Hydro fracturing an environmental and humanitarian threat

Worries over the safety of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, as a method to drill for oil and natural gas continue to grow across the world including Australia.
Since the very first commercial use of hydraulic fracturing, oil and gas industries have been maintaining that it is harmless, as long as the fracking process is carried on correctly. If this is the case, there is no reason for them to be hesitant in disclosing the details of the process including the statistics of which chemicals are pumped into the ground?
An exhaustive scrutiny of the process exposes that there are multifaceted human and environmental issues, ranging from water contamination, Disease-causing chemicals (93 percent of identified chemicals are dangerous: 25 percent cancer; 37 percent endocrine disruptors; 52 percent neurotoxins) are caused by this process.
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Moreover, Earthquakes (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio and West Virginia have recently reported earthquakes linked to fracking operations. Accidental spills and criminal dumping (documented in every state, and Canada, in fracking operations are reported.
The controversial hydraulic fracturing process pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and fatal chemicals into the ground in order to release natural gas from rock — given the human and environmental hazards, thousands of environmentalists, human rights defenders urge that there is an acute need for legislation against the use of fracturing internationally.
Critics say it can lead to contamination of water wells, rivers and streams. Other risks include leaks, spills and explosions.
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Company planning fracking operation in Leitrim:
An Australian mining company is seeking to exploit a substantial gas field on the Fermanagh/Leitrim border with the promise of hundreds of jobs from a multi-billion euro investment. The project is being opposed by campaigners who claim that the form of mining being proposed – fracking – would harm the environment.

Although the process of fracking is more commonly used in the U.S. it’s fast being used in other countries. In Australia the debate over hydraulic fracturing has been reignited last November 2011 over a report that fracking conducted by Quadrille Resources which is 41% owned by Australian drilling company AJ Lucas, was the cause of two earthquakes near the British town of Blackpool in April and May. Environmentalists like the Lock the Gate Alliance are calling for a rigorous regulatory approach to shale gas fracking.
Hydraulic fracturing has been suspended in NSW but it is still being used in coal-seam gas mining in other states.
Coal Seam Gas Exploration and Extraction in Australia:
With the realities of climate change/chaos upon us, the scramble for sustainable energy sources is rapidly expanding. One potential source of energy in the Australian context is thought to be the extraction of gas from coal seam gas (CSG), shale gas, basin-centered gas and tight gas. Some commentators have falsely compared this ‘unconventional’ gas extraction to a new gold rush and a way to ensure our energy future. It’s estimated that up to 80% of all natural gas wells in the next 10 years will use fracking. But the consequences of this unconventional technique are drastically destructive.
Farmers in southern Queensland are increasingly concerned about the rapid expansion of the state’s coal seam gas industry:

There are already a number of coal seam gas projects in Australia, chiefly in the Surat-Bowen basin in Queensland, but also in NSW. To give an indication of the scale of the proposed operations up to 20,000 – 40,000 wells could be drilled in the Surat and Bowen Basins in the next 20 years alone.
But the landholders claim drastic impacts, the extraction process have on the quality of water and soil. Given the far-reaching impacts of hydraulic fracturing, the farmers protest before the Australian parliament.
Australian farmers, and environmental activists while blaming the multinational corporations for poisoning their water, soil and environment, established that the government forsaking environmental protections in pursuit of foreign investment stripped the international laws for the protection of environment.
If (hydraulic fracturing is permitted, the multinational companies that now own the natural gas reserves will extract the gas for next to nothing and make global profits off it, liquefied and transported overseas to be sold back to people of Australia, while leaving water contaminated, air polluted and the natural gas supply depleted. The government is trading people’s health and future for profit—huge profit for the subsidized gas industry.
Tourism Industry goes against the mining Industry in Australia:
A state tourism body supported a protest group in its fight against an energy company in the Scenic Rim, south –west of Brisbane. Protesters have staged a week-long blocked at a CSG exploration site near Beaudesert, west of Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The Queensland’s Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) highly supports the campaign to keep The Scenic Rim for independent scrutiny of Arrow Energy’s operations. The impact of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing has debilitating implications on tourism industry of any region.
Industrial- scale geographically dispersed fracking will severely damage the northwest Australian landscapes’ potentiality to attract tourists. Once the Laugh Allen Basin becomes known for methane smells, industrial compressor stations, loud noise, will flare-offs, bad roads, deteriorating poisonous water quality and massive truck traffic, the word will get out and the area will no longer be the wonderful “natural” vacation destination it is now.
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It’s about time, the Australian government irrespective of which party and its bureaucratic subsidiaries opened their eyes to the devastation of life and habitat as it is being destroyed by multinational corporations and their ideas of “economics”. They ought to be aware that people not only in Australia, but all around the world are waking up to the politics that are rapidly degenerating the Global environment and social attitude through all industrial chemical ecosystem poisoning that is taking place today.
It’s time to stop believing in incompetent bureaucracies making decisions and writing the law books on behalf of governments that are not governments but mere puppets under a global manipulation regime where destruction is only a means to a “viable economy”. There no longer is a fine line between government and corporation. Your government is a corporation. Their motivation never was the welfare of masses or anything related to environment, ecosystem, humanity, wild or domestic animals

Media – an opinion builder

Media and Human Rights

 The media, at least in our highly mediated/industrialized societies, is one of the pillars of power. That’s why we need to become skilled at engaging journalists and news editors in giant media corporations, and alternative grassroots information outfits alike.

We need to be interested in “engaging” the media not just as another constituency with some influence, but because it is one of the ESSENTIAL levers of power. The media is integral to civil society. The media — and this may be a worldwide phenomenon — bolsters or undermines progress. It makes or breaks regimes. It fosters, or undoes, a culture of respect for human rights.

Role of mass media in protecting Human Rights

          Now we are living in the modern technological world. It is easy to know any type of things within seconds throughout the world.  It is easy to protect human rights with the help of mass media. Mass is called as fourth estate. With the help of mass media it is easy to motivate about human rights each state of the citizens in the world. Our daily newspapers focus on human rights. It is true that government of the each state in the world have taken good steps to protect human rights because of mass media. It is very important the Poets, Writers and Journalists should take care to protect human rights through their poems, books, novels and articles.

So while the media has made us realize we live in a global village, the views it carries can build, or destroy, each of our own individual huts.

In the age of the all-pervading “Branding”, billionaire public relations firms and mass manufactured opinion, the media holds a measure of social power that just can’t be ignored That is why indeed, now more than ever, we simply cannot escape engaging the media deliberately, compellingly, in the struggle for human rights.

We are very consciously using “Engage” – an important word to remember – for this discussion. We’ll be exploring together the many ways we do and can engage the media. We’ll also utilize one of the tried and true tools of the journalists’ trade – the 5 W’s and H – “why, who, what, where, when, and how” of engaging media in human rights.

Need of basic legal knowledge        

It is regrettable to note that in none of the educational institutes, colleges or universities in which journalism courses are conducted do topics like the Pakistan Constitution or human rights find any place. The apathy of these institutes towards these issues is to be deplored. A journalism student, aiming to become a reporter or a correspondent with a newspaper or a cable TV news network must know precisely that it is ‘Freedom of Expression’ under Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan which empowers him to express his views without any fear or favor according to his conscience.     

Although the concept of fundamental rights under our constitution and human rights are quite synonymous, the reporting on the violation of human rights is a little difficult. A bare minimum knowledge of criminal justice system is essential to a reporter, if he or she wishes to report on human rights. 

At present, very few newspapers have reporters who are exclusively covering the legal beat. Frequently, the crime reporter who interacts with the police department is asked to cover the court reporting as well. Here again, there is a catch. Very few, indeed no, crime reporters are law graduates. Law graduates can earn more money by entering the legal profession.

It is a common belief that the violation of human rights takes place only at police stations or in prison. This is true to some extent. But there are other areas too, like railways, environment, health care, education, development, employment, etc., where the violations of human rights do take place but it is seldom reported. 

The violation of human rights, no matter in which sphere of life they occur, essentially takes place because ‘human values’ are not recognized in the first place. The importance of the human rights needs to be taught from the primary level in schools, when children are the right age to absorb them.

Police are often accused of violating human rights, but sadly, no effort is made by the home department to include the subject in the curriculum of police training academies. Here lies an opportunity to train policemen about the importance of respecting and observing human rights and the consequences of the breaching them.

The media can play a pivotal role by way of building up public opinion, and also by impressing on the government the need to incorporate the subject of human rights, both in schools and also in police training academies, and also in the training institutes for municipal councils, corporations and other revenue departments.

Ad-revenue, the priority of the Press

It is a common experience, at least in the big cities like Karachi and Lahore, that matters relating to de-reservation of plots by the builders, or the violation of environmental norms by the companies are rarely reported, as the reporting about their misdemeanors might deprive the newspapers of potential advertisements.

The print media these days is undergoing lots of changes, thanks to the challenges thrown up by the electronic media. Time was when the editor was ‘The Boss’ of the newspaper and it was he who used to call the shots with the management. Now a newspaper is treated like any other manufacturing product, with the marketing (also known as ‘Response’) department at the helm of affairs. The editor is being reduced to a ‘hired laborer’, working purely on a contract basis.

Such a sea change in the attitude of the management of some of the newspapers means that they are unlikely to antagonize the government by reporting stories relating to the violation of human rights, lest these stories rob them of the advertisements issued by the Directorate of Audio and Visual Publicity (DAVP). This is a dangerous trend from the human rights activists’ point of view.

           A young journalist, Malik Siraj Akbar has once rightly said that,“We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet”. It is true. It is our Government duty to give such type of education for each and every student in the country. Through education only we can solve all types of problems. Through education it is easy to motivate peoples about moral values and human rights. Education gives knowledge, strength and creativity. By proper using of technology, it is possible to become a developed country in the world in future. ‘Save human rights and give safe life to everyone.

 

Martin Luther King was not a king.
He did not have horses, a crown, or anything.
He preached a lot and had a dream
Of everybody eating ice cream.