Bad news for Brits: The U.K. government announced last month that companies will be able to frack on two-thirds of British soil. (The announcement promises job creation, meeting the country’s gas needs, you know the drill.) But protesters aren’t having it. And they’re forgoing the traditional handcuffs and expressing their disapproval using an appropriately modern, chemical-based method: superglue.
In the past week, three women super-glued themselves to objects at fracking test site Barton Moss to protest the announcement. One of them even dressed up like Where’s Waldo (although, fun fact, they call him Wally over there):
Last Thursday, this 21-year-old glued herself to the gate at Barton Moss. She managed to delay fracking trucks’ departure for two hours, after which she was arrested and other protesters marched by the trucks as they left. Unfortunately she also, uh, ate some of the glue (!), but it sounds like she’s OK.
Then on Tuesday, two women drove up to the Barton Moss entrance, parked, cut a hole in the bottom of their blue Ford Escort, wedged a barrel of concrete in the hole, and super-glued themselves to the barrel. They managed to stop traffic to the fracking site for three hours (and nobody ate any glue). “From water contamination to air pollution and huge amounts of waste, there are so many problems with fracking,” one of the women said in a statement.
They were both arrested, but they were willing to take that risk, campaigner Mandy Roundhouse said:
It’s not a decision they have taken lightly but they have done letter-writing, they have done going on marches, they have tried all the other means and nothing is working so they have had to resort to this.
Fracking companies, are you ready for this sticky wicket?
