Maria Turkenburg-van Diepen, Researcher in Science Education, University of York, Lynda Dunlop, Senior Lecturer in Science Education, University of York, and Lucy Atkinson, Research Fellow in Education, University of York.
In just three years, calls for climate action have seen the Fridays For Future movement grow from one girl in one country – Greta Thunberg in Sweden – to millions of teenagers all over the world. Despite this, a survey conducted in 2020 found that most young people were unlikely to take part in peaceful marches. Our research looks at why this might be.
We conducted a qualitative study with 121 young people in areas of England and Northern Ireland where fracking had either been a lived reality or a possibility. We wanted to understand how these teens felt about both the environmental issues local communities were worried about, and the political processes in place to deal with them.
Many of the teenagers we spoke to were disillusioned with the politics. They also felt unsure that protesting would make the kind of difference they hoped for. Instead, they were keen to find other ways to make their voices heard.
IGas will be allowed to continue pumping waste, despite claims it will turn the national park into a toxic waste dump. The company, which is also trying to set up fracking wells, has been granted an environmental permit to reinject radioactive water produced at oil and gas sites back into the South Downs. IGas said it will stop bringing waste from other sites to dump in the South Downs while talks continue with the national park authority.
The consent, granted by the Environment Agency (EA), allows IGas to inject up to 80m3 per day – more than 17,500 imperial gallons. If IGas injected the maximum every day, there would be enough liquid to fill an Olympic swimming pool in about a month. The permit allows IGas to dispose of formation or produced water that comes to the surface along with gas during oil extraction.
At Singleton, it could contain naturally occurring radioactive material, known as NORM. Disposal of formation water is a major cost for the oil and gas industry and often involves regular and frequent tanker journeys to waste facilities.
Extinction Rebellion have announced they will be two street theatre actions across the G7 weekend.
The first event, ‘Drowning in Oil,’ will be held at 3:30pm on Friday 11 at Porthminster Beach, on the north end of Harbour Beach, in St Ives.
The second theatrical protest, ‘Dirty Scrubbers,’ will take place at 11:30am on Saturday 12 outside Barclays on Killigrew Street and HSBC on Market Street in Falmouth.
“In 2019 alone Barclays financed activities linked to biodiversity risk to the tune of over £70 billion.”
“Since the Paris Agreement in 2015 when we signed up to drastically reduce all climate warming activities, what have Barclays done?
“They’ve actually increased investment, by a whopping $145 billion.”