Fracking at Bempton Cliffs: short-sighted and sad

The recent decision by David Cameron's government to break its own promises and allow explorative fracking in areas of huge biodiversity significance is dangerous and depressing.

Bempton Cliffs is a special place. Home to a quarter of a million seabirds, including gannets, kittiwakes, razorbills, shearwaters and many more, as well as many other birds which do not choose to live directly on the sheer Yorkshire cliffs, it is one of Europe's largest seabird colonies thanks to these species. When the seabirds are at their most numerous, every inch of rock seems to be a hive of activity as they fly, feed, tend to their young and squabble. Every year, tens of thousands of visitors come to the area to see the birds nesting on precarious, seemingly impossible ledges and in astonishing numbers, vibrancy and diversity. Perhaps the star attraction, however, is the perennially endearing and striking population of puffins.

Gregarious, immediately recognisable and maybe even a little comical - it's no wonder puffins are so popular! This rocky ledge is, by Bempton standards, very expansive for one home.

Bempton is significant for a number of reasons. It offers a truly remarkable opportunity to spend time in nature for the large numbers of visitors who flock there every year, and biodiversity wise it is hugely important for the wide range of seabird species who live there. What a shame, therefore, that approval has just been granted for exploratory fracking on the cliffs on which the seabirds live. This is not a shame for some parochial, not-in-my-backyard reason; the only time fracking has been used in the UK it caused an earthquake. Bempton Cliffs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). I have chosen it as an example because I know it well and feel strongly about it, but it is just one of several threatened. Sites of Special Scientific Interest are designated as such because they are representative of something unique about a certain area's species or landscape. They constitute less than 1% of the overall areas approved for fracking, and so their removal from fracking agendas would have a negligible impact on fracking but would be a massive boost for wildlife, nature and the large numbers of people who value them.

One of many species which is a potential victim of this latest fracking development.

Ideally there would be no fracking at all. It's a distraction from moving towards renewables (or using the ones we already have), demonstrably contaminates groundwater and will cause large amounts of light and noise pollution. However, Bempton and SSSIs like it are even more deserving of protection from this destruction than other areas, particularly given the existing human pressures on seabirds. They are crucial to the animals that live there and precious to those who visit them. They are part of what makes the natural heritage of these islands resonate so strongly with so many people, and it is not acceptable that the insistence of the current government in breaking its own promises pursuing a dirty, dangerous means of extraction should devastate these special places. If you feel the same way, do sign the petition and help to keep these places protected for all of us to enjoy now and in the future.

Alex