Many people are surprised to find out that more than 80% of the gas extracted in B.C. comes from fracking. That gas is piped down from Fort St. John to the lower mainland, making its way into pipelines like Coastal GasLink – currently being forced through without consent across Wet’suwet’en territories. And it’s the same gas you might be using to heat your home or fuel your gas stove.
Most of the fracking wells in the province are classified as deep wells, which use ten times more water than a conventional fracking well. I saw first-hand last summer how this practice is directly threatening the health of local communities and critical water sources.
Fracking is also one of the province’s largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 86 times more toxic for the atmosphere than CO2.Methane emissions in the province have been historically under-reported too. The climate impacts of fracking and using LNG will affect all of us, for generations to come.
I know that Fracking the Peace will be a powerful tool for motivating a mass movement to tackle the harms of the fracking industry and advocate for alternatives – and it couldn’t be coming at a more urgent time. We need to stand up in solidarity with frontline communities like the Wet’suwet’en actively fighting against the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline. We need to address the impacts of the fracking and LNG industry on the climate, the local environment, and water sources. And we need to do all of that while providing a just transition for workers away from extractive industries, and towards economic opportunities and alternatives – especially in places like northeastern B.C. I won’t lie to you, creating this shift is not going to be easy. But doing the impossible is just what the mighty Stand.earth community was born to do.
Looking forward to seeing you there,
Kiki Wood
Senior Oil and Gas Campaigner
Stand.earthP.S. If you can’t make it, we encourage you to consider planning your own screening for your community (there’s no size too big or too small). Sign up here to express interest and receive more information – we have a step by step toolkit to guide you.