Fracking, and why we should ban it

Imagine this. You come in from school and you go to your sink to pour a glass of water. It tastes a little funny, but you ignore it. Then, a few days later you are admitted to hospital, as you are constantly vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. This is because your water supply has been contaminated by dangerous chemicals. Your parents or carers now have to fork out for bottled water – an expensive alternative. This is something that shouldn’t happen to anyone. And what can cause this? Fracking.

We'll have all heard of fracking, it's been a huge topic of discussion amongst British politicians over the recent years. Today, MPs in the house of commons voted in favour of fracking under national parks. And this is a serious problem.

(Source: BBC News)

What is Fracking exactly? Fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas found inside, and this gas is used as an energy source.

Fracking may create instant energy to power houses across the UK, but it won’t last, and it has terrible long term negative effects. And I strongly believe that we should ban it from taking off in Britain.

Fracking requires and wastes our money and resources. It costs roughly £3 million per fracking job, and each fracking well can only be fracked 18 times. So if you do the maths for that, each fracking will use up £54 million. For one fracking well.  It takes up to 8 million gallons of water to complete each fracking job.  The water is mixed with sand and chemicals. Approx. 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used each time. Currently, the United States has 500,000 fracking wells in use, so if you do the maths here too it amounts to  72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals to run the US’ current fracking wells. So we can clearly see that fracking wastes our money and resources to a huge extent.

Up to 600 different chemicals are used in the process. For example, it uses Lead, Uranium, Mercury, Radium, Methanol and Hydrochloric acid, all very dangerous to the human system. During the process, methane gas and these toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater, letting these chemicals get into your system. Mercury can have a negative effect on your brain and nervous system if you consume it, whilst Lead is devastating to the human body, inhibiting oxygen and calcium transport and altering nerve transmission in the brain.

Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells and there have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water. The waste fluid is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone. So we can clearly see that Fracking is dangerous to the environment and can negatively affect the water we drink.

As shown by the number of MPs who voted in favour of fracking, it's shockingly clear that too many of our politicians are pro-fracking. David Cameron and George Osborne have both shown support to the idea of fracking over the years, and it is highly likely that they voted in favour. Even more ironically, our own environment minister Liz Truss is pro-fracking. 

      

      Politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn, Andy Burnham and Tim Farron have all shown that they're against fracking.

      Public opinion also swings this way. This survey carried out by the Guardian shows that in 2015, the number of anti-frackers overtook the number of pro-frackers. Maybe our representatives can listen to the public for once.

There are many other and cleaner alternatives to this process such as wind power, wave and sea power and poo-power (yes you read that right), and our politicians should be committing to finding more ways to power our country, rather than using the unsafe, inefficient and unsustainable process of fracking.

10 reasons why you should HATE Donald Trump

We've all heard about Donald Trump. The man appears almost everywhere; on the News, on social media and in newspapers. And there really is only one word to describe him - an idiot.

Trump isn't even a politician. He's a rich snob who made of his money through investing and inheriting. And he was somehow advised to run for president, probably by his own minuscule brain.
 Trump has been called a modern day Hitler and has come out with some of the most stupid, racist, and often laughable things. So why exactly should you hate this man?

10. He raped his wife. Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana Trump reported on several occasions that during their marriage, Trump forced her into sex without her consent. The most disgusting this about this, is that Trump never got in trouble for it.

9. On the theme of sexual assault, he said that Mexican immigrants were 'rapists'.

8. Also on this theme, he tweeted this. "26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?"

7. He wants to stop immigration into the US even though his family were technically immigrants.

6. He is against gay marriage and says he wants to keep marriage more traditional. Except, Trump doesn't really know how to hold down one, as he has had more than one wife in his lifetime.

5. He wants to Muslims to carry ID around in public to show that they're Muslims. Does that seem a bit familiar? Think Germany 1938.

4. If he can't control his hair, how can he control a country?

3. He wants to take money from America's already crumbling economy and build a wall around the Mexican border, instead of investing in education and healthcare.

2. He made fun of a disabled news reporter during a public speech.

1. He wants to ban Muslims from entering the US

Blossoms Charlemagne Review

Hello! Today I'm going to be talking one of my favourite bands at the moment, Blossoms, and their latest EP; Charlemagne!

First of all, I'd like to apologise for not writing for such a long time - I had mock exams at school and I was completely embedded in stress & work. But I'm back now, and should be writing more posts.

I've written about this band before which you can find somewhere on my blog, but Blossoms are definitely one of the best new acts around. 

The EP has been released on iTunes & Google Play and the band made signed copies of their vinyl EP available but these have sold out. The Vinyl will be released for the 18th of December.

The EP consist of four songs, and opens with the energetic 'Charlemagne'. With rich distinctive vocals & a brilliant bassline throughout the song, this song is definitely the perfect opener to any EP or album. The guitar parts make the song very compelling, and it makes you feel energetic listening to it.

The next song is the very upbeat & buoyant 'Across the moor'. The keyboards are crisp and snappy, and the vocals are sleek. I felt very chilled out when I first listened to the song. The song is simple, but simply excellent.

Then we have 'Polka Dot Bones'. Lead singer Tom Ogden's rich vocals are enticing &  draw you into the song. The guitar is dynamic & gives the song a very determined feel. This is definitely the most rock-like song the band have released, and is probably my favourite song on the EP.

The last song is called 'For Evelyn'. The dominant instrument here is the piano, the beautiful stunning magnificent piano. Tom's vocals are beautiful and almost tear inducing, but I'm not complaining at all. This is definitely Blossoms' most emotional song, with passionate and beautifully written lyrics.

Overall, this EP is one of my favourite four song records I've ever had the privilege of listening to. It makes me really excited to see them live in Edinburgh in March & for their debut album.

You can follow the band on Instagram & Twitter, or like them on Facebook. But definitely, definitely buy this amazing EP from itunes/google play, because you will fall in love with it!   

Girls Against

Girls Against (@girlsagainst on Twitter) are an inter-sectional feminist group who are campaigning for a very important thing. They are raising awareness and standing up to groping at gigs.

The group formed as there were many reports from girls that they were being groped by boys at Peace gigs. This is disgusting. These boys obviously thought that they could get away with this because the girls were wearing skirts, which is wrong in every way. A girl's clothing is not a gateway for you to harass her and it is crucial that everyone understands this.

The important concerns were raised to the members of the band at first. Upon seeing these concerns, members of Peace Harry and Sam Koisser responded like this;

Sam Koisser (Peace's bass player has also shown clear support for the Girls Against campaign, which is amazing and hugely important. He tweeted;

These horrible incidents are not just present at Peace gigs. They have happened at a scary number of gigs, and this needs to change. Girls should be able to enjoy gigs without having to worry about their safety.

It's very important that everyone supports this campaign, and raises awareness for this.

Blossoms

Blossoms are a great new up and coming band from Stockport, Greater Manchester. They're described as a 'tripped out guitar band' or 'psych rock'. They have already been compared to bands such as Peace and Temples.

They were formed in 2013 and consist of 5 members; Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Joe Donovan & Myles Kellock.
They've received many positive reviews such as this one from NME;

"Manchester's Blossoms offer a lighter take on psychedelia, one that's steeped in classic British pop songwriting"

And this one from Manchester Evening News;

          "Not content with being lumped in with Manc music’s current psych revival,           Stockport five-piece Blossoms have opted to invent their very own sub-genre: Ethereal Nostalgic Sonance."

The band have an EP called 'Blown Rose' that was released in July. It consists of four tracks, including 'Blown Rose' and 'Madeline', both excellent songs. They have a new single called 'Charlemagne' which was released today and other singles called 'Cut me and I'll Bleed' and 'You pulled a gun on me'. Their songs are usually very upbeat with their psychedelic guitar riffs, and leave listeners feeling positive and happy.

The band are currently touring the UK.

You can listen to their songs on Spotify or you can buy them on iTunes. I highly recommend that you listen to this amazing band & follow them on Twitter for more updates!

Why the UK, France and Holland should pay reparations to the Caribbean for the Atlantic Slave Trade

You'll have seen this in most news channels this week - several countries in the Caribbean asked Britain, France and Holland to pay money to them as reparations for the Slave Trade. They requested a sum close to £2 billion, which was the amount compensated to the European Plantation Owners received after the end of slavery in 1838.

In a statement that David Cameron made on his recent visit to Jamaica, he essentially told them to 'move on'. He added: "I do hope that, as friends who have gone through so much together since those darkest of times, we can move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future."

Cameron then went on to make proposals about investing some of Britain's future foreign aid money into Jamaica. But is there anything to say that that money couldn't be cut in the future, like the Tories often do?

He also supported his own idea of improving jails in Jamaica, so he can send British convicts to them. The man is essentially using this as away to save Britain some money, and make life easier for him and his government. He was completely overlooked the entire purpose of Jamaica's request altogether.

It's easy for David Cameron to say 'move on'. He's benefited from the 'good' aspects of slavery. Many cities such as Liverpool and Bristol became wealthier from the Slave Trade, and used the profits to build expensive buildings. Large companies such as Barclay's Bank made their fortune from slavery. Individual merchants became wealthy and passed their wealth down the generations to many big figures in British society now. The industrial revolution was essentially fueled by the profits created by slavery in the West Indies, and Britain today would be extremely different without it. It's crucial that every white person in Britain recognises this and take responsibility for our country's past actions, even if 'you personally don't have anything to do with it.' Because, as horrible as this sounds, every British person today has somehow benefitted from the Atlantic Slave Trade.

It's not so easy for Jamaica to 'move on' though. The Caribbean suffers from high levels of poverty. Jamaica itself has roughly 20% of its population in poverty. Although this figure is close to that of the UK's - Jamaican poverty is very different. There is free healthcare, but it suffers from longer waiting lists and poorer services than our NHS. Most of the people in poverty here live in unsubstantial housing or slums, and are more prone to disease. The Caribbean would be a completely different society now if there had been no slave trade. The people living in Jamaica today would be a completely different race of people, as the Caribbean natives were killed off by white men in the early stages of slavery. At the end of the slave trade, the surviving slaves were left with nothing, and had to rebuild their lives from scratch.

Africa also faced major drawbacks from slavery too. The population of Africa at the end of the slave trade would've been much higher than what it was if the trade had never happened. This is because millions and millions of Africans were killed in the trade. Since the fit and capable people were the ones being enslaved - there was no-one left on Africa to farm the land. As a result of this, large areas of Africa were left uncultivated which set back the continent. Africa would be much more prosperous today if slavery had never happened, and wealth would be more balanced out in the world, rather than Europe and the US holding the majority of it. Finally, Atlantic slavery set black people back as a race. Most racist stereotypes are based on slavery, such as the racist idea that black people should have jobs like being a maid.

£20 billion is a lot of money, but every year the UK spends a whopping £2.4 billion on Trident Nuclear Submarines, an unnecessary piece of Britain. It's important that European countries take proper responsibility for their past actions, and pay reparations to the Caribbean and West Africa, so that the countries themselves can decide how they're going to effectively spend the money.

Peace Gig

On Saturday, I was at the best gig of my life so far. I went to see my current favourite band, Peace, at Glasgow's QMU. The venue itself wasn't the best, and it would've been better at the Arches (Rest in Peace) but that didn't take away from Peace's ability to put on a brilliant gig.

My friend and I managed to get right at the front, at the left hand side. The first support band was called Yak, and their music was wild and noisy, still good though. Then after Yak went off, Splashh came on, I already liked Splashh before this, so I knew a lot of the songs. They were excellent, and I met them at the end of the night.

Splashh came off and everyone was getting excited as it was only a matter off time until Peace came on. Someone spotted Sam through a gap in the curtains that were covering the backstage area and the crowd quickly noticed and became even more excited. Then the band came on and broke into "O You". Lead singer Harry Koisser was wearing tartan trousers - suitable for where he was playing!

The setlist was one of the best, and it included 'Bloodshake', '1998' which was phenomenal live, 'Wraith' and 'Follow Baby'. The band also played a few acoustic songs, which was something they'd never done on tour before. The final song was 'World Pleasure' and it finished with the legendary bass solo from Sam Koisser. The audience chanted 'SAM SAM SAM SAM'  as he flawlessly played the solo, creating the perfect finish for the gig.

After the gig, many lucky fans (not including me sadly) met the members.

Overall, it was an AMAZING gig and I'm saddened that I now have to wait a long time to see them again!