"We apologize for the inconvenience caused while we frack your town." says the sign on the streets of Knutsford, England - a town in Chancellor George Osbourne's Tatton constituency.
During morning rush hours on Monday, March 4th, Greenpeace protesters arrived in large scale to give people in Cheshire, county where licenses for gas exploration have been issued to a few fracking companies, a taste of what their life will be like if George's Osbourne energy strategy to fight against UK's energy problems through fracking is put in force locally.
According to Greenpeace, "Fracking is how you get shale gas out of the ground. You drill holes, then inject water and chemicals at high pressure in order to fracture shale rock and force out the gas". And oppositely to Chancellor's Osbourne's claim, energy experts say that fracking not only will leave the UK dependent on expensive, polluting gases, but it won't make energy bills go down as well.
Thus, in order to raise awareness to the fracking gas issue and to eventually stop Osbourne's problematic energy plan, Greenpeace protesters re-brand the Chancellor's Constituency Office with signs of their fictional fracking company "Frack & Go", and set up a giant drilling rig across the street from the building, in Village Green.
See the action in the video below:
The action could be accompanied live through the hashtag #FrackAndGo on Twitter, and also on Greenpeace UK's Facebook page. Both Facebook and Twitter accounts are linked to the organization's Frack & Go website, which streamed the action live to their audience.
Greenpeace did a very well done job engaging their audience to their protest through social network, and if you visit their website you can actually see how strongly connected with Twitter and Facebook they are: Greenpeace UK: Frack & Go Website
During the protest, Greenpeace UK also used several several signs playing with the "Fracking" word in order to call attention of the people around, and I think that was great!
This environmental campaign by Greenpeace UK was incredible! It truly did give Knustsford people a feel of how their lives would be like if Chancellor's Osbourne plan is put in force, and really impacted the way they feel about the issue. Their response was so strong that a poll in Tatton commissioned by Greenpeace from ComRes, after the protest, showed that more than half of Osbourne's constituents oppose fracking and would rather opt for a carbon-free electricity system.
Now here is my question for you: what do you think of Greenpeace's campaign? Would it work for you if you were a resident of Cheshire's county? Because, it did for me!
Thank you for reading my blog. See you later,
Isa
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