Group Mobilizing Big Anti-Fracking 'Earthquake'

"If we stay silent, special interests will win; if we speak out together we have a chance."

Activists led by 350.org are hoping to create their own "earthquake" in Ohio by organizing the biggest anti-fracking gathering ever to mobilize forces and stop the controversial practice.

The action is being led by the 350.org Action Fund with grassroots leaders from Ohio's anti-fracking movement, as well as Gasland director Josh Fox.

The activists plan on gathering in Columbus, Ohio, from June 14 to 17.

On the Don't Frack Ohio! website, organizers write that the fracking industry has caused earthquakes in Ohio, and they urge people to mobilize forces to create an "earthquake" of their own. "Instead, we need to aim for an 8.0 on the political scale-we need to shake Columbus with the biggest anti-fracking gathering yet seen in the U.S."

The group highlights the destruction fracking leaves in its wake including earthquakes, water and air pollution and economic ruin for communities.

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Don't Frack Ohio! Invitation to action:

Dear friends-

The fracking industry has been causing earthquakes in Ohio. So it's time we caused one of our own.

No, not a 4.0-on-the-Richter-scale temblor like the one that shook Youngstown on New Year's Eve. Instead, we need to aim for an 8.0 on the political scale-we need to shake Columbus with the biggest anti-fracking gathering yet seen in the U.S.

Save these dates: June 14-17, in Columbus. The 14-16th will be dedicated to training and movement building, and on the 17th we'll be taking over the Ohio statehouse for a people's assembly that will 'pass' legislation that Ohioans need to stop this destructive practice. You can sign up here, but we need you to do more-please spread the word to friends and colleagues. And get ready for the caravan that will cross the state in mid-May to raise awareness - we'll have much more on that front soon.

Other governors, from New York, to Colorado, to even California should be on notice that a powerful movement against fracking is brewing in their backyards.Fracking is a great mistake for many local reasons. By now we've seen its effects on local water supplies: the dead creeks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the wells poisoned to the point where residents can't drink from their faucets. We've watched fracking cause the worst air pollution in the U.S., even in Wyoming counties so remote and unpopulated that they lack stoplights. We've seen enough to know that communities are as easy to fracture as rocks-that neighbors have been turned against neighbors, and towns blighted as they turn into industrial zones crisscrossed by endless tanker trucks.

Gov. Kasich wants to bring all this to Ohio-and why not, since the industry donated $213,000 to his last campaign? His legislation would put only the slightest and most token reins on the industry. Foreign countries (France, say) have banned fracking, and several states including New Jersey and Vermont are poised to prevent the practice; in New York there's been a de facto four-year moratorium.

Ohio is just the latest of many states poised to become a sacrifice zone. But as the nation's attention turns to Ohio for the election this fall, it is a fitting place to make a stand and say that this process must stop once and for all. Of course we won't stop here either: other governors, from New York, to Colorado, to even California should be on notice that a powerful movement against fracking is brewing in their backyards.

It's hard to overstate what's at stake here. We used to think that natural gas might be a help in the fight against climate change-but new studies have demonstrated that so much heat-trapping methane leaks from fracking fields that it may be just as dirty as coal.

If we stay silent, special interests will win; if we speak out together we have a chance.Ohio is also the dumping ground for fracking wastewater from many other states, and untold thousands of barrels of toxic and radioactive poison is injected underground into dozens wells in Ohio every day. This pollution is an inevitable result of any form of fracking, and if we stop the gas industry from treating Ohio as its personal dump, we may very well succeed in slowing down fracking operations across the northeast region and beyond.

Ohio used to be one of the country's leaders in renewable power-the solar and wind industries were sparking a manufacturing renaissance. But the 18-story gas-drilling rigs along the Ohio River are starting to make life hard for renewable energy: because they don't have to pay for the environmental damage their drilling does, they can undercut everyone else's price. "It's kind of taken the wind out of wind," one businessman explained.

We can't let that happen-we can't let Ohio turn into a pincushion, pricked with drill rigs and shaken by earthquakes. If we stay silent, special interests will win; if we speak out together we have a chance. Not a guarantee-the fossil fuel industry is awfully rich. But we're going to give it a try.

Please join us June 14-17 in Columbus!

Bill McKibben - 350.org

Josh Fox - Director - Gasland

Michael Kieschnick - Executive Director, CREDO Action

Alison Auciello - Food and Water Watch

Katie McChesney - Ohio Student Environmental Coalition

Teresa Mills - Center for Health, Environment and Justice

Vanessa Pesec - President, for Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection

Ellie Rauh - Fracking Coordinator Buckeye Forest Council

Molly Shea

Ohio Alliance for People and Environment

Ohio Fracktion

Athens County Fracking Action Group

Frack Free Ohio

Click here to sign up for the action

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