On the Front Lines of Extreme Energy: Parents Rising Up

All over our country, in places where shale fields are prevalent, across Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, California, and Ohio, parents are speaking out against extreme energy and for a renewable energy future and now. In other states, both upstream and downstream from these flash points, many parents have also come to realize that our children, their health, their future and now – is on the line and in our hands. In too many ways to count, we and our children have become experiments of 21st century extreme energy extraction. The precautionary principal has been tossed out the window and alongside our bodies and those of our children. We have become the hosts to toxic exposure and sites of unfolding and untested experiments.

As we meet and hear from Climate Mamas and Papas all around our country, our hearts break. The shale gas “revolution” is unfolding without regard for harm to our children and the air, water, soil and life that exists near and next to fracking wells and fossil fuel infrastructure. This Frankenstein like experiment isn’t confined to states with shale plays. The infrastructure that carries and moves the dregs and last drops sustaining our unsustainable fossil fuel based society, also is spewing toxins and poisoning into and around children all over our country.

Over the coming months, we will be highlighting for you brave Climate Mamas and Papas – their actions, organizations and events – who are helping all of us take notice and fight back for our children, their future and their now. Today we want to introduce you to Climate Papa extraordinaire, Adam Briggle from Denton, Texas

Watch this short video about Adam, his friends and neighbors who organized and fought a successful David and Goliath battle, which resulted in the banning of fracking within the city limits of Denton, Texas. This battle inspired and gave hope to people around the country and the world.

In Adam’s new book “A Field Philosopher’s Guide to Fracking: How One Texas Town Stood Up to Big Oil and Gas,” Adam applies a philosopher’s toolkit (what he has coined “field philosophy”) to address the real-world practicalities of the issue–––how scientists, engineers, legislators, and members of the industry should all play a part in the work of the field philosopher and help cut through the rhetoric to get to the core of the problem. Briggle argues that anyone at risk to harm should be given a stake in the decisions our politicians and civic leaders make.

Sadly, the Denton win was short lived. The industry charged back, weapons blazing, and Denton has been forced to rescind their ban. But the community remains active and engaged, and is planning it’s next moves. Battles like this continue in Texas and around the country as parents refuse to allow their children’s health and future to be part of a political and economic game, impacting real people, their hopes, health, future and now.

Adam and other Climate Papas and Mamas fight on, even as they face down oil and gas company legal actions and legal teams that are funded by unlimited cash reserves. These entities are fighting to keep fracking and fossil fuels our never-ending addiction. But, we have the truth on our side.

Unfortunately time isn’t with us. We must demand that all organizations, politicians at all levels of government and Climate Mama and Papas everywhere work together to stop enabling and protecting oil and gas companies. There is no way to regulate fracking. Every day that we delay and give cover to current and future practices, is another day that our children and their bodies continue to be used as a giant scientific experiment, We already know from existing scientific research and studies, that fracking and it’s infrastructure has and will continue to have a negative outcome for our children, for our climate and for our very existence.

Here are three ongoing campaigns that, against all odds, are gaining national and international attention and helping to turn the rising tides away from climate disaster and towards the truth and justice for all.

1. Beyond Extreme Energy, Battle to fix the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC
2. Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE battle against Spectra Energy)
3. Protect our Children Coalition

Learn more about these three groups, share their stories and their struggles. We can and must break free from our current addictions and embrace a renewable energy future and now.

Yours,

Climate Mama