The Mexican Alliance against Fracking (La Alianza Mexicana contra el Fracking) released a video titled ‘Say No to Fracking’ (Di NO al fracking) yesterday. Mexico City-based Blue Planet Project organizer Claudia Campero Arena was key both in the formation of the Alliance and in the making of the video. The credits in the 5-minute video acknowledge the support of (con apoyo de) the Blue Planet Project.
The Alliance’s media release notes (in Spanish), “The Mexican Alliance Against Fracking released a video with Julieta Venegas, Lumi Cavazos and Ruben Albarran to explain what hydraulic fracturing or fracking and promote its ban on Mexico. …The video explains the drilling process that includes the introduction of millions of litres of water, mixed with sand and toxic to fracture the rock from which oil is extracted. Hence the risk of contamination and the impossibility of treating the toxic waste it generates. Besides the emphasis on the health problems that come with exposure to such compounds.”
Julieta Venegas is a Mexican singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer, who sings pop-rock in Spanish; Lumi Cavazos is a Mexican actress who starred in the film Like Water for Chocolate; and Rubén Albarrán is a Mexican musician who is a member of the alternative rock group Café Tacuba.
The media release highlights, “In Mexico there are still many people who do not know about this oil extraction technique and its impacts on water, air, soil and the health of people’s lives and communities. [The Mexican government’s] energy reform [that promotes fracking] threatens vast territories and millions of people. The video seeks to widely spread word about the risks inherent in the practice so that more citizens demand a ban on fracking.”
Mexico has the fourth largest reserve of shale gas in the world, an estimated 681 trillion cubic feet of it.
The Inter Press Service (IPS) has reported, “According Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission …fracking takes 7.5 million to 30 million litres of water per well to release the gas, while a field of 10 wells would need between 25 million and 40 million litres of water. …[Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company PEMEX] has not clarified where the water comes from [for its planned expansion of shale gas wells] or what is being done with the waste.” Yesterday the newspaper El Financiero reported (in Spanish), “Of the 940 extraction wells that exist all over the country, 349 are in Veracruz and 172 are in the region of Papantla [a city in Veracruz], said Alejandra Jimenez of Mexico Alliance Against Fracking.”
The video – which has had more than 1,000 views in less than a day – encourages people to sign an Avaaz calling on the Mexican Congress to ban fracking.
That petition calls for the Mexican Congress to approve the General Law for the Prohibition of hydraulic fracturing because, “The serious environmental and social impacts of fracking result in violations of the human right to water and sanitation, the right to health and a healthy environment, the right to adequate food and housing, among others; violations that prevent a dignified life for present and future generations.”
The petition has generated 19,601 signatures so far.
To watch the video, please click here.