Note: As Our Kitchen Table is engaged in activities around environmental justice, this action, which brought attention to the dangers that fracking has on our water quality, brings up important issues for our constituents. Most often, people of color and those with lower incomes live in areas most impacted by policies, like fracking, causing dangerous environmental degradation.
The Grand Rapids group Mutual Aid GR organized a downtown Grand Rapids march as part of theInternational Day Against Fracking. This statement was released to media prior to the action:
A participant in the action related the following about the event:
“Today, we occupy the offices of Wolverine Oil & Gas as one action against the consequences of oil and gas extraction in Michigan. We are confronting Wolverine Oil & Gas because they have a history of profiting from environmental destruction and particularly their use of the natural gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing.
We know that hydraulic fracturing is bad for Michigan because it:
• Contaminates ground water and soil with toxic chemicals
• Contributes to the pollution and contamination of fresh water, which is one of the things that make Michigan such a magical place to live.
• Fracking poisons plants, animals and humans.
• Fracking is accelerating around the country and in Michigan and is contributing to the most urgent crisis of our time, global warming.
• Lastly, fracking for natural gas reduces the need to seek truly sustainable and renewable forms of energy.
Therefore, we occupy Wolverine Oil & Gas to say no to contaminating Michigan water; no to practices that significantly contribute to global warming; and no to companies that profit from environmental destruction.
We are occupying Wolverine Oil & Gas to demand that they release all information about the type and amount of chemicals they have used in fracking to date and the amount of water used; to release information on the location of all oil and gas wells they own and operate in Michigan, and to stop the practice of fracking where ever they engage in this practice.
