Shale Gas Presentation in Perth-Andover on September 18, 2013
Joe Gee photo
Upstream Media for Citizens Awareness will be holding a presentation regarding shale gas and the impacts this industry will have on New Brunswick. Four guest speakers well knowledgeable in this field will be joining us for discussion on the economic and environmental effects hydraulic fracturing will have on communities that aren’t located in a shale gas lease area, the potential for renewable energy, the quality of NB fresh water reserves. They will also be taking a brief look at the past and how New Brunswick has managed its greatest resource, the forest.
Speaker Mark D’Arcy will present the Seven Facts About Shale Gas– A Citizen’s Guide.
Fact #1: The world has run out of easy, cheap oil. We need to start a transition to a Green Economy to strengthen our economy and create jobs and prosperity for everyone.
Fact #2: The technology is very young and the shale gas well integrity has unacceptably high failure rates of over 5%.
Fact #3: The fracking fluids, flowback water and air leakage from shale gas development contains unacceptably high levels of disease causing chemicals.
Fact #4: Our air will become contaminated with human carcinogens and smog in areas of high shale gas development.
Fact #5: Our drinking water will become contaminated with human carcinogens in areas of high shale gas development.
Fact #6: Our regulations will not protect the environment and human health from the effects of shale gas development.
Fact #7: Shale gas is not a cleaner fuel for fighting climate change.
Guest speaker Stephanie Merrill will focus her presentation on water and how the expanding oil and gas industries in New Brunswick are jeopardizing every fresh water reserve in the province.
These industries will destroy most, if not all, of the fresh water sources we depend upon.
In the not too distant future the people of New Brunswick could expect to buy most of their drinking water from a store.
And whenever corporations obtain a monopoly on a vital resource, such as fresh water, the price skyrockets.
All the jobs in the world will not compensate or pay for the loss of our fresh, pure, life-sustaining water!
Fiddleheads are an iconic symbol of New Brunswick, and our lush river valleys and wetlands.
Any oil or gas pollution in our water will mean that fiddleheads will become contaminated and be unfit for human consumption. This will result in government prohibition of the selling of fiddleheads due to the health risks.
New Brunswick without water and fiddleheads is unimaginable…
Shale Gas Presentation
September 18th, 2013
Royal Canadian Legion
Perth-Andover, NB
Doors Open at 7:00pm
Shale Gas Presentation Guest Speakers
Jim Emberger is a retired software developer, environmental educator and former Investigator for the U.S. Federal Energy Administration. He has been a researcher, writer and spokesperson for the province-wide shale gas opposition, appearing on radio, television and in print, and has made presentations on energy topics around the province. He lives in Taymouth, NB.
Charles Thériault lives in Kedgwick N.B and has worked at his craft of independent filmmaking for the last 36 years. He got hooked on the craft at the age of 16 when he directed his first short film for the National Film Board of Canada. Presently he is working on an documentary concerning the state of our public forest here in N.B.
Charles will describe in broad strokes how the N.B. forest industry has come to control the management of our richest renewable resource in the province to the point where the forest provides no benefit to the owners at all but provides large benefits to the managers. He hopes you will leave his lecture with the conviction that the industry must be separated from the management of our forest, as has been done recently in B.C., Ontario and Québec.
Mark D’Arcy lives in downtown Fredericton with his wife Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy, where both have been active in city development issues. In 2007, Mark helped create the Friends of the UNB Woodlot, a group of concerned UNB faculty, students, alumni, and residents. In April of 2010, the Friends of the UNB Woodlot were awarded the Milton F. Gregg Conservation Award by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, in recognition for their efforts to conserve this important piece of forested wetlands.
In the summer of 2010, the systematic dismantling of wetland and watershed protection policies by the Province soon followed with the introduction of shale gas development in New Brunswick. The two were definitely linked. Mark joined others in the greater Fredericton area, including First Nations people, and became active in the anti-shale gas movement. In October of 2012, Mark D’Arcy was awarded the Phoenix Award by the New Brunswick Environmental Network, in recognition for his “bold leadership, creative strategies, and tireless devotion to raising public awareness about and mounting resistance to shale gas exploration”. It was also during this month that the group of very active shale gas activists formed the Fredericton chapter of the Council of Canadians.
Stephanie Merrill is the director of the Freshwater Protection Program for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. She actively works on contributing to better water protection policy, including wetlands, surface water standards and climate change. Stephanie has also spent considerable time researching, writing, presenting and speaking about the impacts and risks of shale gas development. She graduated from UNB with a Masters in Forestry and Environmental Management and has been a researcher at the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University on watershed management and community sustainability.
