Anti-fracking protesters congregate outside the press conference in Blackpool held by Cuadrilla Resources as they announce the results of their drilling for shale gas tests in Lancashire, holding a massive Frack Off banner and chanting abuse at the company through a megaphone...

Today Cuadrilla announced that they've found 200 trillion cubic feet of gas held in rocks under the ground, which is 10 times more than UK reserves in the North Sea. Not all of this can be 'fracked' out - a process which involves pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals in order to crack rock 9,000ft underground (for more info see frack-off.org) - but Mark Miller (toxic water spiller) CEO of Cuadrilla says "We're equivalent to - or exceeding - the gas per square mile that you'd find in the really successful plays in the US."

Fracking has been a major disaster in the US with the industry booming massively over the last several years without intervention, leading to a series of catastrophes relating to water contamination, toxic spills, blow outs, water you can set on fire, and more pollution into the biosphere, mainly methane.

Cuadrilla already has plans for 400 gas wells, across 40 sites, with its current exploration license granted by the government, which covers the Bowland shale between Blackpool and Preston. If all goes well for the company, we could be looking at tens of thousands of gas rigs in Lancashire alone, that's 20-30 per square mile.

Fracking is the thin end of the wedge in the drive to suck the last and most difficult to reach drops of fuel from the planet. The scramble for unconventional sources of gas is the beginning of the end of our finite resources (along with: tar sands, mountain top removal, deep water drilling, coal bed methane etc etc).

Fracking must be stopped.

Nothing will happen without pressure. Get informed, get organised and take action.