Campaigners will call for a national fracking ban at a public meeting tonight (Tuesday 25 March).
Dozens of people are expected to attend the event at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton, from 7pm to 9.30pm.
All Sussex anti-fracking groups are due to attend as they show their opposition to fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – the controversial method of extracting shale gas from deep underground.
The panel of speakers will include Brenda Pollack, from Friends of the Earth, Charles Metcalfe, from Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association, the former glamour model and political activist Marina Pepper and Vanessa Vine, from Frack Free Sussex.
Atlanta Cook, of Frack Free Sussex, said: “From grassroots protectors at the camps, geologists, volunteers, speakers, organisers to Members of Parliament, we all have our role to play to protect this green and pleasant land from the horrors that people in the USA, Australia and New Zealand are facing from this type of fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
“As Sussex people it is our duty to protect our neighbours in Balcombe, Fernhurst, Kirdford and Wisborough Green from water, air and soil pollution that destroys wildlife habitats and endangers human health.
“We have to stop what is colloquially called ‘fracking’.”
The meeting is taking place as the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas stands trial after her arrest at an anti-fracking protest in Balcombe last summer.
She and four other protesters were charged with obstructing a highway and breaching public order by refusing to move after being ordered to do so by a police officer.
They oppose extracting shale gas using fracking, a process that involves drilling deep underground and blasting the rock bed with a high-pressure mixture of water and chemicals.
Supporters regard it as a way to tap into resources which were previously unreachable and say that it will lower people’s energy bills.
Opponents regard it as environmentally unsafe.
It is currently banned in France, Bulgaria and some German states.
No chance… Energy security is too important. Fracking will bring energy that will see us over the ‘gap’ until fusion is finally cracked.
i saw Caroline Lucas at the protests .The police acted very nicely and it is clear Caroline was just swept up in the moment of madness yes the road is not that busy on sunday but she was a naughty lady Ohh and a green MP what will happen in the courts ?