Robin Hood Fractivists Look to Rob Poor to Give to the Rich

Nick Grealy says UK fractivists are alter-ego Robin Hood characters looking to rob the poor to give to the rich – how true it is there (and here in the US).

Like all good insurrections, the opposition to “fracking” in Sherwood Forest risks snowballing and damaging everyone else unless some facts are allowed to enter the debate.

Facts certainly aren’t intruding into this story from the local paper. What could then happen is that, like the original Telegraph story, these “alternative facts” become viral. A local newspaper reporter, perhaps earning as little as ￡12 a year, writes a story essentially dictated to her by Guy Shrubsole of Friends of the Earth. Other reporters worldwide will find it via Google and embellish it for their local story, producing a digital palimpsest mirroring the medieval tone of the story. Result: anti fracking activists invigorate themselves as participants in a mythic battle.

At least in The Prince of Thieves, the Sheriff of Nottingham had a part. Ineos, which holds the license, is completely absent. I don’t know if that’s from their choice or not, but it is symptomatic of a long playing trend in the farce of UK shale. Starring roles go to Friends of the Earth (FoE), 38 Degrees, supporting ones to an actor who was once on TV 30 years ago, and this being the local press, “a local man says” always gets a walk on role. Imagine a drama where the villain never shows up. No wonder UK shale mirrors the absurdist classic “Waiting for Godot.”

Read more:

https://naturalgasnow.org/robin-hood-fractivists-look-rob-poor-give-rich/