Went to a fracking protest today in Sacramento (dial up warning). UPDATE WITH NUMBERS

[NV Whino]

Started small


and grew


and grew


and grew


Police presence was about a dozen on bicycles and a couple on horseback. Mostly they were in West Sac at a St Paddy's day celebration.


I never did figure out what the parachute said, but


they had a lot of fun running under it.


I didn't figure out what these guys were doing either, but later they filled baggies with what appeared to be dirty motor oil. Never saw the results of that, which may be a good thing.


We listened to some speachifying and then they split us into two groups to march around the capitol and meet at the back side. We stood around until someone decided it was time to march back. At that point my small group decided it was time to leave.


There were busses from Bakersfield, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, LA and several other areas. There was also a parabus that bought wheelchair-bound participants.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I'm glad you went!

Real grass-roots activism going on there...

BTW, your title should be fracking, not tracking...

Loved the pictures!

[NV Whino]

4. Damned auto correct.

I will attempt to change it.

[WhiteTara]

2. Very cool. My friend helped organize this and I'll

have to let him know they made DU!

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I toyed with spreading the love from the FB friends who went and posted pictures

but as you know, if I post it, it is not news.

So thank you for posting it.

Cool! There are many of these among my FB stream

[left on green only]

5. I'm So Glad This Was A Success!

This is such a no brainer. Someone or something must have their hand in Brown's pocket in a big way on this one. It's a shame because I thought he was above that.

[NV Whino]

8. Here's one more I meant to post.

It says it all.

[They_Live]

6. Thanks for the report

and the photos. Thanks for going!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Thanks to you --

and everyone who participated.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

9. Good work by all!

Loved the gentleman's sign "Fracking: F-Bomb of the future."

K&R

[WillyT]

10. K & R !!! - Thank You For That !!!

[SoapBox]

11. Thanks for posting...very interesting pics!

[ReRe]

12. K&R

Don't ever let anyone tell you that protests are worthless. They speak Volumes.

Thanks for these pictures!

[marions ghost]

13. K&R

Californians

[Scuba]

14. Thank you protesters!

[NV Whino]

15. Update on the protest

I estimated about a thousand. My friends estimated more. News reports put it at two thousand attendees, and the organizers said it was the biggest fracking protest in California. There are some excellent images on Google, and you can see the parachute from. Above. One of my images even made it to the google page.

[KoKo]

16. Wow! Fantastic and thanks for sharing those pictures and great captions!

[sabrina 1]

17. Thank you for the great photos. In Ohio they halted fracking at one plant due to small earthquakes

which occurred near the area where they were fracking:

Ohio looks at whether Fracking Caused Two Earthquakes

The department said it acted “out of an abundance of caution” to suspend the operation by Hilcorp Energy, a large independent oil and gas producer based in Houston. It is the only such operator in the area, which is about 15 miles southeast of Youngstown.

Mark Bruce, a spokesman for the department, said it was too early to determine whether drilling operations induced the earthquakes. “What we’re focusing on now is getting all the data from the company,” he said. “We’ll examine it first and decide next steps after that.”

But Mr. Bruce said one of the affected wells had been undergoing fracking to release oil and gas. In fracking, large amounts of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into a well to break up the rock — in this case, a formation known as the Utica shale — to free hydrocarbons.

[NV Whino]

18. "To break up the rock."

What, do you suppose, is so hard to understand about this?

But in the end, it's not the earthquakes that are so dangerous. It is the poison they pump into the ground and into the aquifers. Again, what is so hard to understand about this? If we, as non rocket scientists, can get it, why can't they?

I think every last one of the idiots should be forced to drink a few glasses of water from some of the fracking sites.

[Solly Mack]

19. K&R!

Thank you!