The Lock the Gate Alliance has slammed an “educational supplement” distributed to primary schools across WA today as blatant propaganda for the fracking industry.The Ed supplement published in today’s West Australian newspaper and used widely in schools makes misleading claims about fracking including that it is safe in WA.
WA coordinator for Lock the Gate, environmental scientist, Boudicca Cerese described the claims as factually incorrect, poorly researched and outrageously one sided.
The publication comes ahead of a delegation to state parliament tomorrow of Mid-West farmers who will urge MP’s of all political parties to protect vital water supplies from contamination from the fracking industry.
“The gas industry has sunk to a new low by targeting our primary school children with lies about the “cleanliness of fracked fuels,” Ms Cerese said.
“More than 500 peer reviewed studies on fracking and associated processes have been published in the US over the last few years with the majority revealing problems including serious health impacts and water contamination.
“Alarmingly many of the studies emerging in the US show that the most impacted health-wise are pregnant women, babies and young children.
“In WA just a handful of exploration wells have been fracked using modern ‘slickwater’ fracking processes and already some of these have had issues with gas leaks and groundwater impacts.
“In WA we share a similar geology to areas in the United States, such as the Jonah and Pinedale gasfields in Wyoming, where gas fracking in tight sands has been implicated in multiple water contamination events.
“The parliamentary inquiry mentioned in the supplement’s “What a fracas” was not based on any peer reviewed studies.
“Jurisdictions around the world have banned fracking because of the dangers it poses to water and yet in the driest inhabited continent in the world we are risking our water for this short term, destructive industry.
“Our children deserve better than to be fed lies and propaganda.
“We have clean renewable energy at our disposal and in WA we are leading the nation in the residential uptake of solar panels. Our clean wave energy industry is on the cusp of becoming a major player and solar technology and storage is advancing rapidly. That is the clean energy our children should be reading about.”