Wow, great news that DCC have refused planning application for Preston New Road! They have gone into adjournment because the planning officer wants valid reasons for their refusal of the second application for for seismic monitoring. They’ve brought the reasons and refused the second application also! A lot of people supporting this campaign have worked hard to provide facts on this dubious industry and the councillors have had a lot to read and they have come to the right decision in our view.

The Nanas are celebrating with fellow campaigners!

I’ve been filming for days here in the Council Chamber and listening to many sane and good reasons not to Frack our land. Thanks to our Governments ‘insane’ greed for the ‘latest’ fossil fuel to make us independent from importing gas, many people in local communities in this gateway to Frackland are stressed out but still feeling strong.  

This is the beginning of the second day of attending the Development Control Committee meeting at LCC in Preston. Yesterday we heard a very biased report from the Planning Officer who was obviously recommending approval to Cuadrilla’s application. Vice – chair has proposed refusal this morning but they are concerned if it will sustain an appeal!

 Yesterday we heard presentations first of all from various anti-fracking people which took most of the day then the pro- fracking ones in the last section. 

This morning the county councillors considered together with representatives from the Environment Agency, HSE, Public Health England and another body who had been employed to assess potential sound levels. 

At the moment the Committee are being given pressure in a private adjournment as to the sustainability of a refusal. 

I’m someone who likes to watch the skies and I think these days we are experiencing quite heavy trails being left by aircraft and especially on days where the early morning sky is blue. It quite often annoys me as I live in an area which experiences quite a lot of rain anyway and I notice that we tend to get rain the day after the aerial spraying. So I’m not happy with these unnatural white skies where you don’t see natural cloud formations. 

I became aware of research first of all in America on what they called geo-engineering many years ago and that tests had been done on the soils and they found high levels of barium, strontium and aluminium. Here is a link to a U.S. Patents list from 1920 and there are some interesting finds http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/links-to-geoengineering-patents/ and the website I got the link from http://www.chemtrailsprojectuk.com/take-action/directive/#_ftn1

It seems that the U.S military have a lot to do with it and that NATO countries  are being chem-trailed. It is a subject that is not discussed in mainstream media, politics hardly ever and weather forecasters never. So is it about control and money speculation or more sinister agendas?

Is it anything to do with climate change or nano-technology? We in the north-west already have the highest reading of acid rain according to http://www.air-quality.org.uk/09.php and they want to frack here and create more pollution!

There will be demos outside Lancashire County Council from June 23 for the Fracking applications for two sites on the Fylde. We do not consent to be guinea pigs for this corrupt unconventional gas extraction industry which will increase greenhouse gas emissions of methane and turn beautiful agricultural land into a gas field and destroy communities.

For more information watch Fracking Nightmare http://youtu.be/63g9n_uqKnk

On the last leg of my journey back from London after participating in the #EndAusterityNow demo. The weather wasn’t what had been forecast, I think we saw some sunshine after 4 o’clock whilst we were gathered around Parliament Square. It was a festival atmosphere thanks to our carnival music and camaraderie of being with people who feel the need to come together for social action in a peace loving way. This is a movement for change whose time has come!

Many thanks to the People’s Assembly for organising the event and transport!

I’m in London waiting to get back to Lancashire and enjoying the sunshine! Yesterday I was attending the Mass Lobby of Parliament, mainly waiting in Victoria Tower Gardens with people from various parts of the country all gathered in our constituency groups. Only two of us from Rossendale & Darwen and we had made our bunting which was quite long, having been given the materials by Oxfam, who are part of the Climate Coalition. Our MP Jake Berry phoned me following a call to his office, to say he was coming over and we had a short meeting about the issues affecting us locally and globally before he had to return to Parliament for a discussion on the economy. 

I stayed in London because I missed my coach back to Manchester by about 10 minutes due to a long wait for a bus to Victoria and the rush hour traffic. 

So last night I had a walk around Covent Garden and saw a little bit of London nightlife which as you might expect seems to be doing well. This is what seems to be keeping the economy going, more and more consumerism and it’s global. Workers from Europe who can’t get employment there, come here to work, often in hospitality and retail. 

So going back to the issues we face and the fossil fuel industry which has created the lifestyles and infrastructure we now have and is dictating the decisions that politicians make, we see how difficult it is going to be to get change from the top. 

As Gandhi knew, change has to come from what we as individuals do. Society will not want change if it’s going to spoil our habits or addictions, the excesses and consumption that goes with having a (good) job or not and lifestyle.

Change is coming whether we like it or not and we are seeing it with planetary weather changes and upheavals. The poor feel it in their vulnerability, but sooner or later everyone will be affected. Let’s wake up before it’s too late!

I’m going to look into the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Circular Economy, because it is the system itself which has to change and become more co-operative like a circle and not linear and mechanical. More humane economies of care for each other and the planet which has finite resources! It is about using renewables, recycling more in a way that’s less wasteful and using non-toxic chemicals. Jobs can be created in new creative industries instead of what is detrimental to the planet. This would be more respectful and caring and make for a more harmonious world. 

I like this statement by Thomas Huebl, ‘The perfection is in the beauty and the difficulty!’

Perhaps there is nothing new under the sun, just the way we do it?

This is the year of the UN Climate Change talks to be held in Paris in December. Is it going to be more of the same rhetoric with no change to the status quo? The powerful lobbyists getting their way? Certainly the Conservatives in Britain look set for full corporate steam ahead with no care for the environment or the will of the people.

I am heading for London tomorrow for  the Mass Lobby Of Parliament an event to Speak Up for the Love of… an opportunity to meet with my MP and speak about my concerns and ask him ‘what sort of world are we leaving for future generations?’

It is outrageous that the fossil fuel industry gets enormous subsidies from government and that funding has been reduced or withdrawn from the renewables sector which has so much potential and is cleaner and safer.

This is some stark facts from an author of the book called ‘The Green Zone’ published in 2009:

“Here’s the awful truth: even if every person, every automobile, and every factory suddenly emitted zero emissions, the earth would still be headed, head first and at full speed, toward total disaster for one major reason. The military produces enough greenhouse gases, by itself, to place the entire globe, with all its inhabitants large and small, in the most immanent danger of extinction.” —from the Introduction

This new investigation by Barry Sanders examines in detail the environmental impact of US military practices. In a period of unprecedented scrutiny of the social and economic impacts of the US defense policies, Sanders explores a completely different aspect of the situation, declaring military activity, from fuel emissions to radioactive waste to defoliation campaigns, as the single-greatest contributor to the worldwide environmental crisis.

Based on research culled from documents released or leaked by the military, The Green Zone is the first book to provide a comprehensive examination of the relationship between militarism and ecological destruction. Includes a powerful Foreword by Mike Davis.

Barry Sanders is a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant recipient, has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, and is the author of eleven books, including A is for Ox: Violence, Electronic Media, and the Silencing of the Written Word and Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History.

Today I watched a video of police attacking innocent peaceful travellers on their way to a field near Stonehenge in 1985 called Battle of Beanfield at this link https://youtu.be/V1doyDQDZtc . I hadn’t seen this before as I was also living in a community of peaceful earth-loving people with no access to news at the time when I was living overseas. I still do not like to watch violent films for entertainment, especially the gruesome news reports these days.

As a Quaker we have a Testimony to Peace and one of our advices #31 from Advices and queries reads:

We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars’. Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ? Search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war. Stand firm in our testimony, even when others commit or prepare to commit acts of violence, yet always remember that they too are children of God.

#32 : Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?

#33: Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs? Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society’s conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice. social unrest and fear. Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?

This video shows just one of many violent attacks perpetrated globally by the state controlled armies and police on innocent people who were as far as I could see not responding with violence. I wonder and hope that if we all took more responsibility for how we think and feel, wake up and become more conscious beings then our world could be a better place. Without dealing with it first and foremost within ourselves in our own lifestyle we cannot change the world – we have to BE THE CHANGE and action comes as a consequence. 

We have to love and accept ourselves and from that space we can love others and connect with the universal energy that permeates everything.