In 2010, just as the newly elected Tory Lib/Dem coalition government tried to sell-off our national forests to the private sector and our National Nature Reserves to the Wildlife Trusts, now the Tories want to frack for oil and gas beneath England's National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and National Nature Reserves (NNRs).

These designations were established by the post-war Attlee Labour government under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.  In the Nature Conservancy Council's (NCC) publication "Nature Conservation in Great Britain" (1984), their late chief scientist,  Dr. Derek Ratcliffe, maintained that SSSIs and NNRs were the crown jewels of nature conservation interest in Great Britain. 

On Saturday, 12th December, 2015, the UK Government along with representatives from almost 200 other nations signed the COP21: UN climate change agreement in Paris.  Just four days later on the eve of the Christmas recess, Cameron's Conservative government sneaked through parliament amendments to the Infrastructure Bill via a "statutory Instrument", a mechanism whereby no debate takes place, allowing fracking to begin on the edge of National Parks, AONBs SSSIs and NNRs, then proceed horizontally beneath these supposedly protected areas. 

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing of shale rock formations by injecting large volumes of high pressure water and chemical additives, some of which are highly toxic as well as radioactive; their precise composition being commercially confidential, releases oil and gas trapped in the shale.  Fracking also releases large quantities of methane gas, naturally present in such formations.  In the context of greenhouse gas emissions, methane is known to be at least twenty-times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. When finished, used hydraulic fluids including fracking additives are re-injected into the substrata for permanent disposal.

In a last minute government U-turn on fracking, environmental regulations demanded by the opposition have been repeatedly watered down to allow fracking in ground water source protection zones (SPZ's), appeasing the fracking industry but leaving inadequate safeguards to insure safe best practice; the precautionary principle is nowhere to be seen.  To sanction fracking under National Parks, AONBs, SSSIs and NNRs will doubtless cause irreparable damage to their geology and hydrology and pose a long-term slow-release pollution threat to such sites as well as all other fracked areas, all of which makes a complete mockery of David Cameron's colour-blind assertion that "his will be the greenest government ever."