Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo among hundreds urging Ireland to call for global fracking ban

Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo are among more than 700 signatories calling upon Ireland to introduce a UN proposal to end global fracking.

Shane O'Brien
@shamob96
Jul 20, 2021

Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo has been part of the anti-fracking movement in the US for more than a decade. GETTY IMAGES

Hollywood stars Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo have joined an international coalition of scientists and activists calling on Ireland to endorse a UN resolution that would ban fracking around the world.

Ruffalo and Fonda joined more than 730 international environmental campaign groups, frontline community organizations, and climate activists who signed a letter urging the Irish Government to propose a United Nations resolution
calling for a global ban on fracking.

More than 100 Irish groups are among the signatories of the letter which calls for "a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection, and human-rights grounds."

READ MORE
Cher tells fan Leo Varadkar to dump fracking after Dublin concert

Edward Ketyer, a US pediatrician who signed the letter, said that an international ban on fracking would improve public health around the world.

"A global ban on fracking will improve public health and safety everywhere, not just in communities that have been damaged and scarred by unconventional oil and gas operations," said Ketyer, who is president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.

Sandra Steingraber, of the Science and Environmental Health Network, said that fracking leads to several health problems, including complications of pregnancy, cancer, mental health impacts, and damage to the heart and lungs.

Meanwhile, the Irish Centre for Human Rights said that the practice was "incompatible with human rights". The group additionally said that "the dangers posed by fracking cannot be mitigated through regulation".

Irish magician Keith Barry also signed the letter and said that this was an "incredible opportunity" to ban fracking around the world.

"I was proud when Ireland took its part and banned fracking. This is an incredible opportunity, and I want us to lead again. Poorer countries depend on us. We've been there. This would be an incredible achievement if Ireland were to lead the way on a global ban. Let's do this," Barry said.

READ MORE
WATCH: Mark Ruffalo urges Ireland to “do the right thing” in Green Party webinar

The campaign comes one month after US company New Fortress Energy confirmed that it would reapply for planning permission to develop the Shannon Liquefied National Gas (LNG) terminal in Tarbert, County Kerry.

However, the Irish Government has taken steps to ban the import of fracked gas and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said that "it would not be appropriate to permit or proceed with development of any LNG terminals in Ireland, including the Shannon LNG project".

Ryan said that the government's position was pending a review of the security of energy supply for Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems.

The €650 million plans call for a 600 megawatt (MW) power plant with an integrated 120 MW battery storage facility at a 600-acre site in Tarbert. The project also includes plans for an offshore LNG terminal capable of receiving and storing natural gas that would be moored at a jetty in the Shannon Estuary.

Previous plans for the site were shelved in 2019 following widespread criticism from international activists and celebrities over the import of fracked gas from the US to Ireland.

READ MORE
Mark Ruffalo implores Ireland to oppose fracked gas terminal

Mark Ruffalo, who has been involved in the US anti-fracking movement for more than a decade, spoke out about plans to build the terminal in 2019.

The actor said that the import of fracked gas to Ireland from America would have a devastating impact on American communities.

"You are creating what the oil and gas industry themselves call sacrificial zones where there are sacrificial human beings to bring you the gas that you believe you need for a quick fix that isn’t going to fix the long-term problems of energy," Ruffalo told the Irish Independent in October 2019.

"I implore you to think for the future, think for the children, think for the people who are immediately being harmed here in the United States and do the right thing here."

Eamon Ryan said recently that he sees no realistic prospect of an LNG terminal being built in Kerry because it is contrary to government policy.

Ireland became the fourth EU member state to ban fracking when it outlawed the practice in 2017, while the government announced a ban on the import of fracked gas into Ireland for use on the national grid in May 2021.

700+ Global Groups Urge Ireland to Introduce UN Resolution for Fracking Ban

"No amount of regulation can adequately address all the problems that flow from fracked drilling operations and our continued reliance on fossil fuels."


Thousands of youth strikers take part in a protest march against the governments' lack of action on the climate emergency and destruction of the environment on April 12, 2019 in London. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)


JESSICA CORBETT

COMMON DREANS

July 15, 2021

Hundreds of global groups on Thursday urged Ireland to introduce a United Nations resolution for a ban on hydraulic fracturing, arguing that the country is particularly well-positioned for the move, given its previous efforts to outlaw fracking and divest from fossil fuels.

"We, the undersigned, support a call for a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection, and human-rights grounds," says a statement now signed by more than 700 organizations, including over 100 from Ireland, and two dozen individuals.

As a press release about the call for a resolution explained:

Once the resolution is introduced to the U.N. General Assembly, it would need a simple majority vote to pass. The coalition believes there will be support for the resolution given the large number of U.N. member states that are highly vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise, as well as recent calls by the U.N. to address climate change and implement the Sustainable Development Goals, the spirit of which runs contrary to fracking. A U.N. resolution in favor of a global ban on fracking would set a high bar for ambitious existential results at the COP26 in Glasgow.

The new call echoes an April letter (pdf) that Irish activists, groups, and legal experts sent to key government leaders.

"We are asking you to urgently direct the Department of Foreign Affairs to initiate the process which would see Ireland, as a Global North country, jointly introduce and lead co-sponsorship of this proposed resolution with another Global South U.N. member state partner," the letter says, noting a confirmed commitment from the Maldives.

"Ireland's tireless efforts to ban fracking and stop the importation of fracked gas from other countries," the letter adds, "was done in recognition of the very principles which underpin the draft resolution; that is, that fracking is an inherently harmful extraction process that has global impacts no matter where it is conducted and that no amount of regulation can adequately address all the problems that flow from fracked drilling operations and our continued reliance on fossil fuels."

Signatories of Thursday's call reiterated the letter's warning about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, a process that involves injecting water, sand, and secret chemicals into a rock formation to extract oil or gas

"Negative health effects from fracking—complications of pregnancy and poor birth outcomes, damage to the heart and lungs, mental health impacts, cancer—will all be reduced as a result of a global fracking ban," said Sandra Steingraber, an initiator of the new call for a resolution.

Co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York and senior scientist at the Science and Environmental Health Network, Steingraber also co-authored the most recent edition of The Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.

Fellow initiator Dr. Edward Ketyer, a pediatrician and president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, said that "a global ban on fracking will improve public health and safety everywhere, not just in communities that have been damaged and scarred by unconventional oil and gas operations."

Other initiators of the call for a resolution include Sister Majella McCarron OLA; Michele Fetting of the Breathe Project; Andy Gheorghiu of Climate Protection and Energy Policy; New York-based environmental attorney Scott Edwards; Mexican environmental justice activist Claudia Campero; Lois Bower-Bjornson, a Pennsylvania resident impacted by fracking; and Eddie Mitchell of Love Leitrim.

A statement announcing the call highlighted that in addition to other concerns about fracking, researchers from the Irish Center for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway School of Law have also found the practice "to be incompatible with human rights."

"The process of fracking involves widespread human rights violations, a point repeatedly highlighted by U.N. legal experts," said Maeve O'Rourke, director of the center's Human Rights Law Clinic, which was a signatory to the April letter.

"Ireland made the right decision to ban fracking in 2017," O'Rourke said, "and now we have the opportunity to lead the world in ensuring that all communities and our global ecosystem are protected from this toxic and dangerous process."

High-profile supporters of climate action and environmental justice have also signed on to the resolution demand, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, magician Keith Barry, and actors Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.