgeoning spoken-word poet and emcee. My future work includes bringing hip-hop and 'hood culture together with the environmental work that I do. Most of the "isms” our people feel stem from environmental degradation. To change that, we must rise up and fight for the resources that will create a better, greener, healthier 'hood.

If I can be one of many successful architects of that -- and raise and inspire future architects -- then I will have been both an effective environmental leader and mother...

*****

Changents is a US social network started by Deron Triff and Alex Hoffman, now going worldwide with Earthkeepers; it is sponsored by Timberland clothing, and seeks more partners.