Friends of the Earth are delighted to be hosting an event on Fracking on Monday the 11th of March with No Fracking Dublin and Afri.

Canadian scientist Jessica Ernst will talk at 6.30pm in the Smock Alley Theatre, on Exchange St, Dublin 2. Jessica, a 55-year-old Canadian scientist with 30 years oil and gas industry experience, is suing the Alberta government and gas producer EnCana for unlawful activities related to hydraulic fracturing. She is in Ireland on a speaking tour that includes visits to areas that will be potentially affected by fracking in the North and West of the country.

Jessica's presentation is a thorough and shocking story of regulators failure to protect health and the environment. Her lawsuit methodically details how Alberta's two key groundwater regulators, Alberta Environment and the ERCB, "failed to follow the investigation and enforcement processes that they had established and publicised."

Jessica is will joined on the panel by Meg Rybicki, a local campaigner from Letirim, who has been instrumental in organising Jessica's Irish tour. She works with a network of people campaigning against onshore shale gas extraction.

And there'll be plenty of time for discussion about what we can learn from the Canadian experience and its relevance for the campaign in Ireland.